Rough Draft Festival 2025

The 2025 Rough Draft Festival is where bold ideas meet the stage. The six daring new works that push boundaries, challenge perspectives, and explore the complexities of human relationships come to life here at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. These plays portray what it means to connect, change, and find one’s place in the world. Be part of the creative process and see these works come to life!

Each event is free, but Seating is limited, so you will need to RSVP to attend.

Rough Draft Festival 2025 Line Up:

“Olives” by Daniel Holzman
Location: Mainstage Theater (On Stage Seating)
Date: March 10 at 2:30pm
Description: David and Miriam are married. Miriam works in tech. David is taking a year off to learn guitar, Miriam is afraid there isn’t going to be a future. David is afraid of everything. Then the bodybuilder arrives. Haunted, horny, and sickly funny, Olives is an erotic thriller about remaking yourself from the outside in. Written by Daniel Holzman and directed by Francesca Sabel.

“Choke” by KJ Stewart
Location: Little Theater
Date: March 11 at 7pm
Description: On a brand new reality tv show hosted by Yung Gravy, women compete in hot dog eating contests for a chance to win a cash prize and the hearts of America. From her couch in her tiny NYC apartment, Debbie watches. And eats. And watches. For anyone whos ever wanted to crawl inside their television, Choke is an exploration of gluttony in its many modern forms.

“Fountains of Youth” by Kareem Fahmy
Location: Mainstage Theater (On Stage Seating)
Date: March 12 at 2:30pm
Description: It starts with a disappearance. One of a tight-knit group, the enigmatic illegal refugee Moose, vanishes without a trace. Was he arrested? Has he fled? Investigating the mystery will drive a wedge between his friends, who aren’t all equally able, or willing to, unearth the dark truth. Inspired by real events, this time-shifting thriller tracks five lives transformed by one event.

“Open Studio” by Emmy Weissman
Location: Mainstage Theater (On Stage Seating)
Date: March 14 at 7pm
Description: Maya signs up for a pottery class and is drawn into the lives of two men— one older, one younger— at the studio. She finds herself entangled in the complex dynamics of this triangle, as it coalesces and crumbles. Open Studio takes a magnifying glass to a small town pottery studio, and shines a light on how the most vulnerable parts of life reveal.

“The Stranger” by Sam Walsh
Location: Mainstage Theater (On Stage Seating)
Date: March 19 at 7pm
Description: In small town America, Roy, the local repairman lives alone in his childhood home. One morning, his estranged niece Maxine shows up on his doorstep, forcing them both to navigate the ghosts of their past in order to truly live in the present. ‘the stranger’ is a quiet meditation on the trappings of grief, regret, and learning when repairing something actually means starting anew.

“Furball” by Jeana Scotti
Location: Little Theater
Date: March 21 at 2:30pm
Description: Sam has a furball growing inside their vagina. A furball made of cat hair. Because Sam’s partner doesn’t wash their hands after petting the cat (no matter how many times Sam asks them to) before they have sex. No one can offer a solution, not even the gynecologist, who says there’s just not enough research on this sort of thing, as the furball continues to grow.