THE LOOP: LAB AND NEW WORK FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2026 FESTIVAL FEATURING TWO NEW WORKS FOR YOUNG ADULT AUDIENCES
GRANTS PASS, OREGON (June 2026) – The Loop: Lab and New Work Festival is excited to announce the 2026 installment of its annual new works festival, taking place August 7–10, 2026, at The Hivve in downtown Grants Pass, Oregon.
The Loop Festival is the flagship program of The Loop: Lab and New Work Festival, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the canon of young adult theatre through the development of new plays and musicals. Through its innovative SAY Process (Story • Audience • Youth), The Loop brings together playwrights, professional theatre artists, young performers, and community members in a collaborative development model that places youth voices at the center of the creative process.
This year's festival marks the first Loop Festival produced under The Loop: Lab and New Work Festival's nonprofit structure and continues the organization's mission of developing new stories that speak to and are shaped by young people. Previously, this festival was produced by Aggregate Collective, LLC.
This year's festival will feature staged readings of two new works currently in development: “The King’s Table” written by Lee Cataluna and selections from “Greek To Me,” a musical written by Maddy Sinclair and CV Wells.
Approximately thirty young adult actors throughout Southern Oregon will participate in a three-day development process from August 7–9. During rehearsals, the actors and stage managers serve as cultural consultants, providing insight into the resonance and impact of the material. Their feedback becomes an integral part of each work's continued development.
The public is invited to attend the festival's staged reading presentations on Monday, August 10, 2026, at The Hivve at 7:00 PM, or via YouTube Livestream. Following each reading, audience members in person and online will participate in facilitated discussions and act as responders to the work. These conversations become part of the creative "loop," providing playwrights with valuable feedback that may influence future revisions and productions.
"The Loop was founded on the belief that young people should have a voice in the stories created for them and about them," said Julia Cuppy, Founder and President of The Loop: Lab and New Work Festival. "By bringing together playwrights, youth artists, directors, and audiences, we create a collaborative environment where new work can be developed with authenticity, curiosity, and community at its core."
Now entering its third festival season, The Loop continues to build a national network of playwrights, educators, theatre artists, and young people committed to expanding opportunities for new work development in the field of young adult theatre. The festival's unique development model ensures that youth perspectives directly inform the creation of new plays and musicals, resulting in work that is both artistically compelling and deeply relevant to contemporary audiences.
Ticket information, artist announcements, and festival schedules will be released in the coming weeks and can be found at www.theloopfest.org
Your $10 ticket entitles you to entry to the festival at The Hivve in Grants Pass AND a link to the YouTube Livestream, which you can watch from anywhere in the world! We have the tickets listed as “Hivve Entry Pass” and “Livestream Pass” so we can get an idea of how many guests we'll have, but both passes will allow you to enter the festival AND watch the livestream online, so you will have VIP access and flexibility to attend the whole event in whatever format you'd like.
Click on the following link to purchase tickets: https://theloopfest.ludus.com/200538264
