IAMA Theatre Company to Launch 2026-2027 Season With Three World Premieres
The productions start with Bobby Robotowitz by Matt Schatz and directed by Casey Stangl, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.
Click for Tickets
IAMA Theatre Company has unveiled its 2026-2027 season, which includes three world premiere productions and its 9th New Works Festival, introducing new plays into the American theatre canon.
The productions start with Bobby Robotowitz by Matt Schatz and directed by Casey Stangl, a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in association with InHouse Theatre, performed October 15 – November 23, 2026 in two secret venues—a westside venue in October and an eastside venue in November. Exact location of venues are revealed upon ticket purchase.
The season then returns to its Atwater Village Theatre home for the world premiere of the IAMA Commissioned What We Leave Behind (February 5 – March 8, 2027) by IAMA ensemble member, Gloria Calderón Kellett and directed by IAMA Associate Artistic Director, Margaux Susi.
The season concludes with IAMA's first collaboration with Geffen Playhouse: the world premiere of Closing Costs (March 31 – May 2, 2027) by Grace McLeod, directed by IAMA ensemble member, Hannah Wolf. Closing Costs was originally developed as part of IAMA's 2024/2025 Emerging Playwrights Lab. The IAMA Insider Pass is currently on sale ($130, fees included), with single tickets available in the coming months.
The 2026–2027 IAMA Theatre Company season will kick off with its 9th annual New Works Festival, for two weeks September 14–26, 2026 at the Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles, 90039.
IAMA's New Works Festival offers audiences an exciting first look at future hits while giving playwrights the chance to experience public reception of their work for the first time. Since 2018, the Festival has been the starting point for new plays, which often progress to world premiere productions at IAMA, as well as on other stages nationwide.
The season continues with a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in association with InHouse Theatre—Bobby Robotowitz (October 15 – November 23, 2026) by Matt Schatz and directed by award-winning Los Angeles based director Casey Stangl. Bobby Robotowitz unpacks questions around identity and AI and what it means to be a writer in today's digital world.
The IAMA HOLIDAY CABARET takes place in December with venue, dates and performers to be announced. IAMA then returns to its home Atwater Village Theatre for the world premiere of the IAMA Commissioned What We Leave Behind (February 5 – March 8, 2027) by IAMA ensemble member, Gloria Calderón Kellett.
What We Leave Behind is a dark comedy that explores familial legacy and obligation with comedy and care and will be directed by IAMA Associate Artistic Director, Margaux Susi.
This milestone season concludes with IAMA's first collaboration with Geffen Playhouse on the world premiere of Closing Costs (March 31 – May 2, 2027) by Grace McLeod, directed by IAMA ensemble member, Hannah Wolf. Written and developed in IAMA's 2024/2025 Emerging Playwrights Lab, this hilarious new farce will bring together the entire city of Los Angeles, east to west to ask the age old question … What is your happiness worth?
Closing Costs has been selected as one of only five works featured in the prestigious 2026 New Works Festival at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, one of the nation's leading incubators for new American plays. Adding to this momentum, Closing Costs has also received an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, a nationally recognized honor that supports additional rehearsal and development time for world premiere productions. The award has supported hundreds of acclaimed new plays, including numerous Pulitzer Prize winners, Tony Award winners, and Broadway productions.
Closing Costs will be performed at the Gil Cates Theatre at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024
IAMA Season 19 2026–2027 - About the plays
BOBBY ROBOTOWITZ
October 15 – November 23
A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere
by Matt Schatz | Directed by Casey Stangl
Produced in Association with InHouse Theatre
One eastside, one westside secret venues
Dina Katzman is struggling. As a novelist, as a mother, as a wife and as a person. But when she begins talking to an AI Chatbot named Bobby, she discovers an unlikely confidant who always listens, never judges, and somehow seems to understand her better than most people. And he's Jewish too! What could go wrong?
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
February 5 – March 8
World Premiere
by Gloria Calderón Kellett* | Directed by Margaux Susi*
Atwater Village Theatre
On the night of their mother's death, three siblings reunite under one roof and are forced to confront the versions of themselves they thought they'd left behind. As old wounds reopen and childhood dynamics resurface, the night spirals through hilarious memories, brutal honesty, long-buried secrets, and emotional revelations that change them forever. Both deeply funny and heartbreakingly raw, the play explores family, grief, identity, and the impossible tension between who we were and who we are.
CLOSING COSTS
March 31 – May 2
World Premiere
by Grace McLeod | Directed by Hannah Wolf*
in Association with Geffen Playhouse
Gil Cates Theatre, Geffen Playhouse
Originally developed as part of IAMA's 2024/2025 Emerging Playwrights Lab
Housing prices in LA are already criminal, but in this home, they may actually be fatal. A scrappy real estate agent and her Uber-driving boyfriend are secretly living in the “luxury” property she's desperate to sell: a disastrously flipped fever dream where corners are cut and nothing works the way it should. When the home's bro developer shows up, things go from unethical to unhinged. A newly successful gay couple and a pregnant lesbian couple spiral into a bidding war over the supposedly hot property as the agent and her boyfriend scramble to keep the sale alive—and the skeletons in the closet—in a perfectly escalating farce
|
Next to Normal Phantasma Arts (7/17-7/25) |
|
After the Blast The Broadwater Second Stage (8/05-8/13) |
|
Catch Me If You Can The Colony Theatre (9/17-10/18) |
|
E=MC² Einstein The Musical Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center (7/03-7/26) |
|
Fool for Love Santa Monica Playhouse (7/23-7/26) |
|
Gershwin and the Golden Age Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) (10/11-10/11) |
|
A Faery Hunt and Their Animal Friends Kindred Spirits Care Farm (9/13-9/13) |
|
Dancing Queens! A Mamma Mia Drag Musical Parody Hamburger Mary's (6/20-8/22) |
|
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things! ZJU Theatre (8/14-8/22) |
|
Cynthia Erivo: Let Me Sing To You Hollywood Bowl (10/15-10/15) |
