McNeal by Ayad Akhtar
SOUTHEAST REGIONAL PREMIERE
January 15 – February 7, 2026
Directed by Sharon Graci
Featuring David Whalen, Camille Lowman, Joy Vandervort-Cobb, Sylvia Jefferies, and Journey Townsend
From the pen of Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar comes a “brilliant and transfixing new play” about a literary icon whose looming novel, fractured family ties, and growing obsession with generative AI push him toward a reckoning with his own mythmaking. As the boundary between creation and replication blurs, Jacob McNeal must confront what remains of ambition and identity when the machines begin telling better stories than he can.
“A GRIPPING, RAZOR-SHARP PORTRAIT OF A WRITER COMING UNDONE.” -THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A BRILLIANT, UNSETTLING LOOK AT GENIUS, EGO, AND THE COST OF CREATION.” -THEATERMANIA
“EXPLOSIVE. UNMISSABLE.” -VULTURE