GREAT EXPECTATIONS and More Set for The Acting Company 2025-26 Season

The Acting Company has revealed its 2025-26 Season of programming. The season features Dickens' Great Expectations in a World Premiere Adaptation by Nikki Massoud, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the annual series of one-night-only readings in NYC.

"I am delighted to share The Acting Company's 2025-26 season's repertory tour featuring our commissioned world premiere adaptation of Great Expectations by the ingenious Nikki Massoud helmed by my colleague Devin Brain, paired with Shakespeare's original 'Rom-Com,' A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Risa Brainin," said Artistic Director Kent Gash. "Now more than ever, The Acting Company wants to lift hearts, spirits, and minds - delighting and engaging audiences all over the country. We can think of no better way to achieve this goal than with these two plays that revel in the absurd improbabilities of finding and sustaining love in a world both magical and cruel. These are stories that center hope: kindness in the face of adversity and love in defiance of all obstacles. Both Great Expectations and A Midsummer's Night Dream are The Acting Company at its best!"

The Company's 2025-2026 national tour features two productions performed in repertory:

Great Expectations

Written by Nikki Massoud
From the novel by Charles Dickens
Directed by Devin Brain

The Acting Company reinvigorates Charles Dickens' timeless novel with an effervescent stage adaptation brimming with unexpected hilarity and romantic heart. Great Expectations follows the harrowing journey of working-class orphan Pip as he navigates a challenging upbringing at the hands of his abusive sister, encounters an escaped prisoner, and meets the wealthy and eccentric Miss Havisham and her daughter Estella, a stunning, young heiress of ruthless intelligence. When Pip receives a sizable fortune from a mystery donor and enters the ranks of high-society London, his life is forever changed, learning hard truths about integrity, loyalty, and love. Akin to a bingeable dramedy carved from the beautiful prose that made Dickens popular, Nikki Massoud's take on this uproarious, thrilling, and surprisingly relatable story will keep audiences of all ages on the edge of their seats.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Risa Brainin

A rapturously fresh take on one of William Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays, The Acting Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a captivating coming-of-age story that will surprise and delight. In this fast-paced, crowd-pleasing comedy, a pair of young lovers flee to an enchanted forest where a troupe of amateur actors rehearse a play. With the help of a mystical flower, the fairy king and queen's mischievous servant Puck creates chaos for these unsuspecting humans, leading to mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and comical transformations. Bursting with mirth, music, magic, and mayhem, this uplifting tale of illusion and love comes to life with an electric cast of performers.

The design teams for Great Expectations and A Midsummer Night's Dream include Tanya Orellana (Scenic Design), Valérie Thérèse Bart (Costume Design, Great Expectations), Devon Painter (Costume Design, A Midsummer Night's Dream), Alan C. Edwards (Lighting Design), and Sharath Patel (Sound Design), Lindsay Jones (Original Music), and Christina McCarthy (Choreographer, A Midsummer Night's Dream). Casting is by Claire Yenson, CSA, and will be announced at a later date.

The Acting Company's 2025-26 repertory will open at Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, CA) on December 2, 2025 as the first stop on a national tour that will span 12 states and conclude at Queens Theatre (Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY) from February 25 to March 1, 2026. Tickets and subscriptions are now available for performances across the country and may be purchased at each presenter's respective box office.

2025-26 NATIONAL TOUR

• Dec 2-21 Rubicon Theatre Company; VENTURA, CA
• Jan 13 STATE THEATRE NEW JERSEY; NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ
• Jan 15-16 VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL; NORFOLK, VA
• Jan 20 RADFORD UNIVERSITY; RADFORD, VA
• Jan 23-24 WORTHAM CENTER FOR THE ARTS; ASHEVILLE, NC
• Jan 27-28 HOOVER PUBLIC LIBRARY; HOOVER, AL
• Jan 30-31 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA; ATHENS, GA
• Feb 3 WEIDNER CENTER; GREEN BAY, WI
• Feb 5-7 GREAT LAKES CENTER FOR THE ARTS; BAY HARBOR, MI
• Feb 11-12 PURDUE UNIVERSITY; WEST LAFAYETTE, IN
• Feb 14-17 JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE; OVERLAND PARK, KS
• Feb 19 WAYNE STATE COLLEGE; WAYNE, NE
• Feb 25-Mar 1 Queens Theatre; FLUSHING MEADOWS, CORONA PARK, NY

ABOUT The Acting Company

Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972, The Acting Company has helped launch the careers of nearly 500 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Lorraine Toussaint, Frances Conroy, Harriet Harris, Lisa Banes, Jeffrey Wright, Hamish Linklater, Jesse L. Martin, Roslyn Ruff, Jimonn Cole, and Kelley Curran. The Company has performed for over four million people in 48 States, 10 foreign countries, on and Off-Broadway, and at leading resident theaters including The Guthrie and The Kennedy Center.

New works commissioned by the Company include plays by Lisa Peterson, Kirsten Childs, William Finn, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, Meg Miroshnik, Ntozake Shange, Maria Irene Fornés, Spalding Gray, Marsha Norman, Charles Smith, Samm-Art Williams, and Wendy Wasserstein. Among many accolades, The Acting Company received the 2003 Tony Award for Excellence in the Theater, and won the 2019 Audelco Award for Best Play for its production of Nambi E. Kelley's Native Son directed by Seret Scott.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kent Gash, Producing Director Devin Brain, and Managing Director Erik Schroeder, the Company brings professional productions and education programs to thousands of audience members in diverse communities throughout the United States each year. Annually, over 20,000 audience members see a Company production and nearly 2,000 students in New York City benefit from the Company's award-winning arts-in-education curriculum.