Rorschach Theatre is pleased to announce its 2026/27 season. For 27 years, the award-winning, nationally recognized company has been known for its bold use of theatrical space and its dedication to “impossible” theater. This season, audiences will be immersed in all-new adventures that respond to the city’s layers of history, geography, and human complexity.
Known for their dynamic activations across the city, Rorschach is thrilled to continue their residency at The Stacks in Buzzard Point. This unique neighborhood is set at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, just south of Audi Field.
Rorschach’s first production of the season, SPARKED, will activate several distinctive high-ceilinged retail spaces in this vibrant new neighborhood, developed by Akridge and National Real Estate Development.
The season will include SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Point, an electrifying new immersive story inspired by true events of 1933; ADULT SWIM by Jonathan Spector, a feral fable about teenage lifeguards on the precipice of something unforgettable by the Tony Award-winning playwright of Eureka Day; Rorschach’s 7th Psychogeographies Project, UNABRIDGED CITY, featuring five self-guided adventures across Washington, DC that invite audiences to bridge worlds; plus Rorschach’s iconic annual artist development projects KLECKSOGRAPHY & KLEX ED.
2026/27 SEASON LINEUP
SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Point
Created by Rorschach Theatre
October 22 – November 14, 2026
Two lovers disappear amidst a once-in-a-lifetime storm. A neighborhood unravels as residents try to explain the unexplainable. Step inside an electrifying new immersive story inspired by true events of 1933.
Rorschach’s most inventive minds have come together to invite audiences deep inside The Stacks at Buzzard Point to explore a haunting new story in previously unseen spaces.
ADULT SWIM
By Jonathan Spector
Directed by Randy Baker
April 21 – May 16, 2027
A feral fable of teenage lifeguards untangling the mysteries of life amid bratty kids, killer ping pong, and endless whistle-twirling — until an impossible stranger appears at the moonlit pool and changes everything.
Jonathan Spector is a Tony Award-winning playwright based in Oakland, California, whose work has been produced on and off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. His plays include Eureka Day (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award & Dorian Award) and This Much I Know (Edgerton Award, Glickman Award, BATCC Award).
UNABRIDGED CITY
A Psychogeographies Project
March – July 2027
Curated and Produced by Randy Baker, Kylos Brannon, Jenny McConnell Frederick, and Jonelle Walker
Five self-guided adventures across Washington, DC invite audiences to explore the architecture behind what connects us and what divides us.
Psychogeographies projects harness the power of both the built and natural world to create a visceral piece of immersive storytelling. Each month participants receive a map and instructions to travel to a new curated location in the DC area. Along with the map, they’ll receive a box of artifacts to engage all five senses while exploring each site with story elements such as letters, music, souvenirs, or photos. From March through July, each monthly box reveals a new location and a new chapter in the ongoing story.
KLECKSOGRAPHY 2027
May 2027
More than 30 DC-based theater artists come together to create six fresh new 10-minute plays in just 10 days. All six plays are inspired by a single piece of visual art (public art on the grounds of The Stacks at Buzzard Point).
This annual project commissions artists to create plays over 10 days and focuses on providing creative challenges, visibility, and networking opportunities to emerging artists. The name “Klecksography” comes from a game played by Hermann Rorschach as a child that involved making shapes out of ink on a blank page. Inspired by this game he would go on to develop his famous psychological test, the Rorschach Inkblot Test.
Also: The second edition of KLEX ED, combiningthe iconic Klecksography model with master classes and networking opportunities for early career artists, coming November 2026.
ABOUT RORSCHACH THEATRE
Jenny McConnell Frederick and Randy Baker, Founding Artistic Directors
Through uncommon uses of environment and intimate passionate performances, Rorschach Theatre seeks to lure its audiences beyond the limits of ordinary theatrical experience so that they may discover new elements of their own humanity.
Rorschach believes DC needs more than just great theater — it needs theater that responds to the city’s layers of history, geography, and human complexity. In a city often perceived as transitory or defined by its political identity, Rorschach creates immersive, location-based work that helps audiences and artists forge deeper emotional and cultural connections to the city in which they live.
The company’s work centers on the intersection of magic or impossible moments and everyday human experiences. Without proselytizing, it provides a complex, intellectual catalyst for self-exploration of challenging subjects. The company intentionally produces in unconventional spaces, activating vacant retail or community locations and contributing to neighborhood foot traffic and economic impact.
Rorschach is also a vital launching pad for emerging artists. By trusting early-career actors, directors, playwrights, and designers with substantive artistic responsibilities, and surrounding them with established professionals and resources, the company has become an essential showcase for new talent. In addition to its regular season, Rorschach produces “Magic in Rough Spaces,” an annual new play development series; “Klecksography,” an annual new artist development event (for actors, local playwrights, and directors); and KLEX ED, a week-long educational intensive for student playwrights, directors, and actors.
Rorschach’s newest program – “Psychogeographies” – tells season-long immersive narratives that take participants to lesser-known spots around their city as a story unfolds through letters, artifacts, and objects mailed in monthly chapters.
SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES
Subscriptions can be purchased at https://rorschachtheatre.com/subscriptions
Package 1: SEE IT ALL ($289)
- 2 Live, In-Person Productions (SPARKED: THE VANISHING AT BUZZARD POINT / ADULT SWIM)
- 1 subscription to UNABRIDGED CITY, the multi-Chapter Psychogeographies Series
- KLECKSOGRAPHY 2027
Package 2: ON STAGE ($99)
- 2 Live, In-Person Productions (SPARKED: THE VANISHING AT BUZZARD POINT / ADULT SWIM)
- KLECKSOGRAPHY 2027
Package 3: PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES ($199)
- 1 subscription to UNABRIDGED CITY, the multi-Chapter Psychogeographies Series
