BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE Leads Outside In Theatre's 2026-27 Season

Outside In Theatre has announced its 2026–27 season, its second year of programming, expanding the Highland Park Theatre's work across scripted and unscripted performance, co-productions, artist development, education and digital storytelling.

The theatre's first season welcomed audiences from over 90 ZIP codes, with over 60% of surveyed attendees visiting Outside In for the first time. The new season marks the theatre's next step toward becoming a year-round cultural home for artists and audiences in Highland Park and across Los Angeles to explore how people communicate and connect across difference, care for one another and strengthen the communities they share.

The 2026–27 lineup encompasses two primary scripted productions, Before It's Too Late and Thursdays Come At Morning, three scripted co-productions, Coco Queens, Trans Lineage, and an unannounced show coming January 2027, five recurring unscripted shows, festivals and special events, developmental workshops, class performances and digital programming. Across those forms is a commitment to integrating new work, artistic collaboration and stories centered on the global majority, queer, disabled, and other communities historically underrepresented on American stages.

'We have a significant opportunity in our second year to evolve from a venue people discover into a cultural institution people identify with,' said Maisha Azadi Sebastiany, Managing Director of Outside In Theatre. 'We want to deepen our roots here in Highland Park while creating meaningful pathways for artists and audiences to engage with every part of the organization. Our goal is a lasting cultural home where bold storytelling, artistic excellence and genuine community belonging come together.'

The work brings the season's themes into deeply personal territory, asking what happens when the desire to care, and to be cared for, must reach across barriers of language, distance, and circumstances. Outside In's primary scripted season opens September 20 with Before It's Too Late, a deeply personal and comic solo work by Christopher Moncayo-Torres, directed by Bernardo Cubria. Joined by his Ecuadorian parents, his 82-year-old father in person and his 78-year-old mother by video, Moncayo-Torres uses family stories and recipes to navigate language, distance, forgiveness and the urgency of reconnecting while there is still time. Performances run through October 6.

The mainstage season concludes March 21–April 6 with Thursdays Come at Morning, written by Lee Cataluna, from an original story with additional material by Les J.N. Mau, and directed by Jeff Liu. Developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and set in present-day Honolulu, the play follows Howard, a Chinese American man who has spent much of his life caring for his family, and Sam, a Hapa man grieving the death of his partner. A chance meeting while tending graves becomes a Thursday ritual and, gradually, an unexpected opening toward companionship. The play considers caregiving, family obligation, queer love later in life and what it means to make room for a life beyond grief. Producing Artistic Director of Outside In Theatre, Jessica Hanna first encountered the play at the conference and was struck by a story she had rarely seen represented onstage, two older Asian American gay men finding friendship, care and the possibility of moving forward after profound loss.

Partnership remains central to Outside In's approach. Following collaborations during its inaugural season, the company will expand its co-production model in 2026–27, sharing space, resources and creative support with artists and organizations across Los Angeles.

The co-production slate begins October 25–November 17 with the world premiere of Coco Queens, a co-production with Blackgical Productions. Written by New York Times bestselling novelist and playwright LaDarrion Williams and directed by Jessica E. Williams, Coco Queens follows four Black women who gather in Gloria's neighborhood beauty shop in 1970s Alabama for an annual tradition filled with food, music, laughter, reflection and healing. When long-buried secrets surface, the women must confront the wounds that have divided them and decide whether truth can guide them back to one another. At its heart, Coco Queens celebrates the spaces Black women and their communities have created to care for one another, even in the face of forces designed to pull them apart. In a story where joy is resistance and remembrance is renewal, the play asks a question that remains urgent today: How do we care for one another when the world gives us every reason not to?

In December, Outside In is co-producing with Celebration Theatre for their fifth year of Trans Lineage, presented at Outside In for the first time. Trans Lineage: Desire Lines, running December 5–16, is a world-premiere trilogy by trans playwrights Nova Cypress Black, Astrid Solace and Eka Savajol, exploring the paths people create toward joy, intimacy and the freedom to be fully seen. Nico Pang directs, with Petey Gibson producing and Sarah Showich serving as assistant director and dramaturg. Built through months of writing development and brought to production by a primarily trans team, the project creates a process made in connection, care and a lived understanding. Its holiday run also offers trans communities and their supporters a space to gather, celebrate and experience belonging.

The season also welcomes the fourth annual August in August Celebration of Black Theatre, presented by The Black Creators Collective and Oshana Arts in association with Outside In Theatre, August 29-30, with two days of performances, workshops and community programming celebrating the life and legacy of August Wilson. Additional scripted co-productions include Sparrow and Finch Film's I Dream a World… in February with more being announced later this fall.

Unscripted performance remains a notable part of Outside In's artistic identity, with returning favorites, new concepts and festival programming unfolding throughout the 2026-27 season. Fantastic Tales returns alongside October's Spooky Saturdays, bringing Halloween programming to the theatre through October 30th. The original cast of Austensibly Jane returns for a special holiday edition, fall in love with Jane Austen's world with a modern perspective.

In the spring, Co-Artistic Directors of OI Unscripted Paul Hungerford and Matthew Pitner introduce two brand new offerings: Starship, an unscripted sci-fi show directed by Matthew Pitner, and the all improvised Silent Movie directed by teacher and long-time OI collaborator, Kimberly Lewis.

The season also includes the AF Comedy Fest September 2-7, and Outside In's first 48-Hour Improv-A-Thon, February 5-7, along with additional unscripted co-productions and events, including Cold Tofu's Sketch Show in February.

'We rise towards our mission of Brave Spaces for All with every show we produce and program,' said Jessica Hanna, Producing Artistic Director of Outside In Theatre. 'At a moment when how we connect within our communities is under scrutiny and duress, this season asks how we communicate and connect in order to care for one another. The more opportunities we give Los Angelenos to see ourselves reflected onstage, the more opportunities we have to learn about each other. Theatre is an empathy machine, and we want as many people as possible to have access to it. I hope Los Angeles audiences will find themselves and their neighbors in these plays and celebrate them.'

New play development will continue through workshops including Dear Sister created and directed by Jessica Hanna, and O-Dogg, an adaptation of Othello written by Alex Alpharaoh and co-produced with Chola Visions Productions.

Outside In will also continue extending its work beyond the stage through digital programming, education and artist training. The Frogs Podcast, hosted by Alex Ubokudom and Tobie Windham, who identify as artists and cultural dramaturges, creates a space for artists, collaborators and audiences to continue conversations beyond theatre with 20 episodes produced during the last two seasons.

Established in trust, vulnerability, deep listening and rigorous artistic practice, Outside In's education and training program develops curious, courageous storytellers through inclusive, ensemble based theatre and improvisation. New offerings this season include Dramatic Improv, designed for Asian American students looking to broaden their relationship to improvisation and acting, and Bridging the Gap, which makes acting techniques more accessible to improvisers and emerging actors.

The expansion follows a first year in which Outside In presented 10 productions, including Torera, Roger Guenveur Smith's In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Room by the Sea, Octopus's Garden and O: A Rhapsody in Divorce.

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