The Apollo announced that The Fire This Time Festival—the Obie Award–winning celebration of playwrights of African and African-American descent—will make its permanent home at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria beginning January 2026. The 17th annual installment marks a major milestone for both institutions, solidifying their shared commitment to elevating Black voices in contemporary theater.

Presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, the 2026 festival will feature six world-premiere 10-minute plays—Everything But-, Black to Save the Day, Clumsy, DNR, Goose, and White Diamond—written by an impressive roster of emerging playwrights and directed by acclaimed theater creator Ken-Matt Martin.

“Theater has always been a mirror to our world,” said Kamilah Forbes, executive producer of The Apollo, in a media release. “Through this collaboration, we are expanding The Apollo’s legacy as a home for stories that move, challenge, and connect us.”

Festival founder Kelley Girod, who also serves as The Apollo’s New Works Director, added in a release, “Bringing The Fire This Time Festival to The Apollo roots our work in the heart of Black artistic excellence.”

Since its founding in 2009, The Fire This Time Festival has launched the careers of more than 90 Black playwrights—including Katori Hall, Dominique Morisseau, Jordan E. Cooper, Radha Blank, and Jocelyn Bioh—and continues to serve as a vital incubator for underrepresented voices shaping American theater.

The move to Harlem’s legendary Apollo underscores both organizations’ dedication to artistic innovation and social impact. As The Apollo’s historic theater undergoes renovation, this new partnership at The Victoria reinforces its ongoing mission to celebrate, amplify, and preserve the brilliance of Black storytelling for generations to come.

About the 2026 Festival

The Fire This Time Festival

• Friday, January 23, 2026, 7:30pm (preview)
• Saturday, January 24, 2026, 2:30pm (opening followed by a post-show discussion between The Fire This Time, The Apollo, and ALL ARTS)
• Saturday, January 24, 2026, 7:30pm
• Friday, January 30, 2026, 7:30pm
• Saturday, January 31, 2026, 2:30pm
• Saturday, January 31, 2026, 7:30pm (closing night)

Audiences can enjoy past seasons of The Fire This Time Festival on the free ALL ARTS app and website at AllArts.org/FireThisTimeFestival.

About the plays

Everything But–

Written by Teniia Micazia Brown(She/her/hers)

A story about what’s said, what’s felt, and what’s lost when we don’t fully choose.

Teniia Micazia Brown is a multifaceted artist/cultural researcher from Round’ O, South Carolina. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Theatre with a minor certificate in Film/Production studies from Coastal Carolina University. There, she deepened her commitment to storytelling, societal exploration, and artistic expression. She’s a production artist and actress. Teniia’s research centers around global cultures, their rituals, and their resilience, shaping a perspective rooted in empathy and respect. Offstage, she is an activist for peace, advocating for community healing, equity, and meaningful dialogue. Through her “artivism”, she creates spaces where stories and memories are honored, souls and voices are uplifted, and there’s a purposeful pursuit of peace.

Black To Save The Day

Written by Preston Crowder (He/They)

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.

Originally from Nashville, TN, Preston Crowder is a playwright-actor-director-songwriter with a passion for telling stories that examine the intersectional complexities of Black, Queer Southerners in the United States. Production history as a playwright includes My Dead Boyfriend Is A Robot (Oberlin College, 2024), and Don’t Look Black (Tennessee Playwrights Studio, 2022). Preston was named Playwright-In-Residence with The New Group through the TOW Foundation for their 2024-2025 season. Preston was also named a semi-finalist playwright for the 2023 Del Shore Writers Search and the 2022 Obsidian Theater Festival for their play “Bocking”. Preston holds an MFA degree from The New School of Drama and a BFA degree from Oberlin College, where they served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater and Africana Studies from 2022-2024.

Clumsy

Written by Mo Holmes (she/they)

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?

Mo Holmes is a black queer Southern playwright, librettist and dramaturg, born in San Antonio and raised on the long stretch of road from Texas to Alabama. She is a Next Wave Initiative Lorraine Hansberry Award winner, a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar, a Jane Chambers finalist and a two-time O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist. Her writing has been presented and/or developed at the Sam French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, the Playwrights’ Center, Vertigo Theatre, Minnesota Opera, and Atlanta Opera. As a dramaturg and teaching artist, she has supported new play development at Good Apples Collective, the Playwrights’ Center, Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, Horizon Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts. She is an MFA Candidate in Playwriting and Undergraduate Writing Program Teaching Fellow at Columbia.

DNR

Written by Naomi Lorrain (She/her)

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.

Naomi Lorrain is an actor/playwright. 2023 Page 73 Writers Group. 2022 Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase Staff Writer. 2021 O’Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist. Her short play, The Queen of Macon County, was produced by HomeBase Theater Collective at The National Black Theater. Her one-act comedy, Theresa, was selected for the 2022 Black Motherhood & Parenting Festival. A Trojan Woman’s Tale  and The Big O, both Greek adaptations, were commissioned by NYU and produced at The Villa la Pietra in Florence, Italy, where Naomi was the 2017 and 2018 Playwright-in-Residence. Selected theater credits: BROADWAY: Eureka Day (MTC); Jordans (The Public Theater), Daphne (Lincoln Center Theater), Behind the Sheet (Ensemble Studio Theatre). TV: Orange is the New Black (Netflix), Elementary (CBS), The Good Fight (CBS), Madam Secretary (CBS). Naomi also moonlights as a Research Assistant at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. NYU: MFA; Yale: B.A. 

Goose

Written by DeLane McDuffie (He/him)

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? 

DeLane McDuffie is a Southern-bred, LA-based playwright, screenwriter, and poet. His play The Inaugural was part of Lower Depth Theatre’s 2020 BIPOC Voting Plays, and he was a 2022 LDT “Cycle of Poverty” Play Commission Fellow. His play Follow the Lady was a finalist in The Crossroads Project’s 2024 Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative. Other plays include Amy & Neil, Cop & Fiske, For the Love of God, Monomachia, Use as Directed, The Clouds His Chariot, You and What Army?, and CatDaddy Mulekick and the Long Sleep. His work has been produced by Towne Street Theatre and showcased at Houston’s Fade to Black Play Festival; Seoul Players Play Festival in South Korea; and LA’s The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival. He’s a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA’s Ignite Project. A graduate of Morehouse College and the University of Miami grad film program, he also attended Royal Holloway, University of London.

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.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Donathan Walters holds a BFA in Screen Acting from Chapman University and received his MFA in Acting from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, class of 2022. As a writer, Donathan brings a passion for gauging provocative conversation amongst the community to bridge generational gaps, processing hidden traumas amongst black men. In 2023, Donathan was chosen to participate in The Gatekeeper’s Collective’s Learning to Love fellowship, where he wrote a one-act play that highlights the relationship between technology, love, and cultural expectation between two same-gender-loving strangers, strengthening his voice as a writer.