A new play written by Columbia MFA Playwriting Student Silma Sierra Berrada, featured in the 2026 New Plays Festival.
Showtimes
Friday, May 8, 3:30 PM
Friday, May 8, 8 PM
Saturday, May 9, 3:30 PM
In an unnamed nation that bankrolls American power, a radical student activist leads a campaign demanding her university divest from the United States. At home, her boyfriend—an immortal man who once survived a lynching—keeps himself safe by offering spiritual readings, turning the scar that could not kill him into currency to avoid deportation. As protests rage outside their apartment, the performances that keep them alive begin to erode their intimacy. When survival becomes spectacle, what remains between them that isn’t an act?
About the New Plays Festival
Columbia University School of the Arts presents an expanded festival of new plays written by Columbia MFA Playwriting Students. The esteemed faculty who have nurtured these students, including Tony, Pulitzer, and Obie Award winners such as David Auburn, Leslie Ayvazian, David Henry Hwang, James Ijames, David Klass, Michael Korie, Rogelio Martinez, Charles L. Mee, Lynn Nottage, and Blair Singer, invite everyone to experience these innovative new playwrights.
Organized by James Ijames, Head of the Playwriting Concentration.
View the complete festival schedule