TheatreSquared New Plays
What other performances stage democracy in dialog?
Crystal Bridges and the Momentary have partnered with TheatreSquared in Fayetteville to host three playwrights: Sarah Dianne Loucks, a.k. payne, and Iraisa Ann Reilly. They have written one-act plays in conversation with ideas present in the museum, this exhibition, or the occasion of America 250. In-gallery performances of the 20-minute plays will occur throughout the run of the exhibition, including opening weekend, March 13-15, 2026.
TheatreSquared artists in residence Iraisa Ann Reilly, a.k. payne, and Sarah Dianne Loucks will share their newly commissioned one-act plays as part of America 250: Common Threads in the gallery at 11:30 am, 12 pm, 12:30 pm. In-gallery performances of the 20-minute plays will occur throughout the run of the exhibition, including opening weekend, March 13-15, 2026.
Performance Schedule
March 13 (Open Rehearsals) | 11:30 AM, 12 PM, 12:30 PM
March 14 | 11:30 AM, 12 PM, 12:30 PM
March 15 | 11:30 AM, 12 PM, 12:30 PM
About the Artists
Iraisa Ann Reilly
Iraisa Ann Reilly is a writer, actor and educator originally from New Jersey. She will be performing her one-woman show, A Bodega Princess Remembers La Fiesta de Los Reyes Magos, 1998, Off-Broadway this fall. Bodega Princess is produced by The Lucille Lortel Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Latinx Playwrights Circle. As a writer her work has been developed and recognized by Teatro del Sol, Atlantic Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Two River Theatre, Arkansas New Play Festival, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, Theatre Exile, The New Harmony Project, Texas A&M University, Michigan State, Sol Project, Simpatico Theatre Company, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Art House Productions, and the Yale Drama Series. She is currently under commission with Arden Theatre Company and was a member of Soho Rep’s Writer/ Director lab, 2024-2025. As an educator, Iraisa Ann is an adjunct professor in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch and is a teaching artist with Roundabout Theatre Company, ESPA Primary Stages, and Dreamyard Inc. MFA Dramatic Writing from NYU. BA Theatre and English from the University of Notre Dame.
a.k. payne
a.k. payne (she/they) is a playwright and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their plays love on and engage Black lives and languages beyond the confines of linear time to find/remember stories that might create conditions for our collective liberation(s). They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College and an MFA in Playwriting under Tarell Alvin McCraney from fka Yale School of Drama. Their work has been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. She is a 3x finalist and the 2025 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the largest and oldest international award for women+ writers. She is currently a resident artist/fellow with National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Foundation). They are a grandchild of the Great Migration; a queer & non-binary abolitionist affected in community by the ‘New Jim Crow;” and of a great lineage of Black women storytellers and living-room archivists; all of which deeply informs, uplifts and amplifies their work as a playwright, community organizer and spacemaker.
Sarah Dianne Loucks
Sarah Dianne Loucks is a playwright and theater-maker. Previously, she was the playwriting apprentice for Arketype New Works Festival at TheaterSquared in 2024. Currently, she is a Post-MFA Playwright at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. Sarah is the recipient of a 2024 MAPfund grant, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and two Artist 360 awards from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. She is a four-time funding recipient from the Austin Cultural Arts Council and was awarded the Three New American Plays prize by Forward Flux Productions in 2017. Her plays have been produced and developed in theaters, warehouses, and backyards in NYC, Austin, TX and Fayetteville, AR. BA Bard College, MFA University of Arkansas.
TheatreSquared
TheatreSquared’s signature offering of bold new plays in an intimate setting at 477 W. Spring St in downtown Fayetteville, AR has driven its growth to become the state’s largest theater, offering more than 350 performances annually in an intimate setting. The playwright-led company is one of mid-America’s leading laboratories for new work, having launched more than 70 new plays. Offering far-reaching access and education programs and an open-all-day gathering space, the Commons Bar/Café, TheatreSquared remains rooted in its founding vision, that “theater—done well and with passion—can transform lives and communities.”