Theater Alliance is thrilled to announce its 2025/26 season, continuing to produce bold, socially conscious theater in its pop-up venue in Southwest DC. This activated temporary space has become a vital cultural hub – drawing new audiences, deepening community ties, and demonstrating the transformative potential of accessible, neighborhood-based arts. This season will feature a slate of bold, urgent productions that reflect the complexity of our world and the resilience of our communities.
The 25/26 season of daring and deeply human new work speaks directly to the challenges and possibilities of the world we inhabit. Featuring two premiere productions, the return of the Hothouse New Play Block Party, and robust Civic Engagement initiatives, this season continues Theater Alliance’s longstanding commitment to socially conscious theater that centers community, justice, and joy.
The season arrives as Theater Alliance enters its final months in a pop-up space at 340 Maple Drive SW, the temporary home made possible through a partnership with Hoffman & Associates, facilitated by the DC Department of Buildings and Mayor Bowser’s PUP permitting initiative. While moving towards finalizing a permanent venue, Theater Alliance remains grounded in its values and committed to telling stories that reflect the lived realities of Washingtonians from all walks of life.
“This season is about honesty and fire. It’s about what happens when people decide to take action, connect, and embrace hope,” said Executive Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle. “Whether it’s on stage or in our community, we’re thinking about how to build the future we want to live in.”
The season begins with fire work by Mary Glen Fredrick, a Rolling World Premiere with the National New Play Network, co-produced with Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO) and The VORTEX (Austin, TX). Set in a surreal, not-so-distant dystopia, fire work follows Eleanor and Bartholomew, two factory workers who spend their days making glass and their nights setting off fireworks. When sweeping policy changes threaten their fragile world, Eleanor sparks a resistance. What begins as a small act of defiance turns into a full-blown rebellion, fueled by friendship, rage, and the question: “When the system is broken, who will dare to light the fuse?”
With heist thrills and biting humor, fire work is a play about labor, class, and what it means to survive in a world designed to wear people down. Directed by Shanara Gabrielle, this production sets the tone for a season that asks audiences to imagine what revolution, large or small, can look like.
Later in the fall, Theater Alliance will present the DC Regional Premiere of Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Kendada National Playwriting competition. Furlough’s Paradise is a tender, poetic exploration of family, memory, incarceration, and the everyday labor of reconnection. With attention to Black kinship and generational healing, a.k. payne’s play offers a moving portrait of two women learning how to carry each other — and themselves — toward something like freedom.
Directed by Autumn Angelettie, who returns to Theater Alliance after directing Covenant, the inaugural production in the Southwest pop-up space — Furlough’s Paradise tells the story of Sade, who comes home on a three-day furlough from prison, and Mina, the cousin who isn’t sure how to welcome her back. Set in a living room filled with memories, tension, and love, the play unfolds as the two women confront the past and navigate the emotional terrain of what could have been.
In the spring, Theater Alliance brings back its celebrated Hothouse New Play Block Party, an acclaimed incubator for new work by local DC artists, which has become a vital part of the regional new play ecosystem. Now a cornerstone of the region’s new play scene, the Block Party offers more than just performances: each piece is a space for conversation, connection, and community-building.
Tickets for the 2025/26 season are on sale now at shows.theateralliance.org. Join Theater Alliance for a season that celebrates new voices, urgent questions, and the power of live performance to connect and transform.
PERFORMANCE DETAILS
fire work (Dates: August 28 – September 21, 2025)
By Mary Glen Fredrick
Directed by Shanara Gabrielle
Theater Alliance – 340 Maple Dr SW, Washington, DC 20024
A dystopian comedy blazing with humor and revolutionary spirit.
By day, Eleanor and Bartholomew toil in the glass factory. By night, they light up the skies with fireworks. But when sweeping reforms threaten their already-precarious reality, Eleanor becomes the unexpected leader of a ragtag band of revolutionaries determined to send a message to the powers that be.
With heist thrills and disturbingly funny twists, fire work ignites a fierce, anti-capitalist fable for our times. Set in a heightened, slightly absurd world where past and future blur, it explores survival, love, friendship, and the explosive cost of complacency in a system built to burn us out.
Fierce, funny, and haunting, this deeply original play delves into labor, power, and community, illuminating issues of economic disparity and the fight for agency. A Rolling World Premiere with the National New Play Network, fire work crackles with urgency and heart, offering a visceral theatrical experience that sparks reflection on the world we live in today.
fire work is produced at Theater Alliance as part of a National New Play Network Rolling Premiere. Other Partner Theaters are Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO) and The VORTEX (Austin, TX). For more information, please visit nnpn.org
Furlough’s Paradise (Dates: October 30 – November 23, 2025)
By a.k. payne
Directed by Autumn Angelettie
DC Regional Premiere
Theater Alliance – 340 Maple Dr SW, Washington, DC 20024
A lyrical homecoming about what we carry, who carries us, and the freedom we dare to imagine.
On a three-day furlough from prison, Sade returns to a world she barely recognizes — and to Mina, the cousin who isn’t sure how to let her back in. As memories surface and tensions simmer, the two navigate the fractured terrain of family, grief, and love, confronting the choices that shaped their lives and the futures they might have had.
Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Furlough’s Paradise is a tender, lyrical new play about memory, connection, and the pursuit of freedom — personal, political, and ancestral. With heartache, humor, and a deep longing for something like home, a.k. payne offers a powerful portrait of Black kinship and the strength it takes to choose one another again and again. A poetic meditation on survival, reconnection, and the everyday work of imagining a more liberated future.
Hothouse New Play Block Party (Dates: TBA)
A festival of new plays.
The Hothouse series is back! Theater Alliance’s commitment to new plays continues with the Hothouse New Play Development Series – which gives local playwrights a chance to respond to our season with short works, and fosters the growth and development of new plays over longer periods of time. Theater Alliance will publicly showcase a fresh work-in-progress from each of the playwrights in our main stage season alongside emerging playwrights from the DMV. Hothouse is a lasting incubator that builds stronger relationships with playwrights, creates a path for future productions, and encourages audiences to become invested in the breadth and diversity of the playwrights creating new work. Hothouse New Play Block Party – New Paths, New Plays: community, access, and fun!
ABOUT THEATER ALLIANCE
For over two decades, Theater Alliance has been a driving force for innovation, activation, and artistic excellence in Washington, DC’s cultural landscape. Renowned for producing socially conscious and thought-provoking work, the company creates theater that sparks dialogue, fosters community engagement. Theater Alliance keeps justice at the core of its operations, prioritizes joy, amplifies under-told stories, and explores innovative artistic endeavors. Through its robust civic engagement initiatives, the company underscores its belief that the arts are essential to building a thriving, equitable society. Theater Alliance’s impact is reflected in its 111 Helen Hayes Award nominations and 31 wins, and in its proud status as a Core Member of the National New Play Network. With a steadfast commitment to its mission, Theater Alliance continues to create transformative experiences where all artists and audiences feel seen, valued, and inspired.
