Long Wharf Theatre's 2025/26 Season
Our 61st season is a statement of resilience: We’re Still Here.
Tickets go on sale July 7, 2025
Long Wharf Theatre’s 2025/26 season
We're Still Here
Amid national shifts in arts funding and evolving patterns of audience engagement, Long Wharf Theatre remains committed to its producing model of bringing theatre to Greater New Haven and beyond. The company continues to re-envision what defines a regional theatre, marrying the rigor of world-class artistry with community-rooted storytelling.
Building on the momentum of its milestone 60th season, Long Wharf Theatre’s 61st season will deepen its commitment to a theatre model driven by innovation and collaboration. With productions spanning a New York premiere, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play (2023) presented in partnership with TheaterWorks Hartford, and a landmark American classic by August Wilson staged on the New Haven Harbor, the new season will continue to champion the guiding belief: Theatre is for Everyone.
Tickets go on sale July 7, 2025
ENGLISH
- Members and passholders only
- General on sale Jul 7
- Jan 16 - Feb 1 2026, 7:00pm
- Long Wharf Theatre @ SCSU’s Kendall Drama Lab
- Wheelchair accessible, Audio loop available. More accessibility information
AUGUST WILSON'S GEM OF THE OCEAN
- Members and passholders only
- General on sale Jul 7
- Feb 27 - Mar 15 2026, 7:00pm
- Long Wharf Theatre @ Canal Dock Boathouse
- Wheelchair accessible, Audio loop available. More accessibility information
More about the season
Season 61
Now in its third year of site-specific programming, Long Wharf Theatre continues to dismantle traditional barriers by meeting audiences where they are—both physically and experientially.
This season spans New York, Hartford, and the heart of New Haven, exemplifying a model that expands outward while remaining rooted in its home city. The company’s mission defies the limitations of a single stage or space—demonstrating that theatre can happen anywhere, and storytelling belongs to everyone.
Each production and initiative is more than a performance; it’s an invitation to connect, reflect, and reimagine together. This season expands on that vision through collaboration across communities, ensuring the work remains grounded in and guided by the people it serves, while maintaining the rigor and creative excellence of a nationally recognized LORT theatre.
Our model
We’re still here
Long Wharf Theatre’s innovative production model, launched in 2022, continues to reshape what a regional theatre can be. Untethered from a single venue, Long Wharf Theatre now creates performances in libraries, universities, cultural centers, historic landmarks, and even private homes. This approach isn’t just about mobility—it’s about rethinking what space means, who it’s for, and how theatre can act as a vehicle for change.
We’re still here, insisting on art that confronts the world as much as it reimagines it.
We’re still here, making theatre not just for the people, but with them.
We’re still here, showing up for change.
Since embracing this transformative model, Long Wharf Theatre has emerged as a national touchstone in the conversation about the future of the American theatre. In 2023, the company received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation in recognition of its visionary work—affirming the potential of a theatre that is collaborative, adaptive, and rooted in resilience.
“We believe theatre should be as essential to public life as parks, libraries, or schools,” said Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón. “This model lets us reimagine what cultural infrastructure can be—shared, mobile, artist-led, and deeply embedded in the life of our city.”
The 2025/2026 season marks the next chapter in this vision: co-productions that reach beyond state lines, programming that uplifts historically marginalized voices, and performances that blur the boundary between art and civic action.
We’re still here—and ready for what’s next.
Because theatre belongs to everyone.
And it belongs everywhere.
Equity Principal Audition Information
Audition Date: July 1st, 2025
10:00am - 6:00pm (lunch break 12:00-1:00pm)
Location: The Sandbox, 70 Audubon Street, 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06510
Appointments: Sign up using the two forms below. Please fill out BOTH forms to share your information and sign up for an appointment:
1. Form 1
2. Form 2
Call Type: EPA
Contract: LORT Non-Rep: $839 weekly minimum (LORT D)
Equity’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Equity is committed to diversity and encourages all its employers to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Equity encourages performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to attend every audition.
Always bring your Equity Membership card to auditions.
Seeking: Equity actors for roles in Long Wharf Theatre’s 2025-2026 Season (See breakdown).
Preparation: Please prepare one side, which will be available on the morning of the audition. Bring 2 copies of your headshot and resume, stapled together.
English
Written by Sanaz Toossi
Directed by Arya Shahi
Co-production with TheaterWorks Hartford
Performance location: TheaterWorks Hartford & Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU)
Characters:
Marjan: Female, early 40s - early 50s, Iranian; teacher of English as a second language; a welcoming and composed educator who became fluent in English while living in the UK for 9 years; loves speaking English, feels it is a beautiful way to communicate and connect, though since returning to Iran she feels her fluency is eroding and is beginning to question her right and ability to teach it, as well as her sense of self as a result; speaks with a light Iranian accent.
Elham: Female, late 20s - early 30s, Iranian; an intelligent, driven and competitive student; frustrated with herself and her (lack of) progress in the class, as her admittance to medical school is contingent upon her successfully passing; her frustration leads to frequent conflict with others and disruptions in the class; speaks with a very thick Iranian accent.
Roya: Female, 50s - early 70s, Iranian; a dignified, refined, proud student learning English at her English-speaking son's insistence; deeply loves her family and is willing to go through the class to be closer to them, but prefers the beauty and elegance of her mother tongue; speaks with a thick Iranian accent.
Goli: Female, age 18, Iranian; bright, enthusiastic and sweet; a determined and diligent student whose positive outlook and effervescence often annoy her classmates; loves pop culture; her dogged optimism almost always wins the day; speaks with a light, sweet Iranian accent.
Omid: Male, late 20s - early 40s, Iranian; a confident, charismatic and somewhat mysterious student who quickly demonstrates astute skill with and proficiency in the English language; though amiable with his fellow students, he is guarded with his personal life; lives in Iran but was born in the US and wrestles with feeling that he belongs to neither world; speaks with a very light Iranian accent.
TheaterWorks Dates:
- First Rehearsal (TheaterWorks Hartford, Hartford, CT) – September 9, 2025
- First Preview (Hartford, CT) – Friday, October 3, 2025
- Opening (Hartford, CT) – Friday, October 10, 2025
- Closing (Hartford, CT) – Sunday, November 2, 2025
- Possible Extension Closing (Hartford, CT) – Sunday, November 9, 2025
Long Wharf Theatre Dates:
- First Rehearsal (New Haven, CT) – Tuesday, January 6, 2026
- Tech Rehearsal begins (New Haven, CT) – Tuesday, January 13, 2026
- First Preview (New Haven, CT) - Friday, January 16, 2026
- Opening (New Haven, CT) – Thursday, January 22, 2026
- Closing (New Haven, CT) – Sunday, February 1, 2026
- Possible extension closing (New Haven, CT) – Sunday, February 8, 2026
August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean
Written by August Wilson
Directed by TBD
Performance location: Canal Dock Boathouse, New Haven, CT
Characters:
Eli: Aunt Ester’s gatekeeper and longtime friend of Solly.
Citizen Barlow: A young man from Alabama who is in spiritual turmoil. Late twenties/early thirties.
Aunt Ester Tyler: A very old, yet vital spiritual advisor for the community.
Black Mary: Aunt Ester’s protégé and housekeeper. Late twenties.
Rutherford Selig: A traveling peddler who is a frequent visitor of the house.
Solly Two Kings: Suitor to Aunt Ester, former Underground Railroad conductor. Sixty-seven.
Caesar Wilks: Black Mary’s brother and local constable. About fifty-two.
Rehearsal Dates:
- First Rehearsal (CT – location TBD) – Tuesday, January 27, 2026
- Tech Rehearsal begins – Saturday, February 21, 2026
- First Preview – Friday, February 27, 2026
- Opening Night – Thursday, March 5, 2026
- Closing – Sunday, March 15, 2026
- Possible Extension Closing – Sunday, March 22, 2026
Last Call
Written by Barsha and Jo Lampert
Directed by Sivan Battat
Performance location: TBD
Tentative dates (not yet confirmed)
Rehearsal Dates:
- First rehearsal (NYC – location TBD): Tuesday, April 7, 2026
- Tech rehearsal begins (New Haven – location TBD): Tuesday, April 14, 2026
- Opening Night: Friday, April 17, 2026
- Closing: Sunday, April 26, 2026
All roles (Barsha and Jo) are cast.