WHISKEY THEATRE FACTORY to Mark Fifth Anniversary With Multilingual Season

Whiskey Theatre Factory has announced its 2026-2027 season, marking the Central Florida company's fifth anniversary with a focus on multilingual storytelling and intersectionality.

The season will feature The Lamb by Alexia Orban, Teseos Volvido by Artistic Director Max Pinsky and Divided by Ashley Alonso, along with a new production conceived and developed by members of the company's Artistic Collective.

“Our community is not monolingual, why should our theatre be?” said Pinsky. “If we say we want to make productions that invite the community in, we cannot shy away from theatre that sounds like something other than English.”

Pinsky previously explored multilingual storytelling with his bilingual La Medéa, which premiered at The Renaissance Theatre Company in January 2022. Whiskey Theatre Factory also presented the Spanish-English play Asopao as part of its 2023 virtual play series Still on Zoom.

“When another language is involved, it brings the culture along too,” Pinsky said. “It opens up a conversation about heritage and culture and how each actor understands the stories from their own backgrounds.”

Director of Communications Ruby Dickerson added, “It creates a space for those who make up such a large part of our Central Florida community. It's an honor to have this kind of work enrich our season.”

The season will begin in fall 2026 with a Distillery workshop of Orban's political drama The Lamb. Set in 1990s Peru amid civic unrest surrounding the “Atlántico” scandal, the play follows the family of a politician as they confront the realities of power.

Whiskey Theatre Factory's Distillery Series pairs a script and playwright with a dramaturg for an intensive development process. The playwright then works with a director and full cast over two weeks, culminating in a staged reading for an audience.

“Understanding the hand-off of how a playwright's ideas are perceived in a rehearsal room full of artists is crucial to knowing how to best sharpen their writing for production,” said Pinsky.

The winter will bring a workshop production of Pinsky's Teseos Volvido, a sequel to La Medéa. The story finds Medéa beginning a new life in Santo Domingo after leaving Jason behind in New York City. When tragedy strikes and a mysterious stranger returns, Medéa must fight to protect the life she has built.

The trilingual work incorporates English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. As part of a Community Impact Grant with United Arts of Central Florida, Whiskey Theatre Factory will partner with Apopka's Hope CommUnity Center, inviting members of the multilingual community to assist in the development of the Spanish and Haitian Creole portions of the script.

The season's final announced production will be a spring Distillery presentation of Alonso's psychological thriller Divided. The play follows Alex as she begins a process of deconstruction under the guidance of her therapist, Dr. Glasgow. As a Masked Woman begins tormenting Alex and the line between dreams and reality blurs, she turns to friends and chosen family for help.

Divided will become the first play to progress through each stage of Whiskey Theatre Factory's new-play development pipeline. The work was first introduced through an Artist Salon before receiving a Plays-in-Progress presentation of its first full draft and will now advance to the Distillery process with a full cast and creative team.

“Distilleries allow the audience a peak into what truly goes into developing a play,” Dickerson said. “My favorite part is being able to hear from the playwright during the talk backs. Having that insight into the playwright's mind is a truly intimate experience that I hope everyone can join us for!”

The 2026-2027 lineup will also include a production developed by Whiskey Theatre Factory's Artistic Collective. The project will take shape during the Collective's quarterly meetings under the guidance of Pinsky and Dickerson and could range from an evening of short plays to a devised work or staged reading of a new script.

Whiskey Theatre Factory will continue its monthly Artist Salons and Plays-In-Progress readings throughout the season, providing opportunities for local writers and performers to develop new work.

“This company has always been here to support new plays and playwrights: always has and always will be,” Pinsky said. “Our open, local calls for new (and returning) writers and actors to our Artist Salons—and following up with those that have full drafts for our Plays-in-Progress series—is what I consider the cornerstone of what makes Whiskey Theatre Factory so special.”