Folger Theatre Announces the Plays and Playwrights for the Fourth Annual Reading Room Festival

This year's staged readings expand into more genres, including plays with music and theater for young audiences. All-Access Passes for staged readings, panels, workshops, and celebratory events are now on sale.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Folger Theatre at the Folger Shakespeare Library announced the plays and playwrights for the fourth annual Reading Room Festival, a four-day festival of staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations, where Shakespeare serves as the starting point for today's playwrights. This year's lineup leans heavily into the musicality of Shakespeare and includes new works from Alexa Babakhanian, Alberto Bonilla, Barbara Fuchs, and Marcus Gardley, with Arena Stage's Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif directing one staged reading. The Reading Room Festival runs from Thursday, January 22, through Sunday, January 25, 2026.

"From myth to music, this year's festival explores the vibrant musicality of Shakespeare's verse, adapts bilingual texts for young audiences, addresses the age-old authorship question: Did he write it or didn't he? (He did!), and asks that vital question: When is a new play finished?" shared Karen Ann Daniels, Director of Programming and Artistic Director, Folger Theatre. "We're going to have a lot of fun in January. We are looking at four new plays selected especially for Washington, DC audiences. It's our fourth year and I feel like we're just getting started."

At the Reading Room Festival, theater artists, critics, and scholars re-envision the stories of Shakespeare and other early modern playwrights, with audience members invited into this celebration of creative community. The festival exists to help playwrights further develop their work over a week-long process with a creative team, actors, and musicians. This process culminates in a staged reading of the plays for an audience. Panels and post-show discussions engage audiences and artists in conversations that bring the works to a deeper level of understanding. 

This year's Reading Room Festival features staged readings of four new works: Cymbeline: A Telenovela Melodramatic Western, a bilingual musical adaptation of Shakespeare's late romance conceived by Alberto Bonilla, with original music by Anthony De Angelis and direction by Nadia Guevara, based on Alec H. Wild's treatment of the Shakespeare text; Dark Lady: A Musical Theater Work, written by Alexa Babakhanian and directed by Rebecca Martínez, which explores the question of whether Elizabethan poet Amelia Bassano authored Shakespeare's plays; the world premiere of Fuente Ovejuna, a new adaptation for younger audiences by Barbara Fuchs of Lope de Vega's Spanish Golden Age classic directed by Kelsey Mesa; and LEAR, Marcus Gardley's modern-verse translation of Shakespeare's tragedy, which was originally commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "Play On!" program and directed by Arena Stage Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif. Each reading will be followed by a conversation with the artists that offers audiences insights into the creative process behind these new plays.

For the past three years, the Reading Room Festival has introduced audiences to new plays that have gone on to full-scale Folger Theatre productions, including the world premiere of Lauren M. Gunderson's A Room in the Castle, a critically acclaimed retelling of Hamlet co-produced with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company; Al Letson's Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, which remixes Civil Rights history through the lens of Shakespeare's tragedy; and Broadway star Jacob Ming-Trent's autobiographical How Shakespeare Saved My Life, which will be on stage in June at the Folger in a rolling world premiere. In addition to Folger Theatre productions, Sarah Mantell's Everything That Never Happened, a revision of The Merchant of Venice, was produced by Baltimore Center Stage last season.

Reading Room Festival All-Access Passes are now available. The pass provides admission to all four staged readings and a vibrant lineup of immersive and musical events, including open rehearsals, workshops led by artists and scholars, post-show conversations facilitated by critics and scholars, panel discussions with artistic leaders and scholars, and community celebrations.

Tickets for individual events will go on sale in early January.

Reading Room Festival All-Access Passes are available at folger.edu/readingroom or by contacting the Folger box office at (202) 544-7077. Early bird passes are $100 through December 31; passes purchased beginning January 1 are $125.

THE PLAYS

Cymbeline: A Telenovela Melodramatic Western 

Original Concept and Idea by Alberto Bonilla

Music composed by Anthony De Angelis

Adaptation of Shakespeare's text of Cymbeline by Alec H. Wild

Spanish adaptation of text by Alberto Bonilla

Original Spanish translation of Cymbeline by D. Eudaldo Viver (1884)

Directed by Nadia Guevara

Alberto Bonilla shifts the setting of Shakespeare's Cymbeline from a mythic Roman-occupied ancient Britain to the American Southwest, circa 1893, at the height of the American cowboy myth, a powder-keg of conflict between class and race: farmers against ranchers, frontier pioneers from the East vs. the Mexican and Indigenous populations. The wounds of the American Civil War are still fresh, and the country is trying to unite with the expansion of the railroad connecting East and West. Focusing on the core family conflicts in Shakespeare's late romance, this bilingual adaptation features high-stakes drama, gritty fights, and intimate moments—all the twists and turns associated with both Latin American melodramas and Shakespearean tragicomedies.

Dark Lady: A Musical Theater Work 

Book, Lyrics, and Music by Alexa Babakhanian

Directed by Rebecca Mart í nez

What would happen if it were discovered that Amelia Bassano, a Venetian Jew and the first woman poet published in England, was the real author of Shakespeare's plays? And what if this literary secret was revealed by Elizabethan characters existing in a modern-day alternate reality? Discover the Dark Lady, Shakespeare's muse in his Sonnets, who has been hiding in plain sight for over 400 years. Alexa Babakhanian's humorous, whimsical musical creates a dynamic score of beatboxing, hip hop, classical, and pop music to highlight the interplay between these two great dramatists and poets.

Fuente Ovejuna

By Lope de Vega

Adapted by Barbara Fuchs

Directed by Kelsey Mesa

World Premiere

In the little town of Fuente Ovejuna life rolls merrily along, with sheep to tend and weddings to plan. But when the Comendador, the town's governor, decides that everything belongs to him, life is turned upside down. What to do? How to resist? This family-friendly adaptation of Lope de Vega's Spanish Golden Age classic Fuente Ovejuna invites young audiences to imagine what solidarity looks like, with interactive elements such as audience participation, songs, and crafts to engage children while emphasizing themes of justice, unity, and resistance to tyranny.

LEAR

Translation/adaptation/remix by Marcus Gardley

Directed by Hana S. Sharif

Original text by William Shakespeare

Commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's "Play On!"

Set in San Francisco's Fillmore District during the 1960s, LEAR reimagines Shakespeare's tragedy of loyalty, love, and madness as a modern parable about the erasure of a Black neighborhood. Once a thriving center of Black art, music, and culture, the Fillmore becomes the site for a King Lear adaptation about an aging real estate mogul, his three daughters, and the threat of urban renewal. This modern-verse translation by Obie Award–winning playwright Marcus Gardley offers a poetic reckoning with history, progress, and patriarchy.

About the Creative Teams

Anthony De Angelis (Composer—Cymbeline)

Folger Theatre: debut. Composer: Off-Broadway / Los Angeles / National Tour: SAW the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw; The Players Theatre/The PIT/ CAP 21/ 54 Below: An Axemas Story; Nazareth University: A Christmas Carol Part II; Wichita State University Musical Theater Incubator Program: The Fox Sisters; Utah Fringe Festival/ FUSE Productions (State College, PA): The Prince's New Pet (TYA) - presented nationally, licensed by Dramatic Publishing. Arranger/Orchestrator: Randy Rainbow's Christmas album; The New York Pops; The Cincinnati Pops; National Symphony Orchestra; The American Pops Orchestra (multiple PBS performances); Lyrics and Lyricists series at 92nd Street Y; Broadway Backwards 7 and 8; West End productions. Member of the BMI Workshop.

Alexa Babakhanian (Playwright—Dark Lady)

With degrees from Juilliard (BM, MM), award-winning multi-hyphenate Alexa Babakhanian champions the unrepresented through her artistic output. Her work I Care Do You?" in collaboration with Malala was presented at the United Nations, while her song "A Million Me's" was presented at the Women's March on Washington. The Women of Don Quixote featured Alexa's song cycle and her opera Lady Liberty premiered at Lincoln Center in 2020 while she was artist in residence. Dark Lady was presented as a reading at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Dark Lady was presented as a one act at the Minnesota Fringe Festival with Lori Parquet (Suffs, As You Like It, The Public Theater) playing both Shakespeare and Amelia Bassano. Dark Lady was presented as a reading at the Lyric Theater at University of Illinois under the direction of Julie Gunn. Dark Lady was featured on NPR.

Alberto Bonilla (Playwright — Cymbeline )

Folger Theatre: debut. Director: New York City (select credits): King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Richard III, Three Sisters, North of Providence, Dia De los Muertos, Look Back in Anger, Walking to America, TheServant toTwo Masters, North of Providence, Dolores, Adaptive Radiation, Hearts Like Fists. Playwright: PS.357, Walking to America, Nonnie, Hunting for Ewoks. Film/Television: Director: Tabla Rosa (2026), Nerd Wars, Speed of Love, Shakespeare Hashish and Ish; Writer: Bounty, Hunger, Nerd Wars, Speed of Love. albertobonilla.com albertobonilla-director-writer.com

Barbara Fuchs (Playwright — Fuente Ovejuna )

Folger Theatre: debut. Distinguished Professor of Spanish and English: UCLA. Founder and Director: Diversifying the Classics. Founder and Director: LA Escena Festival of Hispanic Classical Theater. Playwright: Fuente Ovejuna, a children's version of Lope de Vega's classic play. Author: Fuente Ovejuna, a picture-book adaptation of Lope de Vega's classic play. Co-editor, with Aina Soley and Robin Kello: Golden Tongues: Adapting Hispanic Classical Theater in Los Angeles (Bloomsbury, 2024). Co-translator, with the Diversifying the Classic collective: Ana Caro: The Courage to Right a Woman's Wrongs; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Love is the Greater Labyrinth; Lope de Vega: The Travels of Teodor, The Beast of Hungary, The Widow of Valencia, A Wild Night in Toledo; Guillén de Castro: Don Quixote, The Force of Habit; Calderón: To Love Beyond Death; Alarcón: What We Owe Our Lies, The Pretender.

Marcus Gardley (Playwright —LEAR)

Folger Theatre: debut. Marcus Gardley is an acclaimed TV writer, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for the reimagining of The Color Purple (2023), which won 11 NAACP Awards and the most nominations and wins in history. He won the 2022 WGA award for Best Adapted TV Longform Series for Maid (Netflix). He is the recipient of the 2019 Doris Duke Artist Award. He is a 2019 Obie Award winner for his play The House That Will Not Stand, the 2015 Glickman Award winner, and a finalist for the 2016 and 2015 Kennedy Prize. Other plays include X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation, black odyssey (2023 Drama Desk nomination), The Gospel of Lovingkindness, every tongue confess, …and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, and the road weeps, the well runs dry.

Nadia Guevara (Director — Cymbeline )

Folger Theatre: DC, I Love You. 1^st Stage: Young Americans; Keegan Theatre: N; Imagination Stage: Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale; American University: Fefu and Her Friends, Spring Awakening. Off-Broadway: Keen Company: Cell; Atlantic Theater Company: Caribbean MixFest; Latinx Playwrights Theatre / The New Group: The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me in a Bad Place; The Public Theatre: Apple Bottom; National Queer Theatre: The Survival, Criminal Queerness Festival; Red Bull Theatre: The Beast of Hungary, Short New Play Fest. Regional: University of Rochester: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Texas Tech University: Water by the Spoonful; Dallas Theater Center; McCarter Theatre; New York Stage & Film. Awards: 2018 San Diego Critics Circle Actor of the Year; Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. SDC Member. nadiaguevara.com

Rebecca Martinez (Director—Dark Lady)

Folger Theatre: debut. Regional: Baltimore Center Stage: Miss You Like Hell; Geva Theatre: Sancocho, In Her Bones; Two River Theater: Living and Breathing; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center: Anna in the Tropics (Henry Award for Directing); Syracuse Stage/ Geva Theatre: Somewhere Over the Border; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles. Off-Broadway: Mobile Unit, The Public Theater: Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors (LATA Award winner; Drama Desk nomination) WP Theater/ Spark Theatrical: Dirty Laundry; WP Theater/ Colt Coeur: Bite Me; WP Theater/ Latinx Playwrights Circle/ Sol Project: Sancocho; Radical Evolution/ Working Theater: Songs About Trains. Artist-in-Residence at Radical Evolution; SEED Directing Commission at Public Theater. rebeccamartinez.org

Kelsey Mesa (Director— Fuente Ovejuna )

Folger Theatre: The Cuban Vote (Reading Room Festival, 2023); Taffety Punk Theatre Company: Othello, Antigonick, She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange, The Trojan Women, Charm. The Hub Theatre Company: The Pavilion, The Magi, Wish List; Catholic University: Crimes of the Heart; University of Maryland, College Park: Fefu and Her Friends. Awards: 2024 Helen Hayes Outstanding Production of a Play: La Salpêtrière (playwright). The Inkwell: Artistic Associate. John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts: Manager of Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Resident Director of the Kennedy Center Directing Intensive.

Hana S. Sharif (Director—LEAR)

Folger Theatre: debut. Arena Stage: The Motion (upcoming), The Age of Innocence, Death on the Nile. Regional: Murder on the Orient Express (7 STLCC nominations), A Christmas Carol (4 STLCC nominations, STL A-List Award), Pride and Prejudice (5 STLCC nominations), Porgy and Bess, The Who & The What (3 SFBA Critic Circle nominations), Fun Home, Sense and Sensibility, The Christians, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Pride and Prejudice (DCArts: Best Director/Best New Play), The Whipping Man, Gem of the Ocean (six CCC nominations), Gee's Bend (CCC Award Best Ensemble, two nominations), Next Stop Africa, Cassie, The Drum, IFdentity, Pretty Fire, Patient 463, I, Marcus Garvey, Quicksand, Hospice, and The Blacker The Berry. Her plays include All the Women I Used to Be, The Rise and Fall of Day, and The Sprott Cycle Trilogy (1880, 1964, 2010).

Alec H. Wild (Adaptor—Cymbeline)

Folger Theatre: debut. Director: Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy: East of the Sun, West of the Moon;The Odyssey; Cymbeline; Romeo and Juliet; Tales from Ovid; Hamlet (Radio); Pericles; The Maid's Tragedy; Great River Shakespeare Festival (Founding Artistic Director): A Midsummer Night's Dream,Othello, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Henry V, The Winter's Tale; Milwaukee Shakespeare: Richard II, Titus Andronicus; Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis: Good in Everything, Old Hearts Fresh; New Jewish Theatre: Value of Names; Folio Theatre Company (Founding Artistic Director): Hamlet, Henry IV, Part One, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Illinois Shakespeare Festival: Henry V. Film: Whisper (Writer/Director, Best Film, 48Hour Film Festival), Arcadea (Writer/Director, Best Film, I48 Film Festival). MFA, Yale School of Drama.

About Folger Shakespeare Library

The Folger Shakespeare Library makes Shakespeare's stories and the world in which he lived accessible. Anchored by the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is a cultural organization where curiosity and creativity are embraced, and conversation is always encouraged. Visitors to the Folger can choose how they want to experience the arts and humanities, from interactive exhibitions to captivating performances, and from path-breaking research to transformative educational programming. The Folger welcomes everyone to connect in their own way—from communities throughout Washington, DC, to communities across the globe. Learn more at www.folger.edu.

The award-winning Folger Theatre in our nation's capital bridges the arts and humanities through transformational performances and programming that speak inclusively to the human experience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels, Folger Theatre continues its legacy through exciting interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare and expands the classical canon through cultivating today's artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time. Folger Theatre thrives both on its historical stage and in the community, engaging audiences wherever they happen to be. For more on Folger Theatre, please visit www.folger.edu/theatre.

SOURCE Folger Shakespeare Library