Inside Geffen Playhouse's 2025-26 season: Athol Fugard, Pearl Cleage and multiple world premieres

Los Angeles Times

15-04-2025

So far, Tarell Alvin McCraney's inaugural season at the helm of the Geffen Playhouse has spanned a muscular revival of 'The Brothers Size,' a co-production of 'Noises Off' and a starry staging of 'Waiting for Godot.'
Unbeknownst to the public, the playwright's tenure at the city's most prominent Westside theater has also included workshops of nearly every production scheduled for the 2025-26 season. It's an effort intended to cement the Geffen as a lab for artistic development and a platform for creative experimentation and development of new works.
'It was a thought that became a dream that came to fruition,' the theater's artistic director told The Times last week. 'To have more time with the plays, and the writers and directors, beforehand — that may not seem unique, but so much of the development process [in the industry] has gone away, especially in the regions where theaters tend to program a play that's already been done. They do the work in the rehearsal process, but that period of time is so focused on the production itself.
'Especially with world premieres, I was like, 'We gotta slow down, we need time for writers to really get under the hood to the juicy part, where they can explore ideas or try things or figure out how something might work,' ' he continued.
'We're making sure that, for these artists, you're feeling nourished and getting to know us as a producing entity, we're getting to know you, and we're creating, hopefully, lifelong relationships in this way. It's kept us really busy but it feels very much like we're harvesting some great things and then sharing it with our audiences and community, and we plan to keep doing that.'
The Geffen's 2025-26 season, unveiled to the theater's donors and subscribers on Monday night, begins with the world premiere of 'Am I Roxie?' (Sept. 3 to Oct. 5), written and performed by Roxana Ortega. In the one-woman show, directed by Bernardo Cubría in the Gil Cates Theater, Ortega navigates the chaos of her mother's mental decline with honesty, humor and strength of spirit, all while playing everything from a mermaid-obsessed aunt to a prickly Sherpa.
Next is the world premiere of Rudi Goblen's 'Littleboy/Littleman' (Oct. 1 to Nov. 2), a tale of two Nicaraguan brothers — one a steady telemarketer, the other an impulsive poet — who clash over their visions of the American Dream. The production, directed by Nancy Medina in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, blends poetry, live music and ritual in its exploration of brotherhood and belonging.
'No first outing of anything should be its last, you always want it to be the start of something,' said McCraney of the season's world premieres. 'As a writer, I know that a first production can be hampered down if it's overproduced or if it's pushed in a way that it doesn't have more space to grow. These pieces [in the season] have potential for growth, so we're putting them with directors who love new work and setting these plays up for a kind of expansion, because we want other theaters to see these first productions and then want to be part of that growth as well.'
The Gil Cates Theater then welcomes the West Coast premiere of Douglas Lyons' 'Table 17' (Nov. 5 to Dec. 7), the romantic comedy in which a previously engaged couple reunites at a restaurant to, casually but carefully, untangle the past. Zhailon Levingston again directs the production, having also helmed its twice-extended, off-Broadway world-premiere run last year.
The new year kicks off with the world premiere of Beth Hyland's 'Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia' (Feb. 4 to March 8, 2026), about a novelist who, grappling with writer's block and her husband's rising fame, seeks solace in the iconic Boston apartment once inhabited by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Directed by Jo Bonney in the Gil Cates Theater, the tragicomic thriller explores creativity, obsession and the cost of creating art.
The season continues with the Los Angeles premiere of Sara Porkalob's 'Dragon Mama' (March 4 to April 12, 2026), following this season's hit run of her tour-de-force 'Dragon Lady.' Andrew Russell directs this installment of the Dragon Cycle in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater; this time, the solo show with music centers on Porkalob's mother who, forced to raise her four siblings, is presented with an opportunity to chase her own dreams.
'Sara brought a level of intimacy with our audiences with her production of 'Dragon Lady' that we don't want to let go of,' said McCraney, who remains committed to programming Porkalob's entire trilogy for Los Angeles. 'We want our audiences to come in with a familiarity of, 'She's going to talk directly to us, make jokes to us and sing with us.' '
Then, a revival of Athol Fugard's deeply personal drama ' 'Master Harold'…and the Boys' (April 8 to May 10, 2026) takes over the Gil Cates Theater. Set in a South African tea shop during apartheid, the Tony-nominated play centers on the son of the shop's white owner, the two Black waiters who helped raise him and the charged conversations that challenge their fragile, shared bond.
'It's a play that I've loved and has been on my mind, and the moment we looked into the rights, we heard of Athol passing away,' said McCraney of the playwright, who died last month. 'It was a sign that we have to do this very important play, the moment of the play is something we need to remember, and it'll allow us to have deep conversations about the harder questions in our society — who we are in relation to each other, and how this system of oppression made it impossible for people to be loving to each other, because you need freedom to have love.'
The season concludes with the West Coast premiere of Pearl Cleage's 'Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous' (June 10 to July 12, 2026), a sharp-witted and soulful comedy about a seasoned actress who, while launching a comeback, finds herself clashing a new generation of artists and activists. LaTanya Richardson Jackson directs the staging in the Gil Cates Theater, produced in association with Black Rebirth Collective and made possible in part by support from Cast Iron Entertainment.
'The first five to 10 minutes of the play pisses me off, tells me about myself and makes me see through another perspective in a way that I feel so nourished by,' said McCraney. 'She wrote a play that talks to us, artists who have had careers, and how we need to make room for folks who are online native, who look at the world ever so differently but have so many creative instincts that can only help us. We are a city full of artists and full of generational artists, and because it is so fun and succinct and focused on performance, we think it'll be a delicious way to end our season.'