the week of january 24-30, 2025

figure skaters, astronauts, elite fencers

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Graphic Design: Elizabeth Morton | Editorial Support: Ryan Adelsheim

world premieres

• Larissa FastHorse’s Fake It Until You Make It starts performances January 29th at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles in association with DC’s Arena Stage. Michael John Garcés directs the “uproarious new comedy about a collision of friends and foes within the non-profit sector that sets the stage for a whirlwind of competition, chaos, and comedic revelation.”

• L M Feldman’s S P A C E runs January 30 - February 23 at Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. The “interrogation of the story of the Mercury 13 female pilots and their ancestors — Bessie Coleman, Hazel Ying Lee — and descendants — Mae Jemison, Sally Ride — over the course of a national Civil Rights Space Race that has spanned our past century” is directed by co-creator Larissa Lury.

• Arielle Julia Brown’s Fallawayinto: Corridors of Rememory is now playing through February 1st at FringeArts in Philadelphia. Nia Benjamin directs the “multi-media play that constructs a living sanctuary uniting audiences in collective celebration, mourning, and remembrance.”

productions

• Moisés Kaufman & Amanda Gronich’s Here There Are Blueberries runs January 24 -February 9 at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ in a co-pro with La Jolla Playhouse. Kaufman also directs the Pulitzer finalist based on real events surrounding “a mysterious album featuring Nazi-era photographs that arrives at the desk of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist.”

• Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero starts performances January 24th at Shattered Globe in Chicago. The darkly comic drama about a graveyard shift apartment security guard and a pair of cops “confronting complex moral dilemmas” is directed by Nate Santana.

• Lucky Plush Productions’ presentation of Erin Kilmurray + Kara Brody’s Knockout runs January 24 - February 2 as part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut series in Chicago. The two-women duet is a “self-possessed, ever-morphing cinematic dance work contending with the nature of the liminal: a provocative study of the space between desire, intimacy, strength, and survival.”

• Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate starts performances January 25 at The Old Globe in San Diego. Steve H. Broadnax III directs the “searing and bitingly funny portrait of family, history, and legacy.”

• Will Arbery’s Evanston Salt Costs Climbing runs January 25 - February 17 at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. The “deep, warm and hysterically funny play about climate and change” is directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos.

• Dakin Matthews’ adaptation of Henry IV starts performances January 26th at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY. The “gripping epic exploring timeless questions about legitimate authority and how the private lives of rulers conflict with their public lives” is directed by Eric Tucker.

• Max Wolf Friedlich’s Job runs January 28 – March 16 at Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. Matthew Gardiner directs the “psychological thriller that skewers the insidiousness of the internet, the meaning of work and the menace behind the social media smile.”

• Michael Frayn’s Noises Off starts performances January 29th at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in a co-pro with Steppenwolf. The “side-splitting British farce about a theater company desperately trying to get their act together” is directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

• Rajiv Joseph’s King James runs January 30 - March 2 at TheatreWorks Hartford. Rob Ruggiero directs the “wonderfully funny and remarkably moving new play exploring the place that sports occupy in our lives” produced in partnership with Round House Theatre and Barrington Stage.

• Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky starts performances January 30th at Seattle Rep in partnership with The Hansberry Project. The 1930s Harlem-set drama detailing the “joy, sorrow, and resilience of a society on the brink of change” is directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton.

• Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love runs January 30 - March 16 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Jeremy Herrin directs the “twisted, tequila-soaked love letter from one of the greatest American playwrights, indulging the need to get inside someone just to tear them apart.”

• Gracie Gardner’s Athena is now playing through February 9th at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Nancy Bell directs the kinetic comedy about two elite teenager fencers “practicing together, competing against each other, and spending their lives together. They wish they were friends.”

• Forrest Malloy’s Nina is now playing through February 9th at Theatrelab in NYC. Set at a prestigious conservatory, the “fast-paced, behind-the-scenes look at the always high-stakes, often ridiculous environment of actor training” is directed by Katie Birenboim.

workshops & readings

• Gloria Majule’s My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head will have a reading on January 28th as part of The Relentless Award Reading Series at Theatre Row in NYC. The “coming-of-age story traversing continents and cultures, legacies and languages” is directed by Bianca LaVerne Jones and dramaturged by Ngozi Anyanwu.

• Drew Woodson’s Smoke will have a free reading on January 24th at Kansas City Rep. Set during the 2018 California wildfires, the new play is a “searing exploration of family, identity, and resilience in the face of inevitable change.”

• Megan Tabaque’s The Rink at the End of the World will have a developmental reading on January 28th at Road Theatre in North Hollywood, CA. Courtney Ulrich directs the “comic experiment in synchronization, surreality, and apocalypse” about a “motley crew of mall-rink figure skaters competing in the World Synchronized Figure Skating Championships after an entire country club of athletes get taken out by a rogue bout of COVID.”

festivals

• The 2025 Reading Room Festival runs January 30 - February 2 at The Folger Theatre in DC. The annual event features “new work and conversations inspired by or in response to the plays of William Shakespeare.” This year’s line-up includes staged readings of Barry Edelstein’s Henry VI; Julissa Contreras’ adaptation of Ana Caro Mallén de Soto’s Valor, Gravio y Mujer (The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs) (directed by Tatyana Marie Carlo); Whitney White’s By The Queen (directed by Nicole Brewer); and Reynaldo Piniella and Emily Lyon’s Hamlet (directed by Laurie Woolery; Spanish translation by Christin Eve Cato).

• Ross Golan and Danielle Koenig’s Inside Voices will have a reading on January 27th as part of Second Stage’s Next Stage Festival. Michael Mayer directs “the new alt-rock musical based on true events about the strength of survival, the power of love, the cost of fame, and the legacy we leave behind.”

• The Exponential Festival is now running through February 2nd at various locations around New York City. The annual showcase for emerging experimental performance artists continues this week:

  • Allyson Dwyer’s u are the dream at The Brick (January 24-26, January 30-February) is “a two-hander internet triptych - a love story between the internet and homo sapiens <3".”

  • Yibin Wang and Yejia Sun’s Tongues at JACK (January 24 & 25) is “a gathering, an event, and a performance where we’ll re-enact the most mundane daily moments, belt out our go-to karaoke songs, and, of course, explore the art of swearing in our native Asian languages.”

  • Hayley Stahl’s Music at Target Margin Theater (January 25-26, 29-30, February 1 & 2)

  • Spencer Thomas Campbell + Title:Point’s Emphasis Mine​ at We Are Here Brooklyn Studios (January 26) is directed by Theresa Buchheister.

  • Leonie Bell + LOCAL GRANDMA’s We Live to Die: The Grieving Widows Club at Brick Aux / YouTube (January 27) is “a three-part miniseries about community theater-doing maids + grieving widows + murder.”

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2025-26 season announcements

• Warehouse Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Greenville, SC theatre’s upcoming line-up includes Gutenberg! The Musical!, Bekah Brunstetter’s The Game, Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, and the world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz’s Football Football Football Football.

• Cygnet Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The San Diego theatre’s line-up includes James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s Follies (directed by Sean Murray), Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (directed by Anthony Methvin), Brian Quijada’s Somewhere Over the Border (directed and choreographed by Carlos Mendoza), Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy (directed by Sean Murray), and The Spongebob Musical (directed by Katie Banville).

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that’s not a living wage

Here are this week’s featured underpaid job listings, paired with the living wage for a 40-hour work week for one adult with no children in that area and the most recently available 990 data. (You can read more about the methodology here.)

• Assistant Ticket Services Manager at Ford’s Theatre: $44,000 - $46,000 (Full-Time)

  • Living Wage for Washington, DC: $60,090

  • Revenue (2023): $14.2 million / Net Income: -$2.01 million

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Director: $678,921 ($627,855 base / $51,066 other compensation)

• Multimedia Content Creator at American Shakespeare Center: $36,000

  • Living Wage for Staunton, VA: $41,530

  • Revenue (2023): $3.09 million / Net Income: -$136,382

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Artistic Director: $85,666 ($76,826 base / $8,840 other compensation)

• Email Associate at Roundabout Theatre Company: $50,000 - $55,000 (Full-Time)

  • Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852

  • Revenue (2023): $69.9 million / Net Income: -$1.89 million

  • Executive Compensation:

    • Artistic Director (through 4/23): $1,156,161 ($1,064,254 base / $91,907 other compensation)

    • Interim Artistic Director: $200,000

    • Executive Director (through 4/22): $436,585 ($397,077 base / $39,508 other compensation)

    • Executive Producer: $601,469 ($347,484 base / $253,985 other compensation)

• Artistic Programs Assistant at The Juilliard School: $52,000 (Full-Time)

  • Living Wage for New York, NY: $69,852