Preview: Bridges and Stages 10-Minute Play Festival Is Back and on the Move to the North Side

By Mingsi Ma

The Becoming Arts Collective marks the return of the Bridges and Stages 10-Minute Play Festival for its second year by introducing a new partnership at a new site, The New Hazlett Theater. The 26 new plays, selected from dozens of submissions, will be presented August 28-29 at the North Side venue.

Darrin Friedman, Founder and Executive Director of The Becoming Arts Collective, said the submissions came from across the country, including New York, Massachusetts, Minneapolis–St. Paul, and Pennsylvania. The festival even received submissions from as far away as Japan. Friedman shared, “We have people from Pittsburgh, of course. In Pittsburgh, voices are important. We have emerging voices from all over the world.”

As soon as the call for new play submissions was released, The Becoming Arts Collective received about 350 submissions in less than 24 hours, despite stating that they were only going to accept the first 175 submissions.

Artistic Director Barbara Burgess-Lefebvre explained that the festival looks for plays that tell stories efficiently in 10 minutes, create compelling characters and engaging conflicts, and offer something new or original to say. The two evenings’ lineups showcase “comedies, dramas, slices of life, and a couple that delightfully stretch the imagination,” said Burgess-Lefebvre. Rather than elaborate sets and costumes, the festival focuses on the playwright, actor, and director, and keeps its technical additions minimal.

Alongside the playwrights, 45 actors and 13 directors will join the festival. Friedman said that the competition among performers was fierce, but emphasized that the goal of the festival was to create chances for as many people as possible: “All I said to the director, all of this is about opportunity – give as many people as possible opportunities, as long as they are talented.”

The second Bridges and Stages 10-Minute Play Festival is also the first event of the co-presentation partnership with The New Hazlett Theater, which begins with the 2026-2027 season.

“We want to give our audiences a rapid-fire series of experiences that will leave them talking about all they saw for a long time,” said Burgess-Lefebvre.

TICKETS AND DETAILS

The Becoming Arts Collective and Broken Arts Entertainment, along with co-presenting partner, The New Hazlett Theater, present the 2nd Annual Bridges & Stages 10-minute Play Festival on August 28 and 29, 2026. Learn more here.