Irondale Celebrates 43rd Year and Announces 2026–27 Season

For more than four decades, Irondale has built its work as a research theater through ensemble, experimentation and collaborative creation. Its 2026-27 season draws on that 43-year history while continuing to evolve the artistic practice that has defined the company since its founding.

The season brings together several threads of that work: From the Vault, a new series returning to formative productions from the company's repertoire; The Writer's Room, which strips theater back to its essential blueprint of the written word; the launch of Irondale NextGen, a new initiative supporting a new generation of theater artists; and the world premiere of The 1876 Project, a new ensemble-devised work looking back at a pivotal moment in American history to examine the stories the country tells about itself today.

NextGen gives emerging artists a foundation in Irondale's collaborative research practice and the space and freedom to learn through doing, experiment, take risks and develop an artistic language of their own. Its inaugural production will be a new adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie, directed and adapted by Ensemble member Emilio Maxwell Cerci, running November 27-December 19. While Strindberg's 1888 play belongs to another century, its questions of class, gender, sexuality and power remain strikingly recognizable. Cerci's adaptation begins with the tension between how far society believes it has moved beyond the world Strindberg depicted and how many of its underlying structures remain.

On November 29, Irondale launches From the Vault, a new series revisiting productions from across the company's four decades and examining the work that shaped its theatrical voice. The series begins with Outside the Law, an ensemble-devised work originally created in 1989 that smashes together two seemingly disparate stories: Rosalind's journey in Shakespeare's As You Like It and the legend of American folk hero and Depression-era outlaw Pretty Boy Floyd. Moving between Shakespeare and American folklore, the piece became an early expression of the kind of theater Irondale was developing as an ensemble-pulling apart familiar stories, colliding different worlds and using that friction to look at American culture from an unexpected angle. More than three decades later, Outside the Law returns as the first work Irondale has chosen to revisit through From the Vault.

On December 13, another new series puts the focus on the element at the foundation of a production: the script. The Writer's Room offers a casual, intimate setting where members of the company will gather with an audience to explore three or four selected pieces, discovering together which works come alive in the room and which speak most directly to the moment.

Irondale Will Close out the calendar year by opening its doors to the neighborhood on December 20 for the Irondale Holiday Party & A Christmas Carol. Friends and neighbors are invited to gather for mulled wine, cookies and hot chocolate before a special reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, directed and adapted by NextGen member Peter Charney and performed by the Irondale Ensemble.

In January, the focus shifts from revisiting work to making it. From January 29-February 5, 2027, audiences will be invited inside the earliest stages of Irondale's newest ensemble-created production through an open workshop for The 1876 Project. Months before the finished work reaches the stage, audiences can witness the moment when actors, ideas and the beginnings of a play first encounter one another. From there, the Ensemble will continue developing and devising the work toward its world premiere in the spring, with previews April 20-21, an official opening on April 22, and performances through May 16.

The 1876 Project takes its starting point from a consequential moment in American history. The year 1876 marked a decade since the end of the Civil War and the centennial of the United States. It was also the year Philadelphia hosted the Centennial International Exhibition, the first official World's Fair held in the United States, designed in part to present a story of American innovation, progress and prosperity to the world.

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary in 2026, The 1876 Project looks back 150 years to a country grappling with division while publicly projecting an image of unity and progress. Irondale will use 1876 as a lens through which to examine the stories America tells about itself, the realities those stories can obscure and the echoes between that moment and our own.

Taken together, Irondale's 2026-27 season treats the company's history as material to be revisited, questioned and transformed. From revisiting a work that helped shape Irondale's theatrical voice, to emerging artists developing their own through NextGen, to the Ensemble building a new production from the ground up, the season reflects the same spirit of experimentation, collaboration and discovery that has driven Irondale for 43 years.

For more details about Irondale and the season, visit https://www.irondale.org

IRONDALE 2026-27 SEASON

Miss Julie

November 27-December 19, 2026
Mondays-Fridays at 7:30 PM
Saturdays at 4:00 PM & 7:30 PM

Directed and adapted by Emilio Maxwell Cerci
An Irondale NextGen production

From the Vault: Outside the Law

November 29, 2026 at 7:30 PM

The Writer's Room

December 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Irondale Holiday Party & A Christmas Carol

December 20, 2026
Holiday Party at 5:00 PM
A Christmas Carol at 7:00 PM
Directed and adapted by Peter Charney

The 1876 Project - Open Workshop

January 29-February 5, 2027

The 1876 Project

Previews: April 20 & 21, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Opening Night: April 22, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Through May 16, 2027
Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sundays at 4:00 PM