LBP NEW WORKS FESTIVAL 2026

The Studio Collaborative: LBP NEW WORKS FESTIVAL 2026

Company: LBP New Works Committee producing

Dates: Mar. 27 & 28 @ 7pm, 2026

Tickets: Free.  

Seats need to be reserved by clicking the date below for a 50 Cent Service Fee or calling our box office at 562-494-1014 option 1  

No Service Fee if reserving seats over the phone or in person.

THE WINNING SHOWS:

Non-Local Winner: AS WE LIKE IT  by Oded Gross

Local Winner: WOLVES AT THE DOOR by Ali MacLean

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS HERE

CHOOSE YOUR DATE:

• Non-Local Winner: AS WE LIKE IT – Friday, Mar. 27, 2026 at 7pm – Talk Back After
• Local Winner: WOLVES AT THE DOOR – Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026 at 7pm – Talk Back After

This Collaborative Show does not have assigned seating, so it is first come, first serve.

PLEASE NOTE: The Studio Theater is on the 2nd Floor. Due to the age of our building, there is no elevator and the theater is only accessible by stairs.

Description of the Festival: 

This annual festival nurtures emerging and established playwrights to develop new scripts. Reading 100+ scripts a year, the New Works Literary Committee chooses two top plays to receive a stage reading with critical feedback from professional theatre critics and an audience talk back.

About the Shows:

AS WE LIKE IT follows the story of a woman named Rose, who tries to motivate her family to rehearse in the serenity and privacy of the woods a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It to be performed at the wedding of the Duke and his betrothed, the Fairy Queen. The only problem is there is no Fairy Queen. There is no Duke. They are not in a serene forest. This Midsummer Night’s / As You Like It delusion is Rose’s shield against a brutal reality she doesn’t wish to confront — she and her family are in hiding from the Nazis in the grim forests of Poland during World War 2. Her theatrical fantasy is a shield against unbearable reality, but her family fears her delusion may get them killed. The play explores the danger and necessity of self-made fictions and asks when stories protect us and when they put everything at risk.

Written Oded Gross

WOLVES AT THE DOOR follows Grace and Gavin, who lost their daughter, Lucy, to gun violence. The gunman committed a mass shooting in an ‘incel’ styled revenge plot. Lucy, at a dance class nearby, was collateral damage. While grieving, Grace is bombarded by a stream of visitors, all who seem to want to exploit her in some manner. Meanwhile, she and Gavin grapple with their own relationship woes, as one of them wants to heal and one isn’t ready to move on. The play flips back and forth from the past where we see what set the shooter on his path, and the present where Grace tries to come to terms with the aftermath.

Written by Ali MacLean

FREE TICKETS TO THE NEW WORKS FESTIVAL 2026 ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY A GENEROUS SPONSORSHIP FROM THE PORT OF LONG BEACH.