The Fire This Time Festival 2026

The Fire This Time Festival, the Obie-Award-winning theater festival celebrating playwrights of African and African American descent, will make its permanent home at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria beginning in January 2026 with the 17th installment of the annual event. Presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, the 2026 festival expands upon The Apollo’s growing theater programming and will feature six world-premiere 10-minute plays directed by preeminent director and creator, Ken-Matt Martin and written by Teniia Micazia Brown, Preston Crowder, Mo Holmes, Naomi Lorrain, DeLane McDuffie, and Donathan Walters.

Everything But–
Written by Teniia Micazia Brown
A story about what's said, what's felt and what’s lost when we don't fully choose.

Black To Save The Day
Written by Preston Crowder
When Sista Steel, a member of the underfunded Black Superhero League, defeats the villainous Gentrifier, she thinks the day is saved. But her fame-hungry ex, Fire Blade, shows up with an offer to join the elite and very white Great Supremacy League, forcing her to choose between community loyalty and personal gain in this humorous superhero satire.

Clumsy
Written by Mo Holmes
A young man crashes his car into a woman's kitchen. She tries to make him grits. How do you forgive an accident like that?

DNR
Written by Naomi Lorrain
After not seeing each other for nearly a decade and a half, Nikki returns home to reconnect with her cousin, Solomon. Eventually, Nikki’s true intentions come to light, and she presents Solomon with a proposal that would alter their relationship indefinitely. DNR is a poignant rumination on family, forgiveness and faith.

Goose
Written by DeLane McDuffie
A young idealist joins a fiery collective of 1960s freedom-riding activists on their way to a 2020s D.C. protest march. But whose battle are they fighting? 

White Diamond
Written by Donathan Walters
As Andrea prepares her mother's funeral in a midwestern town where image and reputation is everything, her son Hakeem arrives with a request: he wants his boyfriend to be more involved in the family. In the thick of grief and tradition, a deeper tension surfaces - one that neither of them expected to face.