ACT Contemporary Theatre & Seattle Shakespeare Company Announce 2025/26 Season

Seattle's ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company have announced their first annual joint season, showcasing five works representing this unique moment in their new company's history: a new beginning. In January 2025, ACT Contemporary Theatre and Seattle Shakespeare Company announced their historic merger effective July 1, 2025.

Featuring a beloved classic told through a modern lens, an intimate and touching Seattle premiere, new explorations of two beloved Shakespeare favorites, and the unique journey of a visionary artist, this season promises to engage, excite, and exhilarate the Seattle community. 5-Play subscription packages, starting at $193, to the inaugural 2025/26 Season are on sale now at acttheatre.org.

"Empowerment. Transformation. Becoming. These themes run through our first season as a combined organization, both onstage and off," said Interim Producing Artistic Director Elisabeth Farwell-Moreland. "As we step into our future together as a new company, Seattle audiences will also see the two theatres that they have loved for so long are still here, even as we become one."

Managing Director John Bradshaw adds: "For me, the most important thing we can do our first season is to invite everyone in to see that Shakespeare, which we can only ever really interpret through our contemporary experience, and contemporary works, which reflect our history as they open doors into the future, combine perfectly in the timeless arc of our need to gather around the fire and tell stories to make sense of our world."

The season opens with a classic originally slated for ACT's 2024/25 Season: Amy Herzog's Tony Award-winning adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play An Enemy of the People (Sep/Oct 2025); next up is Shrew (Oct/Nov 2025), Shakespeare's matrimonial comedy turned upside down; in late winter of the new year comes the Shakespeare summer classic A Midsummer Night's Dream (Feb/March 2026); followed by the Seattle premiere of Jiehae Park's the aves (Apr/May 2026), an intimate and surreal new work; the season closes with a stunning one-woman show Frida...A Self Portrait (June 2026), written and performed by Vanessa Severo.

Throughout the season, ACT and Seattle Shakespeare Company will present additional programming with more details and tickets to be announced at a later date.

ACT CONTEMPORARY THEATRE & SEATTLE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY'S 2025/26 SEASON 

An Enemy of the People

By Henrik Ibsen

Adapted by Amy Herzog

September 20-October 5, 2025

The Tony Award-winning adaptation comes to Seattle! Amy Herzog's "smart, sharp, and relevant" (Deadline) adaptation of this Henrik Ibsen timeless classic wraps us deep in an entangled web of truth, power, and complacency. Dr. Stockmann has it all - but when he uncovers a catastrophe in the making that threatens lives, he runs up against those in power. As tensions rise, Stockmann must choose: follow his conscience, and risk destruction? Or join the conspiracy?

Shrew

By William Shakespeare

October 18-November 2, 2025

Girl meets boy. Girl hates boy. Girl agrees to marry boy against her will so her sister can get married, too. Got it? Experience Shakespeare's play of matrimonial misery as you've never seen it before. Shrew uses the classic text-inverted, upended, and overturned-to offer a modern-day perspective on how far we've come when it comes to love-and how far we still have to go.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

By William Shakespeare

February 14-March 1, 2026

Shakespeare's most popular comedy pulls us once again into the magic of the moonlight. Four young lovers flee their families in pursuit of love in the forest but get more than they bargained for when they land in the middle of a faerie feud. A chaotic night of love potions, merry mischief, and mismatched couples-plus a very lost troupe of actors-weaves an otherworldly spell. When morning comes, will the midsummer enchantment last, or fade like a dream?

the aves

By Jiehae Park

April 18-May 3, 2026

An older couple enjoys a summer day on a park bench, talking about birds and the likelihood of rain. A simple conversation...or maybe more. An ordinary day transforms into a shifting world of surreal possibilities in a stunning and humorous meditation on memory, forgiveness, and the lifelong process of becoming who we are. From the mind of acclaimed playwright Jiehae Park in her signature innovative style, this Seattle premiere will reignite your sense of wonder.

Frida...A Self-Portrait

Written and Performed by Vanessa Severo

Directed by Joanie Schultz

June 6-28, 2026

The singular Frida Kahlo comes to life through the spirit of playwright and performer Vanessa Severo in this stunning one-woman show. Severo explores the parallels between their two lives as she embodies the many facets of this complex artist. With music and movement, Frida's evocative art, multilayered love life, and distinctive philosophy are sketched out in a visual dynamo of a piece that encourages us all to realize we are not alone.