Announcing Fresh Ink Theatre’s 2026-2027 Season Plays and Playwrights!

Fresh Ink Theatre is proud to announce our residencies for our sixteenth season of new plays and emerging playwrights. This season’s titles focus on coming of age, where (and who) we call home, and how those relationships shape us– and challenge us– as we enter adulthood. We invite our audiences to love one another radically, even when tensions and conflict create barriers to connection. 

We’re thrilled to explore these themes through two WORLD PREMIERE staged readings!

For our Ink Spot Residency, we will present Kimstelle Merisma’s An Exchange.  Merisma’s new slice-of-life play follows a Haitian-American family and the Haitian exchange student they host over the course of a decade, posing the question - how does where we land shape our understanding of ourselves, our culture, and each other? An Exchange will be supported with a workshop process that culminates in a public staged reading.

As our Development Residency, we will present H. Avery’s Skeeter at the End of the World, which will receive two internal workshops and a public staged reading. Avery’s ambitious new two-hander follows Skeeter, a hermit with a mysterious psychological condition, and Kate, Skeeter’s childhood best friend. Can these two estranged lifelong friends redefine what home means to them, even when the world (or at least, their world) may be ending?

And finally, we hope you can join us for the kick-off of our season: our 11th annual MAD DASH, a 24-hour play festival featuring dozens of Boston playwrights, directors, actors, and technicians in a marathon to write, rehearse, and produce eight brand new 10-minute plays in under 24 hours. Fueled by adrenaline and the pressure only a ticking clock can provide, Mad Dash is a joyful reminder of the magic of new plays. 

Fresh Ink Theatre is honored to celebrate the diverse stories that the voices of Boston have to tell. Learn more below, and join us!

development Residency

 
 

SKEETER Written by H. Avery
March 2027

Skeeter has never been normal; her mysterious psychological condition that causes her to experience life through delusion means she can never be quite sure of her reality. The only thing she knows for certain is that she is friends with Kate – but she can't even tell if Kate is friends with her... anymore. As two young women with two very different perspectives reunite after time apart, Skeeter watches Kate's world expand as her own teeters on the edge of collapse; and perhaps, the end of times.


H. Avery is a playwright and actor based in Pawtucket, RI. They are a three-time alum of Faces of America Monologue Festivals #'s 5-7, featuring THE THING ABOUT ME, TUMMY TROUBLES, and MAD SCIENTIST, respectively (The Playground Experiment.) Additional writing credits include: FATSO GOES TO MCDONALDS (Fringe PVD, Smith and Kraus "We/Us" Anthology), THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF THE GUT MICROBIOME co-written with Dr. Carly Brennan (Geneva Theatre Guild), SKEETER/SUBMERGED (Sapphest), DO NOT RESUSCITATE (Cypress Productions), and THE CLOSED DOOR DISORDER (Wildwood Theatre). Avery is incredibly passionate about creating a more accessible and sustainable theatre industry.

ink Spot Residency

 
 

AN EXCHANGE written by Kimstelle Merisma
March 2027

When Irene, her petulant brother, and her resilient mother are asked to become a host family for a Haitian exchange student named Lucien, the complicated dynamic within their household is quickly upended by the newcomer. While Lucien leaves behind a country in political, socio-economic, and environmental turmoil in hopes of discovering what America has to offer him, his presence forces the Haitian-American host family to question what their life in the United States has cost them.


Kimstelle Merisma is a Haitian-American playwright, director, and actress originally from Boston and currently based in Rhode Island. She graduated from Emerson College’s Class of 2024, earning her BFA in Theatre and Performance with a minor in African American & Africana Studies. As a theatre artist, Kimstelle’s focus is delivering under-represented stories to the stage, showcasing bodies American theatre has historically neglected, and empowering communities through performing arts. At present, her approach to this is done through resourceful art-making, unapologetic humanity, and rambunctious life. 

Mad Dash

 
 

Save the date - tickets to the Mad Dash will be available SOON!

Season 16 Finalists

And finally, thank you to our finalists, whose talent, heart, and creativity inspire us so deeply! We can’t wait to see where these amazing plays and playwrights go next.

  • Aftercare by Aster Aguilar

  • Boy Praised by Oliver Rizzo

  • Janitor’s Baby by Anelga Hajjar

  • No Souvenirs by Adrian Speth

  • Women of Eden by Katherine Callaway

Fresh Ink is proud to participate in Mass Cultural Council's Card to Culture program in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Public Health's WIC Nutrition Program, the Massachusetts Health Connector, and hundreds of organizations by making cultural programming accessible to those for whom cost is a participation barrier.  

EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders receive free admission to all Fresh Ink Theatre main stage performances. Limit 5 seats per performance. Not valid for special events or when combined with other offers. Folks requesting free admission through this program must show their EBT, WIC or ConnectorCare card at the box office to receive their tickets. Contact Katelyn Paddock at kpaddock@freshinktheatre.org with questions. 

See the complete list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.