Bughouse will premiere at Vineyard Theatre Off-Broadway in the new year.

The world premiere production, conceived and directed by MacArthur Genius fellow Martha Clarke, features a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley, adapted from the writings of Henry Darger. The Vineyard production will star Obie winning performance artist John Kelly as Darger. The production is being is presented in association with Jayne Baron Sherman.

Performances will begin on February 18, 2026, with an opening night set for March 11, 2026, for a six week run.

In the piece, Clarke brings audiences inside the mind of one of the 20th century’s most startling outsider artists, Henry Darger, a reclusive janitor whose extraordinary body of paintings and writings was only fully discovered after his death. In his cramped Chicago apartment, Darger created a vast, fantastical universe, filled with child warriors, epic battles, and haunting beauty, an alternate reality through which he could escape his own. Bughouse offers an intimate examination of a self-taught artist’s compulsion to create, even when no one is watching.

The creative team includes production designer Neil Patel, costume designer Donna Zakowska, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind, sound designer Arthur Solari, projection designer John Narun, set decorator and prop manager Faye Armon-Troncoso, cinematographer Fred Murphy, animator Ruth Lingford, and production stage manager Olivia Fletcher.

For more information, visit VineyardTheatre.org.