THE CHINESE LADY, RED, and More Set For Artswest's 2026-2027 Season
The lineup also includes anthropology, P.Y.G., and more.
ArtsWest has announced their 2026-2027 Season: A Visible Existence. The season will being with The Chinese Lady by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lloyd Suh. For the holidays, the joyful original Christmas musical Snowed In by Corinne Park-Buffelen and Mathew Wright, with music by Alma David Taylor, returns. The new year begins with the Tony Award-winning Red by John Logan, about the famous Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko. anthropology by Lauren Gunderson is a thrill ride about the potential and consequences of A.I. To end the season, ArtsWest presents P.Y.G. or The Misedumacation of Dorian Belle by Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, a hilarious comedy and blistering satire inspired by Shaw's Pygmalion with a hip-hop spin.
This season brings together bold stories, unforgettable personalities, and thrilling theatrical experiences - from intimate storytelling to high-energy musical celebration, from sharp comedy to gripping psychological suspense. Across these plays, artists, dreamers, outsiders, and communities struggle to connect, to create, and to understand themselves and one another through art, memory, music, and imagination.
Each of these stories explores the messy, funny, vulnerable, and deeply human desire to matter - and to be truly known.
In Lloyd Suh's The Chinese Lady, the true story of Afong Moy, a woman displayed as a living exhibit in 1800s America reveals an intimate, funny, and deeply moving exploration of performance, identity, and who gets remembered in the telling of history.
Corinne Park-Buffelen's holiday favorite Snowed In celebrates the messy joy of collaboration as a group of artists trapped together by a winter storm attempt to create the perfect holiday show — discovering friendship, music, and unexpected connection along the way.
In John Logan's Red, master painter Mark Rothko and his young assistant clash over art, ambition, legacy, and what it means to create work that truly matters. Intense, funny, and visually thrilling, the play offers a searing portrait of the artist's struggle to leave a mark on the world.
anthropology by Lauren Gunderson, America's most-produced playwright, blends emotional intimacy with psychological suspense in a gripping story about grief, artificial intelligence, and the desperate human need to stay connected to the people we love.
In Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, a reality-show-style collision of hip-hop, celebrity culture, race, and performance spirals into a wildly entertaining exploration of identity, image, and authenticity in a world obsessed with fame.
Together, these plays remind us that to create is to insist on our existence - to reach toward one another, to shape meaning from chaos, and ultimately, to make our existence visible.
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Barefoot in the Park State Theater (8/21-9/06) |
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Freak The Mighty Seattle Repertory Theatre (7/30-9/06) |
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Dear Evan Hansen Village Theatre (5/15-6/06) |
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LOLA Can Can (6/11-9/13) |
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Love is Dead Village Theatre (6/01-7/03) |
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ARSENIC AND OLD LACE at Tacoma Little Theatre Tacoma Little Theatre (10/16-11/01) |
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Waitress Washington Center for the Performing Arts (6/23-6/24) |
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& Juliet First Interstate Center for the Arts(Formally INB Performing Arts Center) (10/13-10/18) |
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Complemento Latitude Theatre (8/01-8/30) |
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Mötley Crüe Cascades Amphitheater (9/26-9/26) |