This season, The New Harmony Project is doubling down on what we do best: fostering bold new plays through deep collaboration with playwrights and our vibrant Indianapolis theatre partners. And this year, we’re excited to unveil a bold new structure for PlayFest Indy, our signature new works initiative. What launched in 2024 as a week-long celebration will now evolve into a season of world class play developement experiences throughout the 2025-2026 season, solidly positioning Indianapolis as a national hub for groundbreaking theatrical storytelling.
Throughout the season, five of America’s most dynamic playwrights will collaborate with five Indianapolis theatre companies to bring brand new plays to life. Each development workshop will culminate in a public, concert-style reading which invites the audience to engage directly with the playwrights and their work. All readings will be free, and presented with ASL interpretation.
About This Event
Celebrate the excitement of new plays
developed in the heart of Indianapolis!
This season, The New Harmony Project is doubling down on what we do best: fostering bold new plays through deep collaboration with playwrights and our vibrant Indianapolis theatre partners. And this year, we’re excited to unveil a bold new structure for PlayFest Indy, our signature new works initiative. What launched in 2024 as a week-long celebration will now evolve into a season of world class play developement experiences throughout the 2025-2026 season, solidly positioning Indianapolis as a national hub for groundbreaking theatrical storytelling.
Throughout the season, five of America’s most dynamic playwrights will collaborate with five Indianapolis theatre companies to bring brand new plays to life. Each development workshop will culminate in a public, concert-style reading which invites the audience to engage directly with the playwrights and their work. All readings will be free, and presented with ASL interpretation.
SYNPOSIS: Trust is tricky. One Party Consent follows Fola, a non-binary MFA directing student of color, who secretly records a volatile meeting with their white dean—only to face unexpected consequences. The story explores equitable representation in academia, power, privacy, and allyship through a sharply contemporary queer lens.
DATE: September 12, 2025
TIME: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: Atheneaum Audtiorium, 401 E. Michigan St. (Get Directions)
Hireath, or When Pluto was a Planet by Jayne Deely
SYNOPSIS: Kap’s reluctantly back in Queens for Sam’s wedding — but tying the knot isn’t the only thing on Sam’s checklist. With friends Ish and Mel along for the ride, the crew dives headfirst into a weekend of ’90s throwbacks, childhood flashbacks, and a few emotional landmines. But as old wounds resurface and one very unexpected guest shows up, their nostalgic trip down memory lane takes a sharp left turn.
DATE: November 8, 2025
TIME: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center (Get Directions)
SYNOPSIS: On a Louisiana plantation in 1890, a family's secret magic simmers just beneath the surface.Safronia’s Daughter follows Bee, a young Black woman trying to protect her family’s supernatural legacy while working as a sharecropper for the white Rufus family. Her queer brother Jinx can see the dead — and when he calls their mother Safronia back from beyond, long-buried truths come to light. Tensions explode when their brother Fool Boy’s affair with the plantation’s mistress, Madam Edwina, threatens to upend everything.
Part one of a magical trilogy tracing a Black family born out of the Middle Passage.
DATE: January 9, 2026
TIME: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center (Get Directions)
SYNOPSIS: B is a potter chasing perfection — until their partner, K, asks for something extraordinary: a new face. What begins as an artistic challenge becomes a deeply personal journey of identity, transformation, and love. As the clay takes shape, so does a reimagining of how we see ourselves and each other in this tender, surreal queer love story.
SYNPOSIS: “I” is for Invisible follows one family’s desperate search for their loved one amid the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Facing indifferent law enforcement and a system stacked against them, the family confronts grief, hope, and the harsh reality of injustice. This mysterious thriller blends the demand for visibility, justice, and healing with a powerful personal story.
DATE: April 17, 2026
TIME: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre (Get Directions)
