OUR CLASS and BECOMING A MAN to be Presented at Z Space
OUR CLASS was the winner of four 2025 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Director, and more.
Today, Z Space has revealed two productions set to anchor its 2026 season: the searing, award-winning OUR CLASS, starring Chulpan Khamatova as Rachelka/Marianna, and produced in partnership with –ARLEKIN! (March 27–April 5, 2026), followed by P. Carl’s powerful memoir-to-stage adaptation, BECOMING A MAN (May 27–June 14, 2026). Single tickets for both productions will go on sale in January 2026.
OUR CLASS follows ten classmates — five Jewish and five Catholic Poles — who grow up as friends and neighbors, then find themselves pitted against each other in the face of entrenched antisemitism, with life and death consequences. Inspired by real life events surrounding a 1941 pogrom in a small Polish village, this shocking, timely story follows their lives from childhood through eight decades in a new production of Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s masterpiece, helmed by acclaimed Ukrainian-born Jewish director Igor Golyak. Co-produced by Z Space and Boston-based –ARLEKIN!, OUR CLASS was the winner of four 2025 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Director, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Scenic Design. The production played sold-out engagements at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Manhattan’s Classic Stage Company (CSC), followed by an engagement at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA). Internationally celebrated film and stage actress Chulpan Khamatova leads an ensemble of actors from Ukraine, Russia, Boston, and New York. This limited run will sell out! Secure your spot by visiting zspace.org/ourclass to sign up for early ticket access!
From acclaimed memoirist P. Carl, BECOMING A MAN is a play about one man’s gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America. For fifty years, P. Carl lived as a girl and then a queer woman, building a career and a loving marriage while waiting to realize himself in full. When he decides to affirm his gender, his transition puts everything—family, career, friendships—at stake. “This moving narrative illuminates the joy, courage, necessity, and risk-taking of his gender transition” (Kirkus), and poses the question: When we change, can the people we love come with us? Following a world premiere production at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University, P. Carl’s acclaimed story about the courage—and the community—we need to become ourselves comes to life in its West Coast premiere.
“These two productions represent the kind of theater that defines Z Space and underscores our continued commitment to bold, socially resonant storytelling that pushes artistic boundaries to do what theater does best—allow us as audiences to expand our capacity to sense and understand the world through different perspectives,” said Z Space Executive Director and Producer Shafer Mazow. “As a Jewish trans-man in a world of escalating antisemitism, as evidenced by the tragic events in Australia this past weekend, and the ongoing threats to and erasure of the trans community, I feel strongly that presenting both of these particular narratives in San Francisco at this moment in our cultural landscape is not only urgent, but absolutely essential.”
Complete casting and creative teams for both productions will be announced in early 2026.
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Julius Caesar Marin Shakespeare Company (8/14-9/13) |
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Pickleball Hillbarn Theatre (8/20-9/13) |
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Hadestown (Non-Equity) Orpheum Theatre San Francisco (1/07-1/10) |
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Based on a Totally True Story City Lights Theater Company (1/21-2/14) |
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Abbey Glover’s I’m a Businessman, Man The Marsh (8/15-8/16) |
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Broadway Under the Stars - Mamma Mia! Transcendence Theatre Company (8/13-8/30) |
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Candace Johnson’s The Conductress: Adventures in Teaching Gospel Music The Marsh Berkeley (8/28-8/30) |
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The Fall Show Shotgun Players Ashby Stage (9/26-10/25) |
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Disney''s Beauty and the Beast San Jose Center for the Performing Arts (9/08-9/13) |
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Joyful Raven’s Tactical Frivolity The Marsh Berkeley (8/27-8/29) |