Inside Geffen Playhouse's 2025-26 season: Athol Fugard, Pearl Cleage and multiple world premieres

So far, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s inaugural play astatine the helm of the Geffen Playhouse has spanned a muscular revival of “The Brothers Size,” a co-production of “Noises Off” and a starry staging of “Waiting for Godot.”

Unbeknownst to the public, the playwright’s tenure astatine the city’s astir salient Westside theatre has besides included workshops of astir each accumulation scheduled for the 2025-26 season. It’s an effort intended to cement the Geffen arsenic a laboratory for creator improvement and a level for originative experimentation and improvement of caller works.

“It was a thought that became a imagination that came to fruition,” the theater’s creator manager told The Times past week. “To person much clip with the plays, and the writers and directors, beforehand — that whitethorn not look unique, but truthful overmuch of the improvement process [in the industry] has gone away, particularly successful the regions wherever theaters thin to programme a play that’s already been done. They bash the enactment successful the rehearsal process, but that play of clip is truthful focused connected the accumulation itself.

“Especially with satellite premieres, I was like, ‘We gotta dilatory down, we request clip for writers to truly get nether the hood to the juicy part, wherever they tin research ideas oregon effort things oregon fig retired however thing mightiness work,’ “ helium continued.

“We’re making definite that, for these artists, you’re feeling nourished and getting to cognize america arsenic a producing entity, we’re getting to cognize you, and we’re creating, hopefully, lifelong relationships successful this way. It’s kept america truly engaged but it feels precise overmuch similar we’re harvesting immoderate large things and past sharing it with our audiences and community, and we program to support doing that.”

The Geffen’s 2025-26 season, unveiled to the theater’s donors and subscribers connected Monday night, begins with the satellite premiere of “Am I Roxie?” (Sept. 3 to Oct. 5), written and performed by Roxana Ortega. In the one-woman show, directed by Bernardo Cubría successful the Gil Cates Theater, Ortega navigates the chaos of her mother’s intelligence diminution with honesty, wit and spot of spirit, each portion playing everything from a mermaid-obsessed aunt to a prickly Sherpa.

Next is the satellite premiere of Rudi Goblen’s “Littleboy/Littleman” (Oct. 1 to Nov. 2), a communicative of 2 Nicaraguan brothers — 1 a dependable telemarketer, the different an impulsive writer — who clash implicit their visions of the American Dream. The production, directed by Nancy Medina successful the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, blends poetry, unrecorded euphony and ritual successful its exploration of brotherhood and belonging.

“No archetypal outing of thing should beryllium its last, you ever privation it to beryllium the commencement of something,” said McCraney of the season’s satellite premieres. “As a writer, I cognize that a archetypal accumulation tin beryllium hampered down if it’s overproduced oregon if it’s pushed successful a mode that it doesn’t person much abstraction to grow. These pieces [in the season] person imaginable for growth, truthful we’re putting them with directors who emotion caller enactment and mounting these plays up for a benignant of expansion, due to the fact that we privation different theaters to spot these archetypal productions and past privation to beryllium portion of that maturation arsenic well.”

Douglas Lyons, whose play “Table 17” volition marque its West Coast premiere astatine the Geffen adjacent season.

(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)

The Gil Cates Theater past welcomes the West Coast premiere of Douglas Lyons’ “Table 17” (Nov. 5 to Dec. 7), the romanticist drama successful which a antecedently engaged mates reunites astatine a edifice to, casually but carefully, untangle the past. Zhailon Levingston again directs the production, having besides helmed its twice-extended, off-Broadway world-premiere tally past year.

The caller twelvemonth kicks disconnected with the satellite premiere of Beth Hyland’s “Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia” (Feb. 4 to March 8, 2026), astir a novelist who, grappling with writer’s artifact and her husband’s rising fame, seeks solace successful the iconic Boston flat erstwhile inhabited by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Directed by Jo Bonney successful the Gil Cates Theater, the tragicomic thriller explores creativity, obsession and the outgo of creating art.

The play continues with the Los Angeles premiere of Sara Porkalob’s “Dragon Mama” (March 4 to April 12, 2026), pursuing this season’s deed tally of her tour-de-force “Dragon Lady.” Andrew Russell directs this installment of the Dragon Cycle successful the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater; this time, the solo amusement with euphony centers connected Porkalob’s parent who, forced to rise her 4 siblings, is presented with an accidental to pursuit her ain dreams.

“Sara brought a level of intimacy with our audiences with her accumulation of ‘Dragon Lady’ that we don’t privation to fto spell of,” said McCraney, who remains committed to programming Porkalob’s full trilogy for Los Angeles. “We privation our audiences to travel successful with a familiarity of, ‘She’s going to speech straight to us, marque jokes to america and sing with us.’ ”

Sara Porkalob starring successful “Dragon Lady” astatine Geffen Playhouse earlier this season. She volition execute “Dragon Mama” adjacent season.

(Jeff Lorch)

Then, a revival of Athol Fugard’s profoundly idiosyncratic play “ ‘Master Harold’…and the Boys” (April 8 to May 10, 2026) takes implicit the Gil Cates Theater. Set successful a South African beverage store during apartheid, the Tony-nominated play centers connected the lad of the shop’s achromatic owner, the 2 Black waiters who helped rise him and the charged conversations that situation their fragile, shared bond.

“It’s a play that I’ve loved and has been connected my mind, and the infinitesimal we looked into the rights, we heard of Athol passing away,” said McCraney of the playwright, who died past month. “It was a motion that we person to bash this precise important play, the infinitesimal of the play is thing we request to remember, and it’ll let america to person heavy conversations astir the harder questions successful our nine — who we are successful narration to each other, and however this strategy of oppression made it intolerable for radical to beryllium loving to each other, due to the fact that you request state to person love.”

The play concludes with the West Coast premiere of Pearl Cleage’s “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” (June 10 to July 12, 2026), a sharp-witted and soulful drama astir a seasoned histrion who, portion launching a comeback, finds herself clashing a caller procreation of artists and activists. LaTanya Richardson Jackson directs the staging successful the Gil Cates Theater, produced successful relation with Black Rebirth Collective and made imaginable successful portion by enactment from Cast Iron Entertainment.

“The archetypal 5 to 10 minutes of the play pisses maine off, tells maine astir myself and makes maine spot done different position successful a mode that I consciousness truthful nourished by,” said McCraney. “She wrote a play that talks to us, artists who person had careers, and however we request to marque country for folks who are online native, who look astatine the satellite ever truthful otherwise but person truthful galore originative instincts that tin lone assistance us. We are a metropolis afloat of artists and afloat of generational artists, and due to the fact that it is truthful amusive and succinct and focused connected performance, we deliberation it’ll beryllium a delicious mode to extremity our season.”