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.

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.

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.