(TRENTON, NJ) -- Passage Theatre Company's third annual Word on Front event is set to be its biggest yet. In celebration of the United States of America's 250th Anniversary, the company is presenting Word on Front 250, three consecutive weekends of a variety of live arts from June 26 to July 12, 2026. This festival of spoken word, music, and solo performance will celebrate the untold and underrepresented stories of America.
Word on Front 250 will feature headline performances and presentations from Poor Righteous Teachers, Zuhairah McGill, June Ballinger, Nikki Powerhouse, Ibrahim Miari, Marvin Bell, Theodore A. Harris, Philip-AM, and the company's very own Executive Artistic Director Brishen Miller. The festival will also feature DJs, the soon-to-be-announced winning entries of Passage's solo playwriting contest, a staged reading of a new comedy play, and a presentation of selections from from THE CROSSING, a new musical inspired by the story of Washington crossing the Delaware, co-produced with tencrucialdays.org.
"The third year of Word on Front will be the biggest art festival hosted by Passage Theatre in decades thanks to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority," shares Brishen Miller. "This will be a three weekend festival that focuses on solo performance theatre and pays homage to the Eyes on Trenton Festival that launched the Playhouse and the American shorts festival that honored 110 years of our country in 1986. We have 16 different acts over 9 days that celebrate not only the birth of our nation but the full vibrant authenticity of the 250 years of America."
Information and ticketing for each of the individual performances in the festival is available here.
Passage Theatre's programming is supported in part by funding through the NJEDA's A.R.T. – Phase II Grant Program, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the City of Trenton.
Passage Theatre Company is committed to create and produce socially-relevant plays and arts programming that deeply resonate with their communities. They strive to be a nationally recognized model of radically inclusive storytelling, placing core value on empathy, inclusion, community, and excellence.
