Powerhouse Theater at Vassar Reveals Programming Lineup for the 40th Anniversary Season

Vassar College has announced the lineup for the 40th Powerhouse Theater Season. The artists and projects that join the lineup in 2026 include Drew Droege (Messy White Gays), who kicks off the season with his new comedic one-man show, Theater Idiot. Broadway musical theater veterans Cheri Steinkellner (Sister Act) and David Zippel (City of Angels, Liza’s at the Palace) have teamed up to create the hilarious and heartfelt new musical Fanboy/Diva, directed by original Dear Evan Hansen cast member Will Roland, with music by Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award-winning composers Walter Afanasieff, Cy Coleman, Alan Menken, and Matthew Wilder.

Jocelyn Kuritsky (KPOP) and her writing partners return to Powerhouse to present the third installment of episodes in progress of the historical and witty Webby Award-honored podcast A Simple Herstory, in collaboration with The Muse Project NYC and directed by The Tank’s Artistic Director, Meghan Finn. Powerhouse welcomes Gianfranco Lentini and Jonathon Loy (Cofounder - Berkshire Opera Festival) to Vassar with a workshop of Ocean Walk, exploring survival and surrender after a cataclysmic storm wipes out the LGBTQ enclave of Fire Island Pines. Associate Professor of Drama Peter Gil-Sheridan, along with Cristina Luzárraga, Julián Mesri and Rebecca Aparicio have partnered to create a new musical about the Cuban Refugee Crisis of 1980 in Marielitos.

Longtime Powerhouse alums and real-life couple, Hal Cosentino and Ellenor Riley-Condit, explore the possibility of having a child as a trans man and cis woman, with help from a nineteenth-century Quaker preacher who claimed God freed them from gender in Godfriend, directed by Caley Chase, with music by Hannah Read (aka Lomelda). Rounding out the Powerhouse Season are free readings of new works written and directed by Lynn Rosen and Julie Kramer (The Tank), Isaac Byrne and Jessi D. Hill (Mechanical Raven Productions), Abe Johnson and Ryan Dobrin, Pete McElligott and Judson Jones (Theatre East) and Genevieve Simon, the winner of the Leah Ryan Fund’s “Leah Award.”

Powerhouse will also host the Soundpainting Thinktank, a week-long gathering of artists from around the world, culminating in a one-night-only performance. Soundpainting is the universal live composing sign language created in Woodstock by composer Walter Thompson.

Vassar will welcome a new cohort of young actors, directors, and writers to campus as members of the Powerhouse Theater Training Company. These emerging artists will present a slate of free theater throughout the season, including Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, adapted and directed by Elizabeth Dahmen, and Lope De Vega’s Fuenteovejuna, adapted and directed by Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy. Both will be performed outside at the Preserve at Vassar. Max Reuben returns to direct the company in the innovative use of Soundpainting, a gestural language, in a completely devised project at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. And Erin C. Buckley and Aysan Celik explore life in a cult, from the spiritual to the mundane in Ashram.

Also in residence at Powerhouse this summer is Vassar Professor Shona Tucker (To Kill a Mockingbird) who, alongside John Summerford, are in the early stages of developing Better Angels by LuAnn Kaldor and Eve Gendron.

“It’s an honor to have so many Powerhouse favorites alongside fresh voices on campus, as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary Powerhouse Season,” said Producing Director Michael Sheehan. “Since 1985, Powerhouse has offered space to both established and emerging artists. 40 years later, I’m proud to be continuing that tradition at Vassar.”

“And what a joy it is to welcome back Powerhouse alums Erin C. Buckley and Ellenor Riley-Condit, both of whom were members of the Powerhouse Training Program. After having begun their journey as artists at Powerhouse, it’s a joy to have them return to share their latest work with our audiences and students,” added Producing Director Ed Cheetham.

“Vassar’s role in shaping the history of American theater cannot be overstated. It is a privilege to welcome and support the work of renowned artists each summer, as well as the works of local artists of the Hudson Valley, including Vassar’s own Associate Professor of Drama, Peter Gil-Sheridan, and Professor of Drama, Shona Tucker,” said Vassar College President Elizabeth H. Bradley.

“At the foundation of the Powerhouse program is the Training Company. We are delighted to welcome a new cohort of dedicated aspiring artists, who come from all over the country to study, create, and perform alongside our world-class faculty and professional artists,” added Sheehan.

“We can’t wait to welcome our loyal audiences back to the Vassar campus. See you this summer!” concluded Cheetham.

Additional projects and casting information will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Special Events

Theater Idiot

June 18, 2026, 7 p.m.
In the Martel Theater

Written and Performed by Drew Droege

On December 14, 2025, Patti LuPone attended a performance of Drew Droege’s play, Messy White Gays. It was nearly ruined thanks to the outbursts of a raving drunken lunatic. After the show, LuPone eviscerated this person and told them to “never go back to the theater again.”

Theater Idiot tickets are $40 and go on sale May 28, 2026.

An Evening of Soundpainting

July 11, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Belle Skinner Hall of Music

Featuring Soundpainting Inventor Walter Thompson and Artists from Around the World
In Collaboration with Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble and Soundpainting Thinktank

An Evening of Soundpainting is a dynamic, one-night-only performance featuring Soundpainting creator Walter Thompson alongside an international cohort of musicians, actors, dancers, and visual artists. The event marks the culmination of the Soundpainting Thinktank, a week-long gathering of artists from over a dozen countries engaged in intensive collaboration, performance, and research.

The concert will feature a series of live-composed Soundpaintings. Soundpainting is the universal, multidisciplinary sign language for live composition, used by musicians, actors, dancers, and visual artists. With more than 1,500 gestures, the language allows composers to shape work in real time—nothing is pre-planned, and each piece is created in the moment and will never be repeated.

An Evening of Soundpainting tickets are free. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 11, 2026.

Workshops

Ocean Walk

July 2-5, 2026
In the Powerhouse Theater

Written by Gianfranco Lentini
Directed by Jonathon Loy

Fire Island is gone. A cataclysmic storm has breached the island’s last defenses, leaving the Pines swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. All residents have evacuated—except Harry, a seventy-year-old man unwilling to abandon his submerged home. When Casey, a seventeen-year-old deckhand from the Sayville Ferry Service, arrives to pull him out, the two find themselves caught between survival and surrender, history, and erasure.

Godfriend

July 10-12, 2026
In the Powerhouse Theater

Written and Performed by Hal Cosentino and Ellenor Riley-Condit
Original Music and Sound Design by Hannah Read
Directed by Caley Chase

Equal parts true story, theatrical play, live music, and spiritual gathering, Godfriend asks audiences to practice radical belief in each other while facing uncertain futures.

College professors and real-life couple Hal and Elle ask: should they have a child? As a trans man and a cis woman, the couple wonders if their spiritual callings of gender identity and procreation can coexist. Clues appear in their class discussions about the Public Universal Friend, a nineteenth-century Quaker preacher who claimed God freed them from gender.

A live music score created by Hannah Read (known for her work as Lomelda) transforms the performance into a participatory Quaker meeting, where audiences listen for wisdom from the divine.

Fanboy/Diva

July 17-19, 2026
In the Powerhouse Theater

Written by Cheri Steinkellner
Lyrics by David Zippel
Music by Walter Afanasieff, Cy Coleman, Alan Menken, and Matthew Wilder
Directed by Will Roland

A once-iconic Broadway diva, determined to reclaim the role that made her a star, discovers her online identity has been hijacked by a teenage superfan. Forced into a prickly alliance, diva and fan must share the spotlight—until admiration turns to confrontation in this hilarious, heartfelt, new musical about legacy, currency, and the cost of being seen.

A Simple Herstory

July 24-26, 2026
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of The Muse Project NYC Residency

Created by Jocelyn Kuritsky
Written and Developed by Jonathan A. Goldberg
Additional Conception and Co-Direction by Jenny Turner Hall
Producing Consultation by Donya K. Washington
Directed by Meghan Finn

Returning for a rare third residency at Powerhouse, A Simple Herstory is the acclaimed genre-blurring performance project exploring the more than 100 women who have run for President of the United States. This newest installment returns to Margaret Chase Smith and the volatile political climate surrounding mid-20th century Republican Party politics, tracing her evolving political identity amid shifting pressures of ideology, public expectation, and personal conviction. At once incisive and irreverent, searingly serious and sharply comic, A Simple Herstory offers the latest installment of the raucously funny and thought-provoking serialized podcast.

All Workshop tickets are $30 and go on sale May 28, 2026.

Readings

Legerdemain

June 19, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of The Tank Residency

Written by Lynn Rosen
Directed by Julie Kramer

As Halloween approaches and a strangler is on the loose, Devin, a jaded writer/waitress at Butterloafs, a chain restaurant in New England, gets to know Don Franz, her most devoted customer. Bananas appear from sleeves, grief is shared, and a story’s resurrection changes lives in the blink of an eye.

Rita Hayworth and the Orson Welles Variations

June 20, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of the Mechanical Raven Productions Residency

Written by Isaac Byrne
Directed by Jessi D. Hill

Rita, unaware that she is in late-stage Alzheimer’s, is trapped in a never-ending cycle of jumbled memories: bull fights, talk shows, controlling producers, the ghosts of her past, and a tumultuous romance with Orson, the person she is trying to hold onto. As she tries to rewrite the past, Rita is forced to confront the difference between a tragedy and a happy ending.

pits

June 26, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater

Written by Abe Johnson
Directed by Ryan Dobrin

Set inside an underfunded American public middle school, two eighth-grade boys spiral down dark internet rabbit holes while their first-year teacher struggles to keep up with a mandated “social-emotional learning” curriculum and a generation of kids raised by algorithms. As online exposure intensifies and institutional and parental supports fail, the play opens up questions around our children’s unrestricted access to the internet, desensitization, neglect, masculinity, and what it actually means to educate “the whole child.”

Marielitos

June 27, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater

Book and Lyrics by Peter Gil-Sheridan and Cristina Luzárraga
Music by Julián Mesri
Directed by Rebecca Aparicio

In 1980, thousands of Cuban refugees arrived in the U.S. via the Mariel Boatlift. “Marielitos” were a motley crew of political dissidents, artists, prisoners, “mental patients,” and homosexuals; all eager to escape Castro’s regime. Told through the rhythms of the Caribbean and the Midwest, Marielitos centers around the linguist René Valdes’ quest for belonging, as well as his struggles as a partner and father. This tragicomic musical, both epic and intimate in scope, traces the incredible story of one immigrant’s fight to bridge cultural divides and find his place in the world.

The Power of Something Invisible

June 28, 2026, 6 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of the Theatre East Residency

Written by Pete McElligott
Directed by Judson Jones

Separated by space and time, united by the same sky, astronomers Caroline Hershel, Maria Mitchell, and Vera Rubin dared to see beyond their known world. As these women stood on each other's shoulders aiming for clarity and truth against all odds, their brilliance pierced the darkness, reshaping how we understand the stars...and our place among them.

Punch Back

July 25, 2026, 8 p.m.
In the Powerhouse Theater
Part of the Leah Ryan Fund Residency

Written by Genevieve Simon

Come to class. You know which one. Someone was whispering about it at the bathroom protest. Remember? Your ex might be there. Your crush will definitely be there. We’re gonna box it out. We’re gonna get strong. There is definitely absolutely no other resource we will be…distributing. Is your friend trans? Bring them too. A new play for trans students on college campuses in red states in 2025.

All readings are free. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 11, 2026.

The Training Company

Fuenteovejuna

July 10-12, 2026, 7 p.m.
At The Preserve

Written by Lope De Vega
Adapted and Directed by Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy

Based on actual events, Lope De Vega’s Fuenteovejuna shines a spotlight on the small Village of Fuente Ovejuna in 15th century Spain. The village, run by a corrupt and overbearing tyrant, must find their courage and their voice after years of horrific abuse, or risk losing their honor, freedom, and the beloved community they call home.

Free and open to the public. No ticket required.

Romeo and Juliet

July 17-19, 2026, 7 p.m.
At The Preserve

Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted and Directed by Elizabeth Dahmen

This athletic, ensemble-forward approach to Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy dives into the volatile world of two young lovers caught in the crossfire of their families’ violent feuds. Racing through secret vows, public duels, exile, and desperate final choices, this reexamined production explores how impulsive passion and inherited hatred propel the story toward its inevitable conclusion.

Free and open to the public. No ticket required.

In This Economy?

July 2, 9, 16, 23, 2026, 6 p.m.
In the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Conceived and Composed by Max Reuben
Developed and performed by members of the Training Company

Hello. I saw your listing for “Five beverage glasses, two mugs” online. I know you set your price at “$10 or best offer” and I was wondering if maybe you’d be interested in parting with the glasses and mugs for something other than money? For instance, I am a freelance artist and can do a nice portrait of a beloved pet. Many would say that is worth much more than $10. A neighbor offered to pay me upwards of $50 for a watercolor of his Bichon Frisé. I also do tarot readings and I’m learning to cut hair via YouTube. Let me know if any of those things would be considered a “best offer” instead of the aforementioned $10. Thank you.

In This Economy? utilizes the gestural composing language of Soundpainting to create an ensemble-based improvised performance about what things cost.

Free and open to the public. No ticket required.

Ashram

July 19-20, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

Written by Erin C. Buckley
Directed by Aysan Celik
Developed and Performed by Members of the Training Company

Once upon a time there was an ashram…that had a guru…who had devotees. And then there was an audit. Om guru om.

Ashram explores obsession, devotion, mortality, sexuality, and the mundane—the spiritual through the quotidian—the afterlife and doing dishes.

Free and open to the public. Reservation required. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 11, 2026.

New Works Play Festival

July 25, 2026, 2 p.m.
In the Susan Stein Shiva Theater

Written and Directed by members of the Training Company

This festival of new works is the culminating event for the directors and writers of the Training Company. Along with their coursework, directors and playwrights will have observed the process of bringing a new script to life in a professional rehearsal setting. Each pair of writers and directors will workshop a play that they have developed over the summer. Featuring performances by the actors of the Training Company, these short plays reflect the students’ unique voice and vision for the future of American theater.

Free and open to the public. Reservation required. Tickets can be reserved beginning on June 11, 2026.

Need more Central New York Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...