2026 Season
POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE: The June Jordan Experience
WEST COAST PREMIERE
by Raymond O. Caldwell & Adrienne Torf
Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell
Jan 27 - March 29 2026
Mixing words, music, and movement, Poetry for the People celebrates the fierce writer and activist June Jordan through powerful performance and song — from Torf’s original music to selections by John Adams and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Winner of the Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, this production also travels to Berkeley for performances in partnership with UC Berkeley and The Freight.
RETURN
Development Workshop & Community Reading
Written by Beth Kander
Directed by Hannah Wolf
April 17th, 18th & 19th
Miriam, a geneticist, is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough that could alter humanity and transform our understanding of death. As her research and family become intertwined, every relationship in her life, including her relationship with God, is pushed to the breaking point. Superstition, science, and spirituality intertwine as a family wrestles with what "return" matters most.
Embers Borne West
Written by Maddox K. Pennington
Directed by Raymond O. Caldwell
June 19th, 20th & 21st
Embers Borne West is an exploration of belonging, assimilation, and identity for an intergenerational Cherokee-Choctaw family of Okies in 1920s Los Angeles. A century ahead in LA, nonbinary descendent Jay hopes to solve some family mysteries by eavesdropping.
Sizwe Banzi Is Dead
Benefit Reading
Written by Athol Fugard
Directed by Simon Levy
SEPTEMBER 19th
It's 1972 in Port Elizabeth. With only days to secure work — and avoid deportation — Sizwe Banzi uses every resource he has to fight for identity and dignity under apartheid.