Theater Alliance Reveals 2025–26 Season: A POP-UP WITH PURPOSE

Theater Alliance has announced its 2025–26 season, titled A POP-UP WITH PURPOSE, featuring a dynamic lineup of new plays that explore labor, justice, kinship, and liberation through bold theatrical storytelling.

The season includes two premiere productions and the return of the Hothouse New Play Block Party, continuing the company’s mission to produce socially conscious theater that centers community and equity.

Rolling World Premiere: fire work by Mary Glen Fredrick

Directed by Shanara Gabrielle
August 28 – September 21, 2025
A dystopian comedy set in a crumbling glass factory, fire work follows Eleanor and Bartholomew—workers by day, revolutionaries by night—as they confront sweeping reforms that threaten their already fragile world. With heist thrills, biting humor, and explosive theatricality, the play offers a fiery meditation on labor, capitalism, and collective resistance. A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere with Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City), Theater Alliance (Washington, DC), and The VORTEX (Austin).

Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne

Directed by Autumn Angelettie
October 30 – November 23, 2025
Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Furlough’s Paradise follows Sade, who returns from prison on a three-day furlough, and Mina, her estranged cousin. As old wounds resurface and new truths emerge, the two navigate questions of home, freedom, and forgiveness. A poetic and powerful story of Black kinship and survival, Furlough’s Paradise is a deeply lyrical meditation on the futures we dare to imagine.

Hothouse New Play Block Party
Spring 2026

The Hothouse returns with a fresh lineup of new works-in-progress, featuring playwrights from the mainstage season and emerging voices from the DMV. This annual celebration of innovation, community, and access invites audiences into the developmental process of bold, future-focused new plays.

Tickets are available now at www.theateralliance.org. Theater Alliance offers several pricing options to ensure equitable access:

• Student Tickets: $20 with code “STUDENT” (ID required)

• Senior/Military Tickets: $30 with code “SENIOR”

• Previews: $15 tickets for early performances

• Industry Rush: $15 at the door, based on availability

• Radical Neighboring – Name Your Price: Pay-what-you-will starting at $5 online or any amount in person