the week of april 18 - 24, 2025

last bimbos, shadow puppets, destitute but determined heroines

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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim

world premieres

• Caitlin Saylor Stephens’ Five Models in Ruins, 1981 starts performances April 19th at LCT3. The “darkly comedic exploration of a visionary fashion photographer grappling with the power of her own gaze” is directed by Morgan Green.

• Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s Rheology is now running through May 3rd at the Bushwick Starr in a co-pro with Ma-Yi and HERE Arts Center. In collaboration with Bulbul Chakraborty, Chowdhury also directs the “boundary-pushing new collaboration [in which] an artist son challenges his scientist mother to a high-stakes experiment.”

• Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley’s The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse starts performances April 22nd Off-Broadway at The New Group. The “epic musical quest about three Gen Z internet sleuths” investigating an iconic early-2000s paparazzi photo is directed by and was developed with Rory Pelsue.

• Sara Jean Accuardi’s The Storyteller runs April 22 - May 18 at Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR. Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the “[exploration] of the magic and danger of the stories we tell” is directed by Luan Schooler.

• Gabriel Jason Dean’s Rift, Or White Lies is now playing through May 11th at Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth, TX. Lily Wolff directs the new drama following “estranged brothers—one is a progressive writer, the other a convicted murderer and member of an alt-right prison gang—as they face their deep differences and uncover a shared painful past.”

• Sona Tatoyan and Jared Mezzocchi’s AZAD (the rabbit and the wolf) is now playing through May 3rd at Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco. The multimedia experience about Tatoyan “stranded in her family's abandoned Aleppo home during the Syrian war, as she discovers her great-great-grandfather's handmade Karagöz shadow puppets that transport her through an intergenerational, psychedelic journey” is directed by Mezzocchi.

• Mickle Maher’s adaptation of Jason Lutes’ graphic novel Berlin runs April 19 - May 11 at the Court Theatre in Chicago. Charles Newell directs the “unforgettable mosaic of intersecting narratives set amidst the decline of Weimar Germany.”

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productions

• Itamar Moses, David Yazbek, and Erik Della Penna’s Dead Outlaw is now playing on Broadway. David Cromer directs the “wildly inventive new musical about the outlaw-turned-corpse-turned-celebrity Elmer McCurdy.”

• Brendan Pelsue’s adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities starts performances April 18th at Shattered Globe in Chicago. The “bold reimagining of Charles Dickens’s classic tale of revolution” is directed by Mikael Burke.

• Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles runs April 19 - May 11 at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Joanie Schultz directs the “tender exploration of motherhood, family, love, loss and finding your place in the universe.”

• Rajiv Joseph’s King James starts performances April 19th at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre Company in a co-pro with Cleveland Playhouse. The “buddy comedy that tracks the unlikely friendship of two super fans and examines the bonds that sports can create” is directed by Monteze Freeland.

• Zora Howard’s BUST: An Afrocurrentist Play runs April 19 - May 18 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs the “ground-breaking, form-defying, laugh-out-loud new drama that explores where we can go when pushed to the limits of our rage.”

• Pearl Cleage’s The Nacirema Society starts performances April 19th at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The “lighthearted comedy set at an African-American debutante ball in 1964 Montgomery, Alabama” is directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton.

• Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size runs April 20 - May 18 at Portland Center Stage in Oregon. Chip Miller directs and choreographs the “fresh and contemporary bayou-set tale of belonging, brotherhood and the ties that bind, weaving together the mundane and the mystic.”

• Christina Anderson’s modern verse translation of The Comedy of Errors starts performances April 22nd at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. The “madcap whirl through bawdy adventures, mad scientists, romance, heartfelt reunions, and even a few happy endings” is directed by Devin Brain.

• Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility runs April 23 - May 11 at Syracuse Stage. The story of “destitute but determined heroines Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, as they navigate 18th century English society in search of stability after the death of their father” is directed by Jason O’Connell and choreographed by Steph Paul.

• Ngozi Anyanwu’s The Last Of The Love Letters starts performances April 24th at Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco. Nailah Unole dida-Nese’ah Harper-Malveaux directs the “meditation on loneliness following two isolated humans unraveling and examining the thing they love the most.”

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workshops & readings

• Jesse Jae Hoon’s Saved, Part One: The Girl and the Sky and Humaira Iqbal’s Beige in America will have staged readings on April 21 & 22 as part of the The Public Theater Emerging Writers Group’s Spotlight Series. Hoon’s work is “the first play in a two-part drama about the South Korean adoption industry”, while Iqbal’s “modern-day immigration story challenges stereotypes of colorism and classism and explores what it means to be truly free.”

• Ruby Rae Spiegel’s Dry Land will have a one-night-only reading from Colt Coeur and Level Forward on April 21st to benefit New York Abortion Access Fund. Adrienne Campbell-Holt directs the “play about girls, abortion, bath salts, bathing suits, rashes, love, and what happens in one high school locker room after everybody’s left.”

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festivals

• The Without Walls (WOW) Festival runs April 24-27 at La Jolla Playhouse and UC San Diego. The four-day festival, which “takes art outside of traditional theatre walls and into unique spaces”, includes Adrienne Kapstein’s The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings, Dutch theater collective Nineties’ Bring Back The Happening, San Diego-based visual theater company Animal Cracker Conspiracy’s ODDISEA: A Puppet Procession, Rachel Gita Karp’s How to Put On a Sock, Lula Britos and Claire McNerney’s Goldilocks Screentime, and Australian experimental theatre collective Pony Cam’s Burnout Paradise.

• Gloucester Stage Company’s Water's Rising: Festival of New Climate Action Plays runs April 25-27 in Gloucester, MA. The line-up includes three staged readings: Barbara Hammond’s TERRA FIRMA, Patrick Gabridge’s Mox Nox, and Dan Caffrey’s The Tusk Hunters.

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2025-26 season updates

• Arena Stage announced its 2025-26 season. The DC theatre’s line-up includes the musical Damn Yankees (new adaptation by Will Power and Doug Wright, directed by Sergio Trujillo), Rodgers and Hart’s musical Pal Joey (new book by Richard LaGravenese, co-directed by Tony Goldwyn and Savion Glover), Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind (directed by Ryan Guzzo Purcell), Christopher Chen’s The Motion (directed by Hana S. Sharif), the Waterwell production of Lameece Issaq’s A Good Day To Me Not You (directed by Lee Sunday Evans), and three world premieres: The Bengsons’ My Joy Is Heavy (directed by Rachel Chavkin), Reggie D. White’s Fremont Ave. (directed by Lili-Anne Brown, co-pro with South Coast Rep), and CrazySexyCool—The TLC Musical (written and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah).

• Playwrights Horizons announced its fall 2025 season. The Off Broadway theatre will produce Nazareth Hassan’s Practice (directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant), Jen Tullock and Frank Winters’ Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God (performed by Tullock and directed by Jared Mezzocchi), and the Foreign Exchange Festival, a collaboration with London’s Soho Theatre.

• Signature Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Off-Broadway theatre’s upcoming season will spotlight the works of Heather Christian and Lauren Yee: Christian's Oratorio for Living Things (directed by Lee Sunday Evans), Yee's Mother Russia, and Christian’s musical Animal Wisdom (directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant).

• A.C.T in San Francisco announced its 2025-26 season. The line-up includes Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience (directed by Weyni Mengesha), David Adjmi’s Stereophonic (directed by Daniel Aukin), The Streetcar Project’s production of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (created by Lucy Owen and Nick Westrate), Levi Holloway’s Paranormal Activity (directed by Felix Barrett), the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Hamnet (directed by Erica Whyman), and the world premiere of Eisa Davis’s ||: GIRLS :||: CHANCE :||: MUSIC :|| (directed by Pam MacKinnon).

• Geffen Playhouse announced its 2025-26 season. The Los Angeles theatre will produce Douglas Lyons' Table 17 (directed by Zhailon Levingston); Pearl Cleage's Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous (directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson), Sara Porkalob's Dragon Mama (directed by Andrew Russell), Athol Fugard's "Master Harold" ...and the Boys and three world premieres: Roxana Ortega's Am I Roxie? (directed by Bernardo Cubria), Rudi Goblen's littleboy/littleman (directed by Nancy Medina), and Beth Hyland's Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia (directed by Jo Bonney).

• TheatreWorks Silicon Valley announced its 2025-26 season. The Palo Alto theatre’s line-up includes Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (directed by Giovanna Sardelli), Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust (directed by Jeffrey Lo), Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical Come From Away (directed by Robert Kelley), and three world premieres: Lauren Gunderson’s adaptation of Little Women (directed by Giovanna Sardelli), Hershey Felder: The Piano and Me, and Jordan Ramirez Puckett’s A Driving Beat (directed by Jeffrey Lo).

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An interview that Kimberly and I did a few weeks ago with TDF’s Sarah Rebell about our long collaboration on John Proctor is the Villain came out yesterday. I swear I did not bribe anyone at TDF for that headline — dramaturgs do not get into this business for the glory of recognition¹ — but it’s very kind and I’m honored to be one of this play’s many champions. It’s been profoundly moving to see audiences in DC, Boston, and now on Broadway empathize with or recognize themselves in these characters who are fumbling toward a language for their experiences, their anger, and their hope. It’s the play I wish I had when I was sixteen and I’m so grateful that this generation of young women will have Kimberly’s words as a north star.

1. That said, pay us fairly and give us title page billing.