The Kentucky Cycle: Part I: Masters of the Trade at Western Reserve Playhouse

Western Reserve Playhouse launches its yearlong presentation of The Kentucky Cycle with Episode 1: Masters of the Trade — the first installment of Robert Schenkkan’s Pulitzer Prize–winning American epic. This opening chapter begins the sweeping, 200-year story of families bound by land, power, and legacy, presented in WRP’s uniquely intimate Five Bucks Series. Masters of the Trade is a one-night event that stands on its own while setting the stage for the nine episodes that follow throughout 2026–2027. Tickets are just $5, and seating is limited for this rare theatrical experience.

Western Reserve Playhouse proudly announces a rare and ambitious undertaking: The Kentucky Cycle, a nine-part theatrical epic presented across the entire 2026–2027 season, as WRP’s Five Bucks Series. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Kentucky Cycle spans more than 200 years of American history, tracing the intersecting lives of several families across generations. Presented episodically, each installment stands alone while still contributing to the greater narrative of legacy, land, survival, and the cost of power as we reflect on 250 years of American history for the Semiquincentennial.

Each episode stands on its own, but contributes to the greater epic of the full Kentucky Cycle, which will also be presented in full at the end of the year. The serialized format of this presentation is unique in that it mirrors a TV show, thematically similar to other American epics like Yellowstone and Deadwood.

The cycle begins with Masters of the Trade on March 1, followed by The Courtship of Morning Star (April 19), The Homecoming (May 3), Ties That Bind (June 14), God’s Great Supper (June 28), Tall Tales (August 9), Fire in the Hole (August 23), Which Side Are You On? (October 11), The War on Poverty (October 29), and concludes with a two-night finale December 5–6.

Directors and casts for each episode will feature a rotating ensemble of WRP artists, allowing performers to take on recurring roles or entirely new identities as the story moves across centuries and generations.

Set against the backdrop of our Historic Barn of Bath Ohio, the series embraces the minimalist, story-forward aesthetic of a typical Five Bucks Series reading, but with a little extra oomph of production that really takes the series to the next level.