For John Patrick Bray, 2026 has been a year of moving between ideas, forms and audiences.

Outside of his roles as graduate coordinator and head of the undergraduate playwrighting emphasis in the Department of Theatre and Film, Bray has spent the year pursuing an expansive body of scholarly and creative work. His projects have taken him from academic journals and edited collections to new plays, festivals, audio drama and a new adaptation of a classic work.

That range is fitting for a scholar and playwright whose work often considers the relationship between writing and research. Earlier this year, Bray published “How the Dough Gets Made: Dramatic Writing as Practice-Led Research” in Theatre/Practice, a peer-reviewed journal associated with the Mid America Theatre Conference. He also contributed “They Asked Me to Draw a City: Postdramatic Imaginings in Robert Wilson’s Direction of Strindberg’s A Dream Play” to the inaugural issue of The Robert Wilson Yearbook.

His scholarly work has also extended into editorial work. Bray edited a special section of the peer-reviewed journal Theatre and Performance Notes and Counternotes, titled “9/11: Twenty-Five Years Later,” scheduled for publication in September. The collection brings together essays examining and reevaluating theatrical and live performance responses to the events of Sept. 11 and their continuing influence.

For Bray, that scholarly work is closely connected to his creative practice, particularly when it comes to 9/11. As he explains, “This year I had both a creative and scholarly publication dealing with 9/11. #twinning is about twins who have to perform in a pageant as the Twin Towers, which actually happened to a pair of twin girls I knew. I’m a twin myself, so I found that play very easy to write.”

That personal connection extends to Bray’s scholarly work as well. “The collection of essays I edited speaks to my desire to share a scholarly discussion about the various sites of performance that emerged after 9/11. I was there on that day, and I find it’s hard to discuss without talking about the art that emerged afterward.”

His scholarship has also created opportunities to connect with some notable figures in the arts. Following his contribution to ReFocus: The Films of John Waters, Bray participated in a Zoom conversation with filmmaker John Waters as part of promotion for the book’s second, paperback edition.

That same interest in the possibilities of dramatic writing carries into Bray’s creative work, which has been equally active. His play #twinning was published by Next Stage Press and is now available for licensing, while his short play New Level of Intimacy (or The Play About Head Lice) was selected for PlayLabs at the 2026 William Inge Theatre Festival. You Got It Right! was an official selection for the 2026 Lanford Wilson New Play Festival, and Tracks (or The People Who Live Here) was a finalist for the 2026 Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Bray has also continued to explore forms beyond the traditional stage. He was commissioned by Forge Theater Labs to create To Boldly Go, an educational audio drama about Geek Theatre. Recorded live at the South Planetarium in Portland, Maine, the piece became part of Forge Theater Labs’ first season. He was also commissioned by Temple College in Texas to write a one-act adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, scheduled for production in October.

From peer-reviewed scholarship to new plays, from editing a journal collection to creating an audio drama, Bray’s 2026 work reflects the breadth of contemporary dramatic writing and performance research. And with new work already headed toward production, his busy year is not over yet.