Announcing Our 2026-27 Season!
AUGUST WILSON’S
ma rainey’s black bottom
Directed by Timothy Douglas
OCTOBER 2–24, 2026
The soho rep Production of
Watch me walk
Written and performed by Anne Gridley
Directed by Eric Ting
NOVEMBER 14–DECEMBER 5, 2026
world premiere
electra america
By Kate Attwell
Directed by Sivan Battat
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
JANUARY 14–FEBRUARY 6, 2027
the seagull
By Anton Chekhov
Newly adapted and directed by Yura Kordonsky
MARCH 5–27, 2027
world premiere
quisqueya on the hudson
By Guadalís Del Carmen
Directed by Knud Adams
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
APRIL 23–MAY 15, 2027
AUGUST WILSON’S
Ma rainey’s black bottom
Directed by Timothy Douglas
University Theatre (222 York Street)
October 2–24, 2026
Chicago, 1927. Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of a blistering recording session as the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey, and her ambitious trumpeter, Levee, engage in a fiery battle of wills over control of her music exposing the emotional and economic exploitation faced by Black artists in America. An exploration of dreams deferred, cultural identity, and the power of the blues, August Wilson’s electrifying masterpiece, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, returns in a brand-new production more than 40 years after it first raised the roof of the American theater in its world premiere at Yale Rep.
August Wilson (Playwright) One of American theater’s foremost dramatists, August Wilson (1945–2005) authored the American Century Cycle, ten plays chronicling Black American life across each decade of the twentieth century. Centering Black American heritage and experience, August wrote by channeling what he described as “the blood’s memory,” the “deepest part of yourself where the ancestors are talking.” The entire cycle has been produced on Broadway and across national and international stages. Wilson’s works have garnered numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), a Tony Award for Best Play for Fences, Great Britain’s Olivier Award for Jitney, and eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Wilson is survived immediately by his daughters, Sakina Ansari and Azula Carmen Wilson, and his wife, costume designer and Executive Director of August’s artistic estate, Constanza Romero. The realization of August’s theatrical breadth and legacy would not exist without the extraordinary talent and boundless dedication of the artists who bring it to life. In their hands, Wilson’s body of work is a dynamic force, an ever-spinning cycle finding new dimensions of meaning for our world today. In the playwright’s words, “I believe in the American Theater, I believe in its power to inform about the human condition, its power to heal…its power to uncover the truths we wrestle from uncertain and sometimes unyielding realities.”
Timothy Douglas (Director) has staged over 150 productions of plays, musicals, and opera to his credit, including the Helen Hayes Award winner for Best Musical The Color Purple (Signature Theatre). Recent productions include the world premiere of She Who Dared (Chicago Opera Theater), as well as new productions of Champion (Boston Lyric Opera) and Blue (New Orleans Opera). Representative projects include the world premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf (Yale Repertory Theatre), the world premiere of Jason Reynolds’ Long Way Down (Kennedy Center), Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III (Folger Shakespeare Theatre), Frankenstein (Classic Stage Company), Nina Simone: Four Women (Arena Stage), In The Blood (Guthrie Theater), An Octoroon (NIDA/Sydney), Rosmersholm (Nationaltheatret/Oslo), Disgraced (Great Theatre of China), Mules (Downstage/New Zealand), and Primary Trust, Mothers and Sons, The Trip to Bountiful for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park where he is an associate artist and also serves on the board of trustees. As a Linklater-designated voice instructor he has served on the faculties of University of Southern California, Emerson College, American Conservatory Theater, UNC School of the Arts, Birmingham School of Acting (UK), and Toi Whakaari (New Zealand Drama School). Upcoming, Timothy will stage the world premiere of the Maria Thompson Corley & Diane Soloman-Glover commissioned John Lewis: Good Trouble for Cincinnati Opera in 2027. With this production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Timothy will have staged each of the ten plays in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
the soho repo production of
watch me walk
Written and Performed by Anne Gridley
Directed by Eric Ting
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
November 14–December 5, 2026
Anne has a disease you’ve probably never heard of and that doesn’t have a cure. Her doctor says it shouldn’t define her, but she’s going to define it for you. Direct from a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run, Watch Me Walk is a hilarious, biting, and compassionate new play about disability, pity, injustice, and family mythologies that will stay with you long after the curtain—or Anne—falls.
Anne Gridley (Playwright and Performer) she/her is a two time Obie award-winning actor, dramaturg, and artist. As a founding member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, she has co-created and performed in critically acclaimed works including the Soho Rep-commissioned No Dice, Life & Times (also presented by Soho Rep and Under the Radar), Poetics: A Ballet Brut, Romeo & Juliet, and Burt Turrido. In addition to her work with Nature Theater, Gridley has performed with Pan Pan, Chameckilerner, Jerôme Bel, Caborca, 7 Daughters of Eve, and Big Dance, served as a Dramaturg for the Wooster Group’s production Who’s Your Dada?, taught devised theater at Bard College, and comedy at Northwestern University. Her drawings have been shown at H.A.U. Berlin, and Mass Live Arts. B.A. Bard College; M.F.A. Columbia University. Love always to Mom, Dad, & John.
Eric Ting (Director) he/they is a two-time Obie Award-winning director and one of three Directors of Soho Rep. Credits include world premieres of Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… (Soho Rep); The Comeuppance (Signature Theater); The Far Country (Atlantic Theater Co); The 1491s’ Between Two Knees (OSF and PAC-NYC); and Parable of the Sower: The Opera (Lincoln Center). Most recently: Galas (Little Island) with Anthony Roth Costanzo. Also: Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, McCarter, Williamstown, Alliance, Cincinnati Playhouse, Goodman, CTG, ACT, Berkeley Rep. International: Singapore, France, UAE, Holland, Canada, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bali.
world premiere
electra america
By Kate Attwell
Directed by Sivan Battat
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
January 14–February 6, 2027
Agamemnon is dead, and the House of Atreus is now home to three generations of women. As Clytemnestra prepares for a vow ceremony with her new Evangelical husband Aegisthus, she has her hands full with her aging mother, two grown daughters, and an infant. Electra, still grieving the loss of her father, is suspicious of her mother’s motives and will stop at nothing to halt the proceedings. Electra America is a darkly comic, propulsive, and haunting new play that reimagines the ancient Greek tragedy as an edge-of-your-seat thriller for the 21st Century.
Development and production support for Electra America provided by Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre.
Kate Attwell (Playwright) is a writer who works in London and New York. Commissions include Playwrights Horizons (Wold Meteor, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting), MTC / Sloan, A.C.T., EST, WRAPT Films/OpenSky, and Yale Rep. She is part of the Royal Ballet & Opera’s Jette Parker Artists program, Making the Future of Opera. Recent productions include The Assemblywomen at CSULB/Cal Rep and Cornerstone Theater Company, Testmatch at The Orange Tree, Octagon Bolton, and A.C.T. (“Riveting” –The Guardian), Big Data at A.C.T., (“a masterclass in live theater” –Forbes), Jesus in Manhattan at EST (“Ambitious and memorable” –The New York Times), and Demonstrating the Imaginary Body at The Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival and REDCAT. Big Data will make its European premiere at the Valmieras Teatris in Latvia. Kate is an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award Winner and an L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award Finalist. She has been a member of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup, Page 73’s writers’ group, a Mabou Mines Resident Artist and The Public Theater’s Devised Theater Working Group. Her plays are published by Nick Hern.
Sivan Battat (Director) she/they is originally from Woodbridge, Connecticut, in Greater New Haven and is a proud alum of New Haven’s ACES Educational Center for the Arts on Audubon Street. Now based in New York City, Sivan is a theater director and cultural organizer and is thrilled to be returning to Yale Rep. Recent credits include Wish You Were Here (Yale Repertory Theatre), Empty Ride (The Old Globe), In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons), Problems Between Sisters (Studio Theatre), Layalina (Goodman Theatre), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Studio Theatre), Backstroke Boys (Fault Line Theatre), Angels in America (NYU Grad Acting), Trouble in Mind (AD, Broadway), Coexistence My Ass (Edinburgh Fringe). Sivan has developed work with companies including Roundabout, the Park Avenue Armory, NYTW, Atlantic, Ars Nova, Berkeley Rep, New Georges, New York Stage & Film, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Long Wharf, MCC, p.73 and more. Fellowships include Roundabout Directing Fellow, Drama League Directing Fellow, TCG Rising Leaders of Color & The Workshop, centering the work of JOCISM (Jews of Color, Jewish-Indigenous, Sephardi & Mizrahi) artists and culture-makers. sivanbattat.com
The seagull
By Anton Chekhov
Newly adapted and directed by Yura Kordonsky
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
March 5–27, 2027
A group of artists gathers at a lakeside community for a summer holiday. Among them, a famous actress; her lover, a celebrated novelist; and her playwright son, desperate to win her approval and the heart of a young woman who has her own sights set on the stage. Yura Kordonsky’s new adaptation of The Seagull––Anton Chekhov’s bittersweet tale of unrequited love and thwarted ambitions––explores the exquisite agony of finding your own voice, the generational tensions between tradition and innovation, and the hopelessly tangled ties that bind.
Yura Kordonsky (Adaptor and Director) Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Yura received his M.F.A. degrees in acting and directing from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts, Russia, under the direction of Lev Dodin. He has taught, performed, and directed internationally since 1989. Directing credits include his adaptation of Gogol’s The Inspector (Yale Rep), his original play Disappearance and House of Bernarda Alba (Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia); Uncle Vanya, The Marriage, Crime and Punishment, Marble, Bury Me Under the Baseboard, and Zinc Boys (Bulandra Theatre, Bucharest, Romania); The Lower Depths, The Cherry Orchard (Hungarian Theatre, Cluj, Romania); The Encounter (UNESCO ITI congress, Manila, Philippines); Fatherlessness (Orkeny Szinhaz, Budapest); Last Day of Youth (National Theatre “Radu Stanca,” Sibiu, Romania); The Seagull, Erendira (German National Theatre, Timisoara, Romania); The Heart of a Dog, Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre, Bucharest); Peer Gynt, Oedipus Rex, The Bald Soprano (Wesleyan University); A Diary of a Madman (West End Theatre, Gloucester, Massachusetts); and Canterbury Tales (Riverside Theater, New York), among others. International awards include Golden Light, Governor’s Award, and Bravo Award for Best Production (Russia), Union of European Theatres’ Award for Best Production (Italy), multiple UNITER Awards for Best Production and Best Director (Romania), and the Special Prize of the Romanian Ministry of Culture. In the U.S., he has taught at Wesleyan University, where he served as Professor and Chair of Theater Department, Columbia University, UC San Diego, George Washington University, Colgate University, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. He currently serves as Associate Chair of Directing and Professor in the Practice of Directing at David Geffen School of Drama.
world premiere
QUISQueya on the hudSon
By Guadalís Del Carmen
Directed by Knud Adams
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
APRIL 23–MAY 15, 2027
1961. The De La Cruz family’s apartment building in San Juan Hill, once the vibrant epicenter of Black and Caribbean culture in Manhattan, is set for demolition to pave the way for a brand-new performing arts complex. As Quisqueya and her WWII veteran husband Roberto struggle to find an affordable new home uptown and set up their teenage son for a successful future, a cousin fleeing political persecution in the Dominican Republic arrives on their doorstep. Pulsing with history, heartbreak, and humor, Quisqueya on the Hudson is a deeply moving portrait of a family at a crossroads.
Development and production support for Quisqueya on the Hudson provided by Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre.
Guadalís Del Carmen (Playwright) is a Black Dominican multi-hyphenate artist. Her plays include Bees & Honey (World PremiereP MCC Theater/The Sol Project 2023, TRW Plays), Not For Sale (UrbanTheater Company), My Father’s Keeper, A Shero’s Journey or What Anacaona and Yemayá Taught Me (Theater Magazine 2019, The Parsnip Ship Podcast Season 4), Blowout (Aguijón Theater 2013). She’s writer for the first season of HBO’s Welcome to Derry, and has worked on development projects for FX Networks, Plan B Entertainment, and Amazon Studios. Guadalís is an Ars Nova PlayGroup Alum, a founding member of the Obie Award-winning Dominican Artist Collective, and a Hermitage Residency Artist. She’s also the Co-Founder of the Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC), an organization dedicated to developing, nurturing, and producing Latinx(e) and Caribbean playwrights. Guadalís received the Steinberg Playwriting Award in 2020, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award in 2023, the 2023 HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting, and the 2024 PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award. Guadalís has performed in theaters across the country including Aguijón Theatre, UrbanTheater Company, Actors Theater Louisville, The Rep at St. Louis, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. She also really loves miniature houses and makes a mean arroz con gandules y coco.
Knud Adams (Director) is a Tony-nominated, Obie-winning director of new plays, based in NYC. His world premiere productions include the consecutive Pulitzer winners English and Primary Trust. Variety hailed his acclaimed Broadway debut of Sanaz Toossi’s English as “one of the best plays of the decade,” and his shows have been celebrated on “Best of the Year” lists by the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and Washington Post. Additional world premieres include Cold War Choir Practice, The Aves, The Book of Mountains and Seas, I’m Revolting, Bodies They Ritual, The Headlands, Paris, The Workshop, Asshole, and Tom & Eliza.
Biographies are submitted by the artists and edited for common house style by Yale Rep.