Barrington Stage Company 10x10 New Play Festival Brings the Heat

The Friendship Dynamic performed at the 14th Annual 10x10 New Play Festival. Pictured (L to R): Raya Malcolm as Orlean, Lori Vega as Page, Matt Neely as Blunt, and Xavier Reyes as Trace. Photo by Roman Iwasiwka.

Each winter, when downtown streets are wind-whistling tracks of ice and snow, Pittsfield’s cultural calendar snaps back to life with a bloom of theatrical energy. The catalyst is the 10x10 New Play Festival, Barrington Stage Company’s annual relay of brand new 10-minute plays, returning for its fifteenth season as the signature event of the Upstreet Winter Arts Festival.

Running February 12 through March 15 on the St. Germain Stage at the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, the festival offers 100 minutes of tightly wound comedy and drama—ten short works presented back-to-back, performed by a familiar ensemble of company favorites and directed by a mix of longtime collaborators and emerging voices. It’s fast-paced, playful, and often surprising, designed to be taken in as a single sitting, where tone and perspective shift every few minutes.

“The 10x10 New Play Festival is one of the most highly-anticipated events of the Barrington Stage season. From our staff, to our brilliant cast and indefatigable crew – everyone who has a hand in bringing these ten plays to life does so with a sense of elation,” says Alan Paul, Barrington Stage Company’s artistic director, who will direct three of the plays this year. “I am thrilled that this year’s festival features three plays directed by BSC’s artistic coordinator Moira O’Sullivan, who is a talented emerging director, and features a play written by our director of development, playwright Jessica Provenz. 10x10 is truly a labor of love for me and everyone at the company.”

That sense of collective investment has helped make 10x10 a winter tradition in Pittsfield, and a proving ground for new work. The 2026 lineup spans political satire, romantic misfires, existential dread, and human encounters, all unfolding in familiar settings like coffee shops, tree lots, and date nights gone sideways.

This year’s ten plays include A Modest Proposal II by David MacGregor, which imagines two state senators pitching an “out of the box” solution to unwanted pregnancies in a state that has outlawed abortion, and Best By Date by Scott Mullen, where a date night derails after an unexpected reminder of life’s fragility. In Cricket by Erin Osgood, a woman in a bathrobe follows a mysterious sound minutes before a funeral, while Do You Hear an Echo? by Cynthia Faith Arsenault turns a skeptical eye toward the promises and failures of personal technology.

Other works lean into romance and social ritual. Love Shovel by John C. Davenport finds unexpected connections unearthed by a utilitarian tool; Missed Disconnections by Samara Siskind revisits Craigslist as a last refuge for old-fashioned romantics; and The Rebound Quiz by Byron Nilsson stages a coffee shop confrontation filtered through a love of classic movies. Seasonal tensions surface in Tannenbaum by James McLindon, set in a Christmas Eve tree lot, while Top Shelf Tolstoy by Maximillian Gill follows a newcomer whose attempt to borrow a Russian novel collides with a library’s desperate fundraising tactics. Rounding out the program is Waking Greek by Jessica Provenz, where two characters wake alone on a stage, hoping for farce and finding something else entirely.

The cast brings back several audience favorites—Matt Neely, Peggy Pharr Wilson, Robert Zukerman, Raya Malcolm, and Maya Loren Jackson—joined this year by newcomer Avery Whitted. Directing duties are shared by Emmy-nominated Matthew Penn, returning for his tenth year with the festival; Alan Paul; and Moira O’Sullivan, making her 10x10 directorial debut.

City leaders see the festival as a cornerstone of Pittsfield’s winter cultural economy. “We are ecstatic to partner with Barrington Stage Company for the 10x10 Upstreet Winter Arts Festival for its fifteenth year,” says Jen Glockner, the City of Pittsfield’s director of cultural development. “BSC’s 10x10 New Play Festival is the signature event of the festival. We can’t wait to see what’s in store this year!”

Performances run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets start at $40 and are expected to sell quickly; early purchase is encouraged.

For Barrington Stage Company, now more than three decades into its mission of developing new work and engaging the community, 10x10 remains both a celebration and a snapshot—of artists testing ideas, of audiences willing to lean in, and of a downtown that continues to gather around live performance, even in the depths of winter.