The Rough Draft Festival, presented by the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, is a theater festival that provides innovative and boundary-pushing artists with space, resources, and support to further develop their works-in-progress.
The festival showcases a series of in-progress performances and staged readings, offering artists the chance to put their work on its feet while giving audiences a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process.
Each year, LPAC selects up to 5 compelling and impactful projects and provides the time, space and resources to advance their development. These presentations often reflect the strength and depth of fully realized productions.
This year, LPAC will present five works-in-progress selected through a highly competitive review process, as well as one returning artist and the Artist Incubator.
March 10-22, 2026
Tickets: $10 General | Free for Students w/ ID
$50 Festival Supporter Pass – 7 shows, one price!
Lpac.nyc
2026 Line Up:
March 10 at 7:00 PM
Mama/Run by Lester Mayers
A blistering choreopoem that asks why mothers leave and why the world judges faster than it understands.
March 12 at 7:00 PM
At the Edge of Chinatown by Simon Tam & Joe X. Jiang
A punk-powered new musical where third-culture kids remix tradition forging an identity that’s loud, tender, and entirely their own.
March 13 at 7:00 PM
108 Notes by Kanishk Pandey
Eve and Ava are currently testing to see if they can figure out what it means to know a person, with the help of some index cards. You’re gonna help them too.
March 14 at 7:00 PM
The Life and Times of Daisy Forbes by Scout Davis*
A dazzling lip-sync collage about a showgirl at the edge of reinvention, plus an artist workshop.
March 18 at 7:00 PM
RYBA-KIT | A Musical Folktale by Nadiya Atkinson & Sammy Grob
A multilingual folktale musical where two kids chase ancestral myths through climate chaos to save what comes next.
March 19 at 3:00 PM
Roadkill by Libby Carr
A raw play about sisters, survival, and the secrets that keep echoing long after the damage is done.
March 22 at 7:00 PM
THE 24 HOUR PLAYS
A one-night adrenaline sprint where LAGCC student writers, directors, and actors create brand-new plays and musicals from scratch and perform them, all in just 24 hours.
