Festival ’26

About Festival ’26 – 4 days. 4 plays. 4 free.
New Art City Theatre returns to downtown Ventura, CA for Festival ’26. This year’s events , June 18 -21, will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall, located at 36 Figueroa Street in Ventura. Each day of the festival will feature a different play, with two concert-style readings—an afternoon and an evening performance. There will be audience talkback sessions following each performance. Admission is free to the public.

364 new plays and musicals were submitted to New Art City Theatre during the company’s annual open submission period. All scripts received at NACT are screened blind by a 45+ person volunteer reading team, a group comprised of both theatre professionals and enthusiasts.

The rest of the Festival ’26 lineup includes:

The Henry Clyde Canning Murder House by Christian Missonak.
June 18th at 2 and 7 PM
Tensions are high as two grown siblings come to terms with a crushing legacy.

Laughing Matter by Rob Ulin.
June 19th at 2 and 7 PM
A Comedy About Comedy.

John Dillinger Gets a Manicure by Elise Forier Edie.
June 20th at 2 and 7 PM
Celebrity is deadly in the world of Public Enemy #1.

Tesseract by Scott C. Sickles.
June 21st at 2 and 5:30 PM