THE SNOW QUEEN and More Set for The Wilma Theater 2025-26 Season
The season will also feature The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames, and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 17, 2025
Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater has revealed four productions for its 2025-26 season. Audiences can look forward to the theater’s first-ever all-ages production, a return of a popular dance-theater cabaret show, and back-to-back plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights. Additionally, the Wilma is offering more chances to witness works and progress as they’re developed from the page to the stage through limited presentations. Early Bird Subscriptions for the Wilma’s 2025-26 season start at $100 for all four productions and are available through June 29.
For the theater’s next season, the Wilma selected ambitious productions aimed at interrogating the American experience while the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding. Each production offers audiences powerful reflections on justice, freedom, identity, and legacy.
Many roles in the Wilma’s season are cast from the theater’s acclaimed, award-winning resident acting collective, the HotHouse Acting Company. A key part of the theater’s creative approach centers around the HotHouse. The actors in the ensemble meet weekly to train, read plays, and develop their artistry, in addition to staging special one-night-only readings for works-in-progress. The HotHouse actors are featured throughout the Wilma’s next season, with two members stepping into the director’s chair in 2026.
The Wilma’s next season begins in November with an all-ages production of Evgeny Schwartz’s stage adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, The Snow Queen. See the full lineup here!
The Wilma Theater’s 2025-26 Season Productions
The Snow Queen by Evgeny Schwartz
Translated by Mike Lion & Ethan Wilcox
Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tale
Directed by Yury Urnov
November 11 to November 25 | Opening Night: Friday, November 14, at 7 p.m.
The Wilma Theater’s first offering for an all-ages audience, Snow Queen, is the timeless tale reimagined through a lens of delightful whimsy and profound truth. A young girl named Gerda embarks on an adventure through icy landscapes and mystical forces to confront the complexities of love, loss, and the human spirit and ultimately to save her brother. In Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov’s (12th Night, My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion) fantastical production, this heart-warming story of an enchanting odyssey will leave you believing in the magic of love and the warmth of friendship. The most dangerous evil is the one that seeks to erase our capacity for connection. Don't miss this unforgettable, transformative story for the children in your life, and just as importantly, the child inside of you!
Poor Judge – A Pig Iron Production
Created by Pig Iron Theatre Company from an original idea by Dito Van Reigersberg
Directed by Eva Steinmetz
Music Direction by Alex Bechtel
January 13 to 25, 2026 | Opening Night: Friday, January 16 at 7 p.m.
Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Poor Judge returns to the Wilma! An original work of dance-theater cabaret born from the music of alt-rock iconoclast Aimee Mann. Dreamed up by Philadelphia’s beloved Dito Van Reigersberg, this live music mixtape is part spy story, part woeful tale of lost loves, and part Hollywood audition—all performed by a local supergroup of actor-musicians. Through vignette and song, Poor Judge offers glimpses of an inviting, seductive Los Angeles and its shadow: the frightening underbelly of the American Success Story. Be prepared for a night of lonely California highways, movie theater breakups, and sly acoustic re-imaginings of Aimee Mann’s haunting catalog.
The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames
Directed by Brett Ashley Robinson
March 17 to April 5 | Opening Night: Wednesday, March 27 at 7 p.m.
Behold the feverish Martha Washington, our first First Lady, on her deathbed, surrounded by the enslaved people poised to claim freedom the moment she dies (true story). In her final hours, she is confronted by a hallucinatory “trial” where she must face her past and the legacy of slavery in the United States. The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by Pulitzer Prize-winning James Ijames (Fat Ham) is a spicy satire that explores issues of race, power, and historical memory. The Wilma’s HotHouse Acting Company brings this pertinent and dynamic production to life with deep sincerity, high-stakes clowning, and striking imagery under the direction of company member Brett Ashley Robinson.
The America Play by Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Lindsay Smiling
May 19 to May 31 | Opening Night: Friday, May 22 at 7 p.m.
A Black Abraham Lincoln impersonator named the “Foundling Father,” runs “the Great Hole of History,” a tourist attraction where visitors can meet other historical lookalikes. The poetic repetition and evocative jazz-like style of this canonic text mimics the harmful patterns and toxic ideologies perpetuated throughout American history. The America Play is a daring exploration of the fractured stories that shape our nation from one of our most prominent American Playwrights, Pulitzer and Tony Award-winner, Suzan-Lori Parks. Directed by HotHouse Member and Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling (The Half-God of Rainfall), this play challenges us to redefine what it means to be American in the context of our current political landscape. The Wilma's HotHouse ensemble brings this imaginative work to life, creating a space for active dialogue, catharsis, and deep connection with the audience.
*IN DEVELOPMENT*
JURY DUTY (Working Title)
Co-Created by Milo Cramer & Morgan Green
Directed by Morgan Green
Dates for performances, readings, and workshops to be announced in Fall 2025!
Are you biased? Is it possible to be unbiased? Do you love jury duty as much as we do? Obie Award-winners Milo Cramer and Morgan Green (The Comeuppance, HILMA, School Pictures) return with a new play JURY DUTY, exploring the high-stakes drama of the voir dire process—where potential jurors are interrogated in a tense, theatrical space. The play blends verbatim transcripts, personal testimonies, and dynamic media design by projection designer Ray Sun to create a highly engaging courtroom experience that challenges our understanding of justice, power, and civic duty. JURY DUTY fuses the theatrical with the real, sparking dialogue and reflection on our fractured legal system. Coming to the Wilma in 2026-27, this collaborative, communal work invites audiences to engage with complex moral arguments, ideas, and perspectives, igniting curiosity and conversation at a time when we need it most.
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