Lucille Lortel Theatre unveils 2026–2027 season: two world premieres and a new programme for young playwrights

The Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York’s Greenwich Village on Monday unveiled its artistic programme for the 2026–2027 season, which includes two world premieres, the fifth round of commissions for emerging playwrights and a series of digital initiatives, as BroadwayWorld reports.

The first premiere is “Fantasma” by Benjamin Benne, directed by Laurie Woolery, which will run from 7 November to 20 December 2026 at 59E59 Theaters in collaboration with Primary Stages. The play is set on Christmas Eve, where three generations of women gather in Rosie’s newly renovated kitchen to cook chuchitos — the traditional Guatemalan recipe passed down by heart, touch and intuition. As the granddaughters try to document it step by step, they discover that what is preserved is not only the food, and that recording and remembering are two entirely different things.

In the spring comes the second premiere: “You Seem Sad” by Leah Nanako Winkler, directed by May Adrales, which will run from 3 April to 2 May 2027 at WP Theater in collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater Company. The work interweaves post-war Nagasaki and New York of the early 2000s through the parallel journeys of Keiko — a young woman who survived the atomic bomb and rebuilds her life in 1950s Japan — and Student 1, a half-Japanese woman in her twenties facing career, love and identity in contemporary America.

The season also includes the development programme “The Alcove”, led by playwright Caridad Svich, which offers a free digital reading of “American Nightmare” by Hassan Abdulrazzak (5–19 October) and the new digital series “Playwright’s Salon”. In addition, applications have opened for the New York public schools playwrights’ fellowship, under which up to seven students from each of the five boroughs will be mentored by playwright Iraisa Ann Reilly; applications close on 15 November.