FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT PARTY AND 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!
Wednesday, July 22, starting at 7:30 at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre (732 Charlotte Street)
Join the NotaBle Acts collective as we raise a glass to celebrate the opening of the festival, and 25 years of NotaBle Acts! Meet and mingle with the companies of all fifteen new plays that will be premiering over the next ten days, and enjoy some complimentary snacks and a cash bar.
The evening’s commemorative 25th anniversary celebrations will include readings from NotaBle plays from our past, featuring an all-star cast of readers and some special guest stars, and speeches and tributes from luminaries past and present!
All welcome, admission by donation.
MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS
The Dog Dies by Hannah McKellar
Co-produced with Solo Chicken Productions
Thursday, July 23, Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, 7:30 PM nightly, at Memorial Hall, UNB, 9 Bailey Drive.
Tickets: Pay-What-You-Wish (Suggested price: $18) Available at the door in advance at: https://www.solochickenproductions.com/thedogdies
The Dog Dies is a brand-new musical comedy that honours the highs and lows of animal companionship. Created by comedian and veterinarian Hannah MacKellar, The Dog Dies follows the relationship between Human and her rescue dog, Steve Buscemi, from adoption to euthanasia. Mixing comedy songs with verbatim text from Hannah’s lived experience as a veterinarian, The Dog Dies is a heartaching and sidesplitting piece that mourns the losses of our furry friends and celebrates the special place they hold in our lives.
Directed by Lisa Anne Ross and featuring Hannah McKellar, Naomi McGowan, and Acasha Knowles.
The Refrain by Jared Mallard
Saturday July 25 and Sunday July 26, 3 PM daily, Charlotte Street Arts Centre, 732 Charlotte St.
Tickets: $15 General; $12 Students/Seniors/Underemployed, available at the door.
Winner of Outstanding Production at the 2026 New Brunswick High School Drama Festival, The Refrain is an original two-person featuring an original score written and performed by Mia Lillie and Evan Cooper. Blending live music, humour, and heartfelt storytelling, The Refrain tells the story of two teenage musicians who become trapped in a school music room, forcing them to confront the heartbreak, regret, and unfinished conversation that ended their relationship.
Written and directed by Jared Mallard and featuring Mia Lillie and Evan Cooper.
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS AND STREET SCENES
The six winners of the 2026 NotaBle Acts Ten-Minute and Site-Specific Playwriting Contests.
Sunday, July 26 through Wednesday, July 29, beginning nightly at 7:30 PM in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard. Performances are outdoors and weather-permitting. Patrons may wish to bring a seat cushion for Taking it to the Streets (seating is in the concrete amphitheatre of the BAG courtyard) and a cushion, blanket, or lawn chair for Street Scenes.
Run time: Taking it to the Streets: approximately 50 minutes.
Street Scenes: approximately 30 minutes.
Admission: by donation.
Taking it to the Streets: Four Ten-Minute Plays:
A.B., the Autonomous Boyfriend by Ashley Morehouse
After breaking up with her boyfriend, Sadie gets an offer to test an amazing new invention promised to solve all her woes: a robot boyfriend market-researched to perfectly fulfill all women’s wants and needs.
Directed by Jorja Taylor and featuring Karlie Curtis, Simon Peterson, and Brandi Martin
The Rural Gap by Brandon Hicks
Best friends Justin and Matt are stuck, both in traffic and in their lives, waiting patiently (Justin) and frustratedly (Matt) for a chance to merge, but blocked at every turn by the inconveniently regularly-spaced cars of the Rural Gap.
Directed by Alex McAllister and Len Falkenstein and featuring Daniel Gallagher and Andrew Allen
Roped In by Hannah Crothers
After an especially wild and argument-filled night on the town, married couple Jamie and Olivia wake up tied back-to-back, unable to move, but perfectly situated to rehashing their grievances with one another. Is it a kidnapping, or a unique approach to marriage counselling?
Directed by Ella Coulombe and featuring Rhett Ellis and Allison Smith
Prom Prep and Demons by Margaret Andow
Tracey is fashion-blind (like colour blind, but for, you know, clothes..) and desperate to replace the hideous dress she has picked out for her prom tonight. So she turns to the obvious solution: conjuring a pair of fashion demons from Hell.
Directed by Goesta Struve-Dencher and featuring Diana Chavez, Elliott Nason, and Shannon Munn
The four ten-minute plays in Taking It to the Streets will begin at 7:30 PM at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard, and will be followed immediately afterwards (approximately 8:25 PM) by the two plays in Street Scenes, which will take place on The Green between the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the pedestrian bridge over St. Anne’s Point Drive.
Street Scenes: Two Site-Specific Plays
The Song That Never Ends by Bet O’Toole
Two trees, Maple and Birch, reflect on the changes they have observed in both the human world and the environment over their many seasons on the banks of the Wolastoq.
Directed by Devin Rockwell and featuring Scott Harris and Cole Dunphy
The Anchor by Caleb Murray
In 1879 (or is it 2026?) a ship’s Master and Boy must figure out a way to get home to Saint John after Boy improvidently spends all their money on an impractically large and curiously statue-like anchor in Fredericton.
Directed by Alex McAllister and Len Falkenstein and featuring Daniel Gallagher and Andrew Allen
ACTING OUT
The two winners of the 2026 NotaBle Acts One Act Playwriting Competition.
Thursday, July 30 through Saturday, August 1, 7:30 PM nightly, at Memorial Hall, UNB, 9 Bailey Drive.
Post-show reception to follow opening night performance on July 30 at The Grad House, 676 Windsor Street (all welcome).
Join us for a post-show Talkback conversation with the playwrights, actors, and directors after the performance on July 31.
Tickets: $15 General; $10 Students/Seniors/Underemployed, available at the door.
Marvin the Man by Margaret Andow
Louise and her cat, Marvin, are living a perfectly blissful life of treats and cuddles together until one day, Louise does the unthinkable: she brings home a sickeningly perfect boyfriend. The main problem: Marvin doesn’t quite realize that he’s a cat, not a human. How will this complicated love triangle play out? As we all know, hell hath no fury like a cat scorned.
Directed by Shane MacMillan and featuring Peter Boyce, Kat Hall, and Brennan Garnett
Loop by Merrit Johnson
It’s Eloise and Ruby’s last morning together before Ruby leaves for university. Eloise longs for the perfect goodbye with her girlfriend, but there’s something she hasn’t told her: she’s created a time loop so she can re-live their final moments, over and over. But as the loop loses its appeal, and with all of us as witnesses, Eloise must find a way to let Ruby go.
Directed by Rachel Rowan and featuring K.Leigh Bright and Brooke Webster-Snoad
NotaBle Acts 