Your Summer 2026 Play-Reading List

Hot people read plays! Reading during the summer isn’t just a way to pass the time during the long, hot, lazy days – it’s also a chance to travel to new worlds and experiences and witness amusing, heart-warming, striking or tear-inducing moments between characters. This summer, infuse your reading list with plays.

Haven’t dipped your toes into play-reading yet? Here’s our quick pitch:

Plays are…

• Affordable – When budgets are tight, a script costs less than the cost of a ticket and transportation to a show. Additionally, it allows you to witness theatrical works not playing in close proximity to you.
• Amusing – Where books have narrative voice, plays have stage directions, which contemporarily have become delightful places to see the theatrical possibilities of a moment as well as discover the playwright’s creativity and humor. Some of the most memorable dramatic moments are found in the options set up by these passages!
• Familiar – Plays are primarily made of dialogue and monologues, which is just a fancy way of saying chatter! We spend every day communicating and listening to conversations, so the message of a play and the flavor of its characters is the same as understanding other people day to day.
• Lightweight – With their lesser page count, even the longest plays are light and easy to carry, perfect to fit in a breezy beach tote or a light carry-on for your summer travels.
• Minimalist – Plays are minimalists and ask readers to understand the situation based on just the dialogue and stage directions at hand. This makes them brim with chances to use your imagination! This quirk allows readers to becomes far more invested in the story because a play visually comes to life through your own imagination.
• Quick to Read – Plays are not 1,000 page fantasy novels or dense academic dissertations. Their rich adventures and thought-quests are usually under 100 pages, feature fascinating characters, and are often able to be read in just an hour or two.

Find your perfect read (or two or three) for a summer of adventure, intrigue, laughs and/or relaxation below.

Comedic Romps – Give yourself an hour or two of delight with these hilarious adventures!

Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood by Adam Szymkowicz
A gender-bending, patriarchy-smashing, hilarious new take on the classic tale. Robin Hood is (and has always been) Maid Marian in disguise, and leads a motley group of Merry Men (few of whom are actually men) against the greedy Prince John. As the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, who will stand for the vulnerable if not Robin?

Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola
Mary Todd Lincoln is tired of Washington, DC. The nation’s capital is so boring; she would much rather be onstage, where she belongs, starring in a cabaret. And if she can’t do that, she might as well drink. The entire White House is fed up with Mary’s antics, most of all her bore of a husband, who can’t focus on anything except his silly Civil War. To get her out of his hair, Abe hires a handsome, up-and-coming actor to give Mary acting lessons, hoping to keep her busy and out of trouble, but the distraction ends up working a little too well.  2025 Tony Award nominee for Best Play and a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist, this riotous, campy, outrageous comedy dares to ask: What won’t Mary Todd Lincoln do to be a star?

One of the Good Ones by Gloria Calderón Kellett
This hilarious new comedy from the co-creator of the Emmy-winning sitcom One Day at a Time revels in the explosive reaction a Latina daughter sets off when she brings her very white-looking boyfriend home to meet the parents. When Yoli brings home Marcos, her family’s biases and preconceptions are put on full display. As tensions run high and hilarity ensues, everyone must navigate the ins and outs of family dynamics and the boundaries of acceptance – all while tackling the age-old question: What does it truly mean to be an American?

Peter Pan Goes Wrong by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Accident-prone Cornley Drama Society attempts their most ambitious production yet with their own version of Peter Pan. What ensues is two acts of hysterical disaster, battling technical hitches, flying mishaps and cast disputes. Will they ever make it to Neverland? A One-Act Version (US) is also available.

Spic-O-Rama: A Dysfunctional Comedy by John Leguizamo
In this flexible-cast version of the hit off-Broadway show, the members of a Latino family in Jackson Heights, New York, are preparing for the wedding of the family’s oldest son. Each family member takes a turn confiding their dreams, grudges and regrets, revealing a household that gives a new meaning to “dysfunctional” as the varied points of view in this play contribute to the diverse, comedic whole.

The Chicken-Fried-Fabulous Spa-Dee-Dah Sisterhood by Jones Hope Wooten
The Hallelujah Girls are back! In this rollicking crowd-pleaser, the fierce females of Eden Falls face off with rivals, an ex-mother-in-law and a soon-to-be-ex-husband as they chase a new dream: franchising their day spa, Spa-Dee-Dah, across the state of Georgia.

Dreamy Destinations – These plays will whisk you away to new sights with unforgettable characters!

Bad Kreyòl by Dominique Morisseau
A beautiful play about interrogating cultural identity and global impact. Simone, first-generation Haitian American, and her cousin Gigi, Haitian-born and raised, reunite to honor their grandmother’s dying wish for them to reconnect. Simone’s pilgrimage back to her ancestral homeland forces both cousins to confront their differing world views.

Cephianne’s Reflection by Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom
For hundreds of years, the inhabitants of the invisible Ma Isle have journeyed into the wilderness when they come of age and emerged gifted with special abilities… Until Cephianne, the youngest child of their immortal matriarch, fails her seeking ritual – emerging from the woods unchanged – and finds an enthralling man in her mirror. This contemporary fairytale is penned in homage to the Gullah dialect and the colorful culture found off the coast of Georgia, where the descendants of enslaved peoples turn pain into power.

Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzer
In May of 2025, playwright Molly Smith Metzler adapted this play to television in the Netflix miniseries Sirens. In both versions, Devon visits her sister Simone for an end-of-summer fest on Martha’s Vineyard, and she finds her little sister changed beyond recognition. As personal assistant to wealthy and demanding trophy wife Michaela Kell, Simone enjoys a lavish beachfront lifestyle that these girls never could have imagined growing up in blue-collar Buffalo… but is all this luxury free of cost? Sisters square off in this keenly-observed comedy about ambition, regret and the choices that shape us.

Feel-Good Fiction – These shows will warm your heart (while you get a tan).

Bob & Jean: A Love Story by Robert Schenkkan
Travel through passionate, funny, sometimes desperate correspondence between Bob and Jean, a couple separated by the realities of WWII, as seen through the eyes of their son in this heartwarming play based on real letters. They navigate battle, Broadway and the complexities of the human heart in this stirring and romantic drama by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning, Emmy-nominated playwright Robert Schenkkan telling the remarkable story of an exhilarating courtship – that of his own parents.

Brooklyn Laundry by John Patrick Shanley
Fran is a pessimist who’s terrified of making decisions. Owen is a guy who sees life for what it is and finds ways to make the best of it. Both of them are lonely and find in each other what could be a meaningful connection. But when Fran’s sisters need her more than ever, she is faced with the most difficult choice she’s ever had to make. Brooklyn Laundry is about romance, family, joy and responsibility. Most of all, it’s a play about choosing to love and be loved.

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh
This heartwarming, award-winning play tells the stories of a community of vibrant Black craftswomen at Jaja’s African Hair Braiding in Harlem – all of whom shine with lived-in warmth and detail – with delicacy and dignity. A show for anyone who’s ever had braids or wondered about these pillars of the Black community.

Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
After Delia Ephron’s husband of more than thirty years passes away from cancer, Delia has to deal with logistical problems large and small. The frustrating experience becomes the basis of a New York Times op-ed, which in turn becomes the basis for a new relationship. In classic romantic comedy style, emails become phone calls become cross-country flights become lasting love. But when Delia is faced with a devastating new challenge, her newfound relationship comes to mean more than a happy ending – it means winning the fight of her life.

Lunar Eclipse by Donald Margulies
George has been waiting for the night when the seven stages of a lunar eclipse are viewable from the farm that he shares with his wife, Em. In this tender and loving drama, they look for answers in the stars to help find meaning on this earth.

Staff Meal by Abe Koogler
Mina and Ben, two strangers who frequent the same café, strike up a conversation and decide to have dinner together. But something strange is happening in the city outside: The streets are empty and a bird calls a warning. Amidst this unsettling atmosphere, Mina and Ben find themselves in the only place still open: a mysterious restaurant where service is an art, the chef may be a god and food is a portal to other – better – worlds.

The Timing of a Day by Owen Panettieri
Josh, Doug and Paige are happily sharing a cramped Harlem apartment when an unforeseeable tragedy forever changes the course of their lives. Over the course of a single day, small moments from their years living together take on new meaning as they are forced to question: Is there really such a thing as “perfect timing,” or is all timing perfectly flawed? This impressively realistic portrait of friends showcases the sublime potential of human connection.

Touch by Lori Goodman
A retired widow dips her toe into online dating with help from her son. A widower unexpectedly reconnects with his divorced daughter. A wife and curmudgeonly husband navigate living on a fixed income. Touch is a story about the enduring need for love and companionship at any age.

You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! by Keiko Green
Greg’s received a terminal diagnosis. At least he’s in good company – the planet’s on its last legs, too. Coincidence? Not for Greg. After all, the world’s too big not to be kind of magical in this celebration-of-life play.

Roadtrip Retrospectives – When you’re on the road this summer, spend some time with plays set on the road, too!

California by Trish Harnetiaux
A family road trip takes an unexpected turn when, in the dark of night, on the plains of eastern Oregon, reality splits. In this brilliant exploration of deep familial bonds and the threat of mortality, playwright Trish Harnetiaux addresses fractured time, memory and interpersonal relationships with real honesty in a thoughtful blend of melancholy and heart.

Is God Is by Aleshea Harris
A modern myth about twin sisters who sojourn from the Dirty South to the California desert to exact righteous revenge. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award, Aleshea Harris collides the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, and Afropunk in this darkly funny and unapologetic play – which you can read before you see it on-screen in a 2026 film adaptation starring Kara Young and Mallori Johnson as the twins alongside Sterling K. Brown, Janelle Monáe and Vivica A. Fox.

Vietgone by Qui Nguyen
An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in a new land, they just might find each other. Using his uniquely infectious style and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now, playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of… Qui Nguyen.

Young Americans: A Play in Two Road Trips by Lauren Yee
In Lauren Yee’s heartfelt and engaging dramedy, twin road trips unfold two decades apart, gradually revealing a nuanced picture of two generations of an immigrant family. Joe and Jenny, a young immigrant couple, share a drive across America to their new home, forging a relationship through national sites, motels and unexpectedly eventful IHOP stops. Twenty years later, Joe takes the same drive with their 19-year-old daughter, Lucy, but… someone isn’t there.

New Releases – Keep your finger on the pulse of contemporary playwriting with these reads!

Eternal Life Part 1 by Nathan Alan Davis
Space travel, talking animals and a state-of-the-art home await an American family in their future. But when that future includes the promise of immortality, this family must wrestle with the life that happens along the way. A contemporary fable about wealth, death, our relationship with the natural world, parents and children.

Liberation by Bess Wohl
It’s 1970. Somewhere in Ohio, six women meet on a basement basketball court to form a consciousness-raising group, determined to shake up their lives and change the world. Fifty years later, one of their daughters tries to understand where things fell apart. A provocative, wildly theatrical play that poses vital questions about friendship, legacy and the true meaning of liberation, investigating what we inherit, what we forget and what we’re still fighting to understand.

Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter
Nominee for 2026 Tony Award for Best Play! In Samuel D. Hunter’s bitterly funny and incisively thoughtful Broadway drama, a reclusive aunt and her gay nephew reunite to sort the mess left after a troubled father’s passing in rural Idaho. They face an uncomfortable and universal question: How do we deal with other people? And is connection more trouble than it’s worth? As their relationship begins anew, the two reluctant Fernsbys – separated by age and experience – ​start to understand the joys and perils of letting someone else into your own story, even if only for a moment.

John Proctor Is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower
At a high school in a one-stoplight town in Georgia, a group of lively teens navigate young love, sex ed and a few school scandals while studying a canonical play in English class. As the students delve into the American classic, they begin to question the play’s perspective and the validity of naming its hero. With deep wells of passion and biting humor, this dramatic comedy captures a generation mid-transformation, running on pop music, optimism and fury. Alternating between touching, unsettling and bitingly funny moments, these teens discover that their future is not bound by the past and that they have the power to change it all by writing their own coming-of-age story.

The Antiquities by Jordan Harrison
At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, the curators are fiercely committed to bringing a lost civilization to life again: What were humans really like? What did they wear, what did they eat, how did they die out? By casting us into the far future, Jordan Harrison’s play gives us an uncanny view of the present moment, as we straddle the analog world that was and the post-human world to come.

What Became of Us by Shayan Lotfi
Two siblings. Q was born there. Z was born here. How do they maintain their connections to The Old Country and to This Country – and to each other? Spanning decades and continents, this soaring, poetic play is an exploration of family, migration and memory through the eyes of life’s longest relationship.

White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks
Long-time friends and lovers Leo, Misha, Ralph and Dawn are educated, progressive, cosmopolitan and woke. But when a racially motivated incident with the cops leaves Leo shaken, he decides extreme measures must be taken for self-preservation. A play about race, friendship and our rapidly unraveling social contract.

Summer Thrills and Chills – Settle in for a good mystery or suspense with one of these plays!

An Old-Fashioned Family Murder by Joe DiPietro
It’s a dark and stormy night at the mansion of elderly Colonel Claythorne, and the pompous murder-mystery author Arthur Whittington is holding court after his murder. With backstabbing, love and Mrs. Peck’s mother-knows-best advice complicating the investigation, it soon becomes clear that nothing – and no one – is what it seems.

Deathtrap by Ira Levin
Seemingly comfortable in his charming Connecticut home, Sidney Bruhl, a successful writer of Broadway thrillers, is struggling to overcome a string of recent failures and a shortage of funds. When a student in his writing seminar sends him a new script – a thriller that Sidney recognizes immediately as a potential Broadway hit – Sidney sees an opportunity. With his wife’s help, he devises a plan to “collaborate” with the student, an idea which the younger man quickly accepts. Suspense mounts steadily as the plot begins to twist and turn with devilish cleverness that builds to a still-startling finale.

Inspired by True Events by Ryan Spahn
The clue is in the title! In this hilarious yet horrifying play, Ryan Spahn invites the audience backstage, where a tenacious group of show people determine at what cost the show must go on. Backstage in their community theatre’s green room in Rochester, New York, the Uptown Theatre Performers are getting ready to play to a full house after opening to rave reviews the previous night. When their star actor arrives in a dangerously unhinged state, they must improvise on and off stage in ways they could not have imagined. Based off a single true crime headline that Spahn had read, the play imagines what might possess people to keep going, even in the face of unfortunate events.

Gaslight (Dietz) by Steven Dietz and Patrick Hamilton
A psychological thriller adapted by Steven Dietz from Patrick Hamilton’s hit 1939 play (which inspired the 1944 film starring Ingrid Bergman), Gaslight thrillingly delves into the horrors of psychological abuse, where the truth is fickle for characters and audience alike. With undertones of Sherlock Holmes and film noir, it’s a story replete with mystery, double-crosses and the injustice of emotional abuse.

Silent, But Deadly by Don Zolidis
The set of the silent thriller Das Vampyr, Scourge of the Night is in desperate trouble. The director is a perfectionist, the actors are in revolt, the producers are about to pull the plug and everyone seems to be plotting to murder the lead actress. But when one of the conspirators ends up dead instead, it’s up to famed detective Valentina Caravelli to unravel the mystery.

The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
Brimming with intrigue, sophisticated humor and surprising twists, Agatha Christie’s iconic murder mystery – about a group of strangers trapped during a snowstorm – is the world’s most successful and longest-running play.

The Suffragette’s Murder by Sandy Rustin
It’s the morning of July 5, 1857, and the tenants of the Mayhew Boarding House on New York’s Lower East Side are getting ready for a busy day when someone gets murdered. Hilarious hijinks ensue as the tenants band together to conceal their involvement in the suffrage movement and throw the constable off their scent. This whodunit packs its laughter with a punch, asking audiences to rethink human rights and the political systems that have historically sought to snuff out feminist voices.

Wait Until Dark (Hatcher) by Frederick Knott and Jeffrey Hatcher
Forty-seven years after Wait Until Dark premiered on Broadway, Jeffrey Hatcher has adapted Frederick Knott’s 1966 original, giving it a new setting. In 1944 Greenwich Village, Susan Hendrix, a blind yet capable woman, is imperiled by a trio of men in her own apartment. As the climax builds, Susan discovers that her blindness just might be the key to her escape, but she and her tormentors must wait until dark to play out this classic thriller’s chilling conclusion.

Winter in July – Let the white sands remind you of wintertime with these holiday reads!

A Krampus Carol by Brent Holland
On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus’ oft-forgotten demon partner, Krampus, is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, who hopes to get him to see the error of his ways. But the joke’s on Marley: Krampus loves his life! So what if his method for punishing kids who misbehave lost him the respect of his family, friends and the elves who work for him? Spying on the past, present and future isn’t going to change his mind! Hilarious and irreverent, this holiday play pits Dickens’ classic redemption tale against a stubborn fiend who doesn’t think he needs to be saved.

Coney Island Christmas by Donald Margulies and Grace Paley
Shirley Abramowitz has just been cast as Jesus in her school’s Christmas pageant – much to her Jewish parents’ horror. Weaving together nostalgia, music and merriment, Coney Island Christmas is a new seasonal classic.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon
A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set two years after the novel ends, Miss Bennet continues the story, only this time with bookish middle sister Mary as its unlikely heroine. Now, Mary is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match and possibly even love. This is first play in the Pemberley trilogy, which includes The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (US) and Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (US/UK).

The Dreidel Players Present… Best Hanukkah Show Ever! by Jeremy Desmon and Victor Wishna
A troupe of passionate (but not-quite-ready-for-prime-time) performers band together to create the greatest Hanukkah show there ever was…in just eight days! As the clock ticks and the candles burn, the Dreidel Players scramble to discover the true meaning of the season and bring a little more light into the world. The result is a hilarious series of joyful, latke-scented sketches and scenes about all things Hanukkah – delivered tongue-in-cheek and hand-on-heart.

The Four Old Broads Christmas Extravaganza by Leslie Kimbell
Your favorite OLD BROADS are back… and Christmas doesn’t stand a chance! When Eaddy is forced to take over the Petula Community Theatre charity Christmas pageant, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. This community-theatre-gone-wild fiasco delivers nonstop, rolling-in-the-aisles laughs… and absolutely ZERO silent nights. Senior living never felt so fun!

The Night Shift Before Christmas by Isaac Gómez
Meet Margot, a 30-something Tejana who works at a beloved whata-sized Texas burger joint. The Christmas Eve overnight shift is her personal tradition – even if that means spending the holiday dealing with grumpy drive-thru customers and an equally grumpy robotic Santa. But when her dead best friend Jackie Marley drops by to warn her of impending late-night visits by spirits, Margot has no choice but to roll with the punches and confront the very Scrooge she’s become. It’s a Christmas Eve like none other in this holiday show filled with humor and heart set in H-town.

For more plays to read, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or the UK.