THIS JULY the Hazeltine Theatre and Arts Center will turn its stage toward the work growing right here in Prescott. The Hazeltine New Works Festival: American Stories brings together original work from Prescott-based artists, offering audiences a first look at new theatre as it is being developed, tested and shared with the community.
The festival opens on July 12 with a Cajun BBQ Kickoff benefit, featuring Cajun and Midwestern barbecue, performance shorts from Bayou by Me and Just a Little Bit of Sugar, surprises from the Updraft Writers Club and an introduction to the Hazeltine’s 2027 season and future facility plans. Tickets for the benefit are $50 and include the meal and drinks.
For Jay Ruby, the Hazeltine’s programming and development director, the festival is part of a larger vision for the theatre. Alongside the 4th Wall Productions community-theatre company, Ruby describes his work as arranging the calendar, producing events, booking the space for other companies, and bringing more activity into both the main stage and the hall beneath the theatre. More than just a performance venue, the Hazeltine is becoming a shared community space for theatre, music, classes, rehearsals, gatherings and original local work.
Ruby sees the Hazeltine as a place of “full-spectrum access,” where many kinds of productions and many communities within Prescott can use the space. That includes community theatre, guest artists, local writers, dancers, musicians and artists working on new material. The goal is not simply to fill a calendar, but to help build a stronger arts ecosystem in which Prescott artists have room to create, experiment and be seen.
That idea is at the heart of the New Works Festival. Rather than present only finished, familiar titles the festival gives audiences a chance to experience work in motion. There will be two full weekend productions and an evening of early-stage writing.
The first mainstage production is Bayou by Me, written and directed by Rosemarie Crews, to run July 17-19. Crews describes the show as a heartwarming musical that has lived in her imagination for more than four decades.
The story derives from her time living in Cajun country, where she came to know local families, traditions, music and the joy of the crawfish boil. At the center of Bayou by Me is Dominique, a young Cajun woman who leaves the bayou for New York City after hearing about Broadway auditions for a musical about Cajun life. What follows is not a story about abandoning one world for another, but about staying true to oneself while navigating an unfamiliar place. Dominique’s Cajun roots become her strength, helping her move through the chaos of the city while holding on to the traditions that shaped her.
The musical also gives audiences a lively introduction to Cajun culture, family traditions, humor and zydeco music. Through the comical eyes of Al, short for Alligator Sauce Pecan, and Mud Bug, aka Crawfish Étouffée, audiences are invited into a world full of music, laughter, food, memory and heart.
The second mainstage production is Just a Little Bit of Sugar, written and directed by Silas Hall, running July 31-August 2. Hall describes the play as a comedic melodrama about a Midwestern family in the 1990s, pursuing the American dream while facing the sharp edges of American reality.
The play moves between a family gathering and glimpses of memory, allowing the audience to see how loss, faith, grief and family expectations shape each character. It’s about how tender and callused people can become when they are asked to accept truths that challenge their own thoughts and feelings.
For Hall one of the most exciting parts of presenting the play in the New Works Festival is that the piece is still alive — the writer is in the room. The actors, production team and audience all become parts of the process. Hall sees theatre as collaborative by nature, and this festival gives him the chance to discover how local artists reflect the work back to him.
Between the two mainstage productions, the festival will feature StageSeeding by the Updraft Writers Club on July 23. This is an intimate evening of new work, shared in its earliest stage of creation. Bringing together theatre, poetry and prose, the event offers a live encounter with emerging voices and ideas. Rather than full, evolved productions, they are seeds that one day may grow into staged works.
Taken together, the festival speaks to a growing confidence in Prescott’s theatre scene. Ruby believes Prescott has the potential to become a destination for theatre, a place where audiences come to see quality, innovative and original work from Arizona artists.
More than a summer lineup, the Hazeltine New Works Festival is an invitation to see local artists at the beginning of something. It asks audiences to support work that’s fresh, local and still developing. From Cajun music and family traditions to Midwestern grief and American longing, these are stories rooted in place, memory and community.
And this summer, they begin in Prescott.
Hazeltine Summer Benefit: Cajun BBQ Kickoff
July 12, 3–5pm, $50 includes meal and drinks
Bayou by Me by Rosemarie Crews
July 17–18, 7pm and July 19, 3pm, $35
StageSeeding from the Updraft Writers Club
July 23, 7pm, $20
Just a Little Bit of Sugar by Silas Hall
July 31—August 1, 7pm and August 2, 3pm, $35
The Hazeltine Theatre and Arts Center is at 208 N. Marina St., Prescott (the-hazeltine.com).
