Festival Poster Design Contest
The RICHARD P. STAHL Festival of New American Theatre
2026 Poster Design Contest
Calling visual artists! Bring stories to life with your art! The Richard P. Stahl Festival of New American Theatre 2026 seeks talented artists to design posters for our readings. Showcase your creativity and support new voices in theatre!
Requirements and Compensation
Requirements and Compensation
First, design a piece of any media based on the show summaries below (Falls, Fly Fly Fly, An Optimist’s Guide To The Dark Ages). Then, submit an image that’s 300 dpi 16×20″ to newworks@phoenixtheatre.com by December 22, 2025, 11:59pm. You may submit more than once for any show, or multiple shows.
Any work received after this date will not be eligible to participate. Each show’s artwork will be chosen by January 2nd, 2026. Those who have their work selected will receive a $300 honorarium and 2 tickets for one of that show’s readings.
Design posters for these shows in development below:
Falls
Play Reading
Written By Colm Summers
Friday, January 9 at 7:30 pm & Sunday, January 11th at 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm
Judith Hardes Theatre
Falls is a coming-of-age comedy about Parkinson’s disease, queerness and caregiving. When a young father is diagnosed with Parkinsons, he does everything in his power to protect his relationship with his son from his prognosis, but also from his deteriorating relationship with the boy’s increasingly absent mother. As his condition deteriorates and their father-son roles are reversed, his every expectation of fatherhood falls away. Will he lose himself or – worse – his son, in the process?
Fly Fly Fly
Musical Reading
Composer, Lyricist, and Bookwriter: Katie Brady
Co-composer: Eric Powers
Saturday, January 17 at 7:30 pm & Sunday, January 18 at 2:00 pm
Judith Hardes Theatre
Fly Fly Fly is a fun, tug-at-your-heart-strings musical dramedy about an empty nester who opens a forgotten pop-up book while downsizing and magically conjures her children back home. As a lifetime of crap and memories pile around like a nest, she must decide what to toss, give away and keep. Elevated by a broadway infused pop-folk score, this show touches on themes of memory loss, aging, identity crisis, growing relationships and neurodiversity.
An Optimist’s Guide to the Dark Ages
Musical Reading
Book and Lyrics by Chris Dimond
Music by Michael Kooman
Saturday, January 24 at 7:30 pm & Sunday, January 25 at 2:00 pm
Judith Hardes Theatre
Fed up with a world filled with plague, pestilence, and poor personal hygiene, the world’s only optimist sets out on a quest to end the Dark Ages. Hilarity ensues.
