ARKType New Play Festival Gets Wild in 2026

The Department of Theatre in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences unleashes the ARKType New Play Festival, Feb. 27-March 15, 2026, a celebration of new work featuring thesis productions by M.F.A. Playwriting candidates Basil Parnell and Connor Johnson, alongside a devised ensemble piece created by the UARK graduate theatre cohort in collaboration with Tectonic Theater Project.

"All the plays in this year's festival grapple with wildness and what it means to be untamed, unbounded, and creatively alive," says John Walch, associate professor and head of the M.F.A. program in playwriting. "Each piece pushes past the expected into unmapped territory both imaginatively and theatrically."

The lineup brims with theatrical adventure including: Camp Wyldwood, Parnell's blood-soaked valentine to girls at summer camp; Wildflower Season, Johnson's expansive collision of fairy tale and contemporary tragedy; and Bookends, the cohort's ensemble-devised work inspired by visits to Dickson Street Books and charting the wilderness that opens up when you enter a used bookshop and disappear between the shelves.

"Wildness wasn't assigned as a theme," Walch says, "it surfaced organically from this particular cohort." Now in its third and final year, the M.F.A. UARK theatre ensemble has distinguished itself through daring collaboration and an appetite for theatrical risk, continually asking not just what a play can be, but how far it can go.

Basil Parnell, M.F.A. Playwriting candidate and writer of Camp Wyldwood says, "Like camp, exploration and discovery have been at the heart of the new play process, and I'm excited to invite audiences to join the adventure."

Camp Wyldwood and Wildflower Season run in repertory Feb. 27-March 7 in the Global Campus Black Box Theatre, giving audiences the opportunity to experience two wildly different theatrical journeys in a single day or weekend.

Bookends follows March 13 and 15 as part of the Arkansas New Play Festival at TheatreSquared, which features additional new plays in process, including a new play by M.F.A. playwright alum, Sarah Loucks. For tickets and the complete festival lineup, see below.

2026 ARKType New Play Festival Line Up*

'Wildflower Season' by Connor Johnson

Feb. 27, March 1 and 5 at 7:30 p.m. & March 7 at 2 p.m.
Directed by Leigh Fondakowski
Global Campus Theatre

More about "Wildflower Season": Eileen lies in a hospital bed after a severe car accident. At her bedside, her partner Simon, her best friend May, and her mother Gwen wait circling questions no one quite knows how to answer and return to the well-worn stories they've relied on to make sense of their lives. As they keep vigil, Eileen drifts through fragments of her own life and stolen kisses, bitter fights, sweet surprises, and private missteps interweave with the offbeat fairy tale her mother used to tell her to fall asleep. Past and present, the real and the imagined, blur and fold together, shaping a story that is wry and tender, and reveals our need to discover narratives we can live by.

'Camp Wyldwood' by Basil Parnell

Feb. 28, March 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. & March 1 at 2 p.m.
Directed by NJ Aguwana
Global Campus Theatre 

More about "Camp Wyldwood": Untethered from phones and technology, the 13-year-old girls of Camp Wyldwood learn the skills and survival strategies they need to navigate the wilderness of growing up. The seven girls in Maple Cabin start their summers with private intentions that soon turn to public manifestations as secret rituals form, hidden crushes surface, and new alliances spark and splinter. As they move between terrorizing and taking care of one another, the girls hone their survival instincts to understand that growing up isn't a single moment, but a series of small, sometimes bloody, reckonings with the world, each other, and themselves.

'Bookends' by the UARK M.F.A. Theatre Cohort and Tectonic Theater Project

March 13 at 7 p.m. & March 15 at 2 p.m.
TheatreSquared and the Arkansas New Play Festival 

More About "Bookends": Step inside this funky secondhand bookshop, where the shelves lean in and the books call out. Whimsy and tall tales, uncomfortable histories and personal truths, sweet scribbles in the margins and forgotten voices are all hiding here, waiting to be uncovered. This collectively devised new play by the UARK MFA Theatre Cohort in collaboration with Tectonic Theater Project was inspired by visits to Dickson Street Bookshop, and by all the independent community spaces that keep stories alive.

*Please be advised that these plays explore adult themes and mature content. Audience discretion is recommended.