"The Good Guys" by Sarah Mantell (Reading with Post-Show Social)

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Join us after the reading for a conversation with the playwright and an informal social in the lobby of the theatre.

The Good Guys by Sarah Mantell

Directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar
Presented in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company

When Aarón joins a group of Civil War reenactors, he is horrified to discover that visiting troops get to play Union soldiers while he is forced to fight in Confederate uniform. When the unit’s leadership is usurped and gender, racial, and sexual identities come to the forefront, the group must find a way to make it to Gettysburg where they will finally get to fight as the North.

Join us after the reading for an informal social after the reading in the lobby of the theatre.

About the Playwright

Sarah Mantell is the recipient of the 2023 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons). Their other plays include Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Boston Court Pasadena), The Good Guys (Second Stage), Tiny (Seven Devils, Seattle Rep), and Fight Call (Artists Repertory Theatre, Breaking the Binary) They have been first-runner up for the Leah Ryan Award, finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, nominated for the Pulitzer, and longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize.

About Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC)

PTC is a vital civic institution dedicated to the creation of extraordinary theatrical experiences that reflect the essential issues and ideas of our time, and which foster connection, understanding, and transformation.

We engage and strengthen our community through exceptional productions of new and contemporary plays and musicals, inspiring education programs, and mutually beneficial civic partnerships.

We develop exciting new work that resonates both locally and nationally, and uphold a deep commitment to be a fully inclusive, welcoming home for the artists, audiences, and people of Philadelphia.

About the 2026 New Play Development Conference

PlayPenn’s nationally recognized New Play Development Conference brings together readings of new plays alongside a citywide series of civic gatherings, workshops, artist exchanges, and public conversations focusing on art, democracy, historical memory, belonging, and collective imagination. This community-focused approach to new play development reflects a broader vision of theatre in a shared civic life that illuminates what theatre can do, who participates in it, how it unfolds, and why it matters. 

The 19-event Conference brings together 22 playwrights participating across workshops, conversations, and five new work presentations while expanding its scope to include an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eboni Booth (Primary Trust), free playwriting workshops for adults, teens, and women over 50, and a public conversation examining constitutional history and civic identity.

Additional programming includes a community workshop for queer theatre makers; a convening on innovation in theatre-making with leaders from Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Cannonball Festival, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lemonade Stand, and Tiny Dynamite; and an acting lab focused on approaches to new play development and cross-community exchanges among theatre artists.