McNeal by Ayad Akhtar

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar, McNeal is a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity — and increasing inhumanity — of the stories we tell.

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

Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal is a great writer, one of our greatest, and a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. But he also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind, and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence. From Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar, McNeal is a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity — and increasing inhumanity — of the stories we tell.

“A brilliant and transfixing new play” —The Atlantic