IN Series has announced its 2026/27 season: Sic Semper Tyrannis. The season features four operatic reimaginings, spanning 1,000 years of history, that lift up art’s power to unmask tyrants and their tyranny.
Sic Semper Tyrannis will feature a bold and brave season that dares to stand up and speak out during tumultuous political times. Additionally, this year of performances serves as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and a reminder of the work that is still yet to be done. It also marks the beginning of a build toward IN Series’ 45th anniversary year, to be celebrated in 2027, and the opening of the company’s new permanent DC home at the Arts Hub in Southwest DC. Performances in Baltimore will continue throughout the season.
“With Sic Semper Tyrannis, we’re using our defiantly intimate scale to do what IN Series does best: bring audiences into immediate encounter with music and poetry that unmasks power, confronts oppression and reminds us that art is not an escape from public life but one of the clearest, and bravest ways we can speak to this moment and imagine a better future,” shares IN Series Artistic Director, Timothy Nelson.
“As I begin my first full season as IN Series’ Executive Director,” said IN Series Executive Director David Mack, “I am proud that our 2026–27 season affirms an important principle at the heart of great art: the freedom of artists to express themselves creatively, unapologetically and without censorship or retaliation, is essential – not incidental – to meaningful artmaking. IN Series continues to center our artists’ creative expression in that spirit. I look forward to the thought-provoking conversations that this singular season sparks across our community.”
IN Series 2026/27 Season Lineup
THE MAKADO
October 10-25, 2026
Based on The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan
New English texts by Bari Biern
340 Maple Drive SW, Washington, DC
Baltimore Theater Project – 45 W Preston St, Baltimore, MD
Written as a witty, political and social indictment of the Victorian British establishment, this tuneful satire has been absent from many stages over the last few decades due to claims of political correctness. As IN Series lampoons all forms of tyranny, from would be kings to cancel culture itself, THE MAKADO: Make America Kingly Again! An Operatico-Politico-Buffo-Satirico reimagines the iconic musical spoof as set in a great golden gilded oval office, with a cast of all too familiar characters that take no prisoners as they delight audiences and poke fun at fools from all sides. With added strains of John Phillip Sousa, new rhymes from THE CAPITOL STEPS veteran writer Bari Biern, and over-the-top costumes, sets, and comedy. THE MAKADO uses laughter and music to say what no one is saying but we’ve all been thinking…
Featured vocalists include Hayley Abramowitz, Andrew Adelsberger, Melanie Ashkar, Allan Palacios Chan, Teresa Ferrara, Robin McGinness, Cecelia McKinley, Noah Mond, and Hunter Shaner
Stage Direction: Corinne Hayes & Timothy Nelson
Musical Direction: Dana Scott
Set Design: Josh Sticklin
Lighting Design: Paul Callahan
Costume Design: William Linares
(N)O King(S)
January 23-February 7, 2027
King Harald’s Saga by Judith Weir
8 Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies
O King by Luciano Berio
Into the Little Hill by George Benjamin & Martin Krimp
340 Maple Drive SW, Washington, DC
Baltimore Theater Project – 45 W Preston St, Baltimore, MD
(N)O King(S) is a Requiem for the American Dream, a powerful and unforgettable melding of three of the most bold and audacious works of vocal theater from the 20th Century with the first great operatic masterpiece written in the 21st Century. From the explosive imagination of Artistic Director Timothy Nelson, these works will combine into a shattering evening that examines the darknesses of the Great American Century with mesmerizing and haunting beauty. Also, as part of this powerful and unique event, IN Series will collaborate with world-renowned photographer and visual artist Connie Imboden.
Featured vocalists include: Maribeth Diggle, Cecelia McKinley, Melissa Wimbish, and Jonathan Woody
Stage Direction: Timothy Nelson
Musical Direction and Conductor: Darren Lin
Image Design: Connie Imboden
Theodora
April 10-25, 2027
Music by G.F. Handel
Words by T. Morell INnovātiō Baroque Orchestra with District Chorale
340 Maple Drive SW, Washington, DC
Baltimore Theater Project – 45 W Preston St, Baltimore, MD
Throughout Theodora, Handel weaves the threads of the enlightenment that would just a generation later give birth to the spirit of America: freedom of religion, assembly, speech, from persecution and the free exercise of joy and presence. IN Series mounts its largest production ever with full baroque orchestra and choir as a testament to courage of holding fast to an ideal, at all costs. From its audacious beginning through the most powerful music Handel ever wrote, this rarely staged masterwork promises to move and even transfigure audiences in an experience like none other this season.
Featured vocalists include Robin McGinness, Elizabeth Mondragon, Daniel Moody, Oznur Tuluoguo, and Gene Steger
Stage and Musical Direction: Timothy Nelson
Chorusmaster: Geoffrey Silver
Set Design: Josh Sticklin
THE TRIUMPH OF F.A.U.V.E.L. – An Ass!
June 5-26, 2027
Based on the Roman de Fauvel
New English Version and Text by Andrew Albin
Co-production with ALKEMIE
Dupont Underground – 19 Dupont Cir NW, Washington, D.C.
2640 Space – 2640 St Paul St, Baltimore, MD
Nearly 1000 years ago an enigmatic work of poetry and music came into being that would ignite the imagination of centuries of writers and composers. The Roman de Fauvel is a vibrant political and social satire that sears the mind and soul as much today as it did in the time it was written. Hear the fantastical and farcical story of a jackass Fauvel, a donkey who takes his name from six of the deadly sins, who becomes king of the world in a dystopian wilderness or wonder and whimsy. In this new immersive version of the text, audiences will journey through a world of acrobats, puppets, song and dance, laughter and horror, moving through the performance and with action surrounding them throughout. Acclaimed scholar and poet Andrew Albin joins forces with one of America’s most audacious early music ensembles, ALKEMIE, for this site-specific Summer arts happening.
Featuring vocalists include Marvin Wayne Allen, Joshua Lucas, Luz Nicolas, Dawna Rae Warren, Mara Yaffee, and more.
Stage Direction: Timothy Nelson
Set/Costume/Puppet Design: Ksenya Litvak
Tickets for IN Series’ 2026/27 season, Sic Semper Tyrannis, go on sale May 1. For tickets and information, visit IN Series’ website.
ABOUT IN SERIES
IN Series is the standard-bearer for innovative opera theater in Washington DC. We make theater from music: transforming artists, audiences, and community by disrupting expectations, nourishing empathy, stimulating insight, and deepening the conversation. IN Series envisions a thriving global community in which opera is a fully integrated and essential part of collective conversation. In picturing the journey to this end, IN Series is a change-maker – a force that, with each groundbreaking production and outreach event, radically transforms perceptions of the “who”, “what”, “where”, and “why” of opera: who gets to make opera and for whom is it made; what is defined as an operatic experience; where operas take place; why we make opera; and why opera matters.
Founded by Carla Hübner in 1982 as a concert series of the former Mount Vernon College, “The In Series” became an independent non-profit arts organization in 2000 and has been a resident company at Source Theater since 2008. Timothy Nelson assumed the artistic directorship in 2018, quickly establishing the newly rebranded “IN Series” as DC’s home for “Thought, debate, history, and innovation” in opera.
