Anticipate Great Theater in 2026 – Ready, Set, January!

Bohemia (courtesy Marxiano Prods.)

We’ve survived another year! January is certainly bringing world premieres and enticing shows our way. Also a couple of reprises you might want to check out having missed the last time. Get out yer calendars!
 
The Heart Sellers
1/2/26-2/1/26
Seattle Rep, www.seattlerep.org
Young immigrants Luna and Jane meet as strangers over the frozen turkeys at the grocery store on Thanksgiving in 1973, while their husbands work long hours. They decide to celebrate this unfamiliar holiday together. As they bond over their new lives in America and their longing for faraway family in Korea and the Philippines, they discover a kinship that overcomes any language barrier. (Recommended for ages 13+.)
 
Walking on a Paper Moon and Lear (alone)
1/10-19/26 (at ReACT Theatre, 562 1st Avenue South #400)
Baker Theatre Workshop, https://www.bakertheaterworkshop.com/
Walking on a Paper Moon is a one-act play about a father and his daughters coping with grief while watching the first moon landing. Lear (alone), an adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy, focuses on the original play’s third act, with Lear alone in the wilderness and slowly descending into madness. (Free with reservation)
 
SHe Said, Stories & Songs by Jen Ayers
1/13/26-2/1/26 (at Erickson Theatre)
Intiman Theatre, www.intiman.org
When Jen’s partner of 25 years came out as transgender, their relationship entered uncharted territory, sparking a journey of self-discovery, growth, and fierce devotion—as partners, as individuals, and as parents of an 8-year-old. Jen then turned to her piano, creating what would become SHe Said—a deeply personal, genre-defying story about navigating transition together as a family.
 
Li (world premiere)
1/16/26-2/8/26
Seattle Public Theater with SiS Productions, www.seattlepublictheater.org and https://celebr8women.wordpress.com 

Li, a mid-career thief from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, suddenly finds herself taking on too much responsibility. She breaks into an apartment and ends up emptying her pockets to feed its old, blind and starving resident. She gets a phone call from her estranged brother, a college professor in New York City, who tells her that he’s dying from cancer and now it’s her job to take care of their mother. With three mouths to feed, Li has to reconsider her career choice. Can her street smarts help her survive? A play with a radio, a hen, and a really good fart joke.
 
Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
ISSAQUAH 1/20/26-2/22/26 / EVERETT 2/28/26-3/22/26
Village Theatre, www.villagetheatre.org
The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their killer, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the mystery of The Hound of the Baskervilles before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 40 characters. Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can our heroes discover the truth in time?

Here There Are Blueberries (Kevin Parry Photography)

Here There Are Blueberries (tour)
1/21/26-2/15/26
Seattle Rep, www.seattlerep.org
In 2007, a mysterious album featuring Nazi-era photographs arrived at the desk of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist. As curators unravel the shocking truth behind the images, the album soon makes headlines and ignites a debate that reverberates far beyond the museum walls. Based on real events, Here There Are Blueberries tells the story of these historical photographs—what they reveal about the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and our own humanity. (Recommended for ages 12+.)
 
Till We Have Faces (world premiere)
1/21/26-2/21/26
Taproot Theatre, www.taproottheatre.org
When Psyche is sacrificed to appease the gods, her sister Orual—the future warrior queen—ventures to give her a proper burial. But Psyche is not dead, and she believes she’s living a life Orual cannot see. What follows is a powerful, mythic journey through love, beauty, faith, doubt, and the bonds of sisterhood. Adapted by Karen Lund.
 
New Works Northwest
1/22-25/26
Union Arts Center, www.unionartscenter.org
A week of staged readings, community events, and conversations about the future of theater:
afropick by Gloria Majule
Pendo can’t stay in America. At least, not without an enormous amount of money that she does not have. The faster time runs out on her visa, the more desperate she gets, and the more she is forced to confront the horrors and opportunities of migration.
and thou shalt be healed by Benjamin Benne
Mary and Johnny are siblings – with a complicated cult upbringing. Johnny has left the cult but Mary remains. They reunite on a remote mountain in New Mexico when Mary brings news that will force them both to reckon with their relationship, their beliefs, and their faith.
the loudest man on earth by Catherine Rush
Jordan was born deaf. A maverick theatre director and staunch non-conformist, Jordan’s got his life pretty well mapped out, until he meets Haylee, a quirky and independent woman who’s pretty much everything he’s not – and she doesn’t even speak ASL.
wardenclyffe by Stacy D. Flood
A Black family-owned investment firm has one night to decide whether to risk everything on a superstar Black entrepreneur who may be the company’s savior – or a charlatan. What is the value of a family business, and what does it truly mean to care for one’s community?
nothing’s changed, everything’s new by Aliza Jane Cosgrove
A Seattle mom seeks the help of a group of radical, zine-making, fast talking teens in her area to try and coax her son away from alt-right internet propaganda. When they agree, it spurs an explosive discourse that reaches farther than was ever expected.
sync by Shanna Allman
Allison is feeling unlovable and emotionally adrift. Perhaps an Automated Relational Companion from The Institute for Enhanced Connections could help. Her best friend has a serious problem with Allison’s AI boyfriend. A comedy about what happens when technology comes home, crawls into bed, and kisses us goodnight.
 
Bohemia
1/22/26-2/1/26 (Triple Door)
Marxiano Productions, www.marxiano.com
Famous Czech composer Antonin Dvořák who has hit a wall and prior to composing his magnum opus, so he looks to the bottom of a bottle of absinthe for inspiration. In this macabre and mystical dream cabaret, Dvořák is visited by the ghost of late composer Frederick Chopin and a host of green fairies. Chopin and many other famous Bohemians guide Dvořák on the search for true inspiration in the pursuit of artistic immortality.
 
Wait Until Dark
1/23/26-2/8/26
Harlequin Productions, www.harlequinproductions.org
She can’t see them—but she knows they’re there. In this white-knuckle thriller, Susan Hendrix, newly blind, seems an easy mark when three ruthless criminals invade her Greenwich Village apartment. When the lights go out, survival comes down to nerve, instinct, and the element of surprise. As the climax builds, Susan discovers that her blindness just might be the key to her escape, but she and her tormentors must wait until dark to play out this classic thriller’s chilling conclusion.
 
Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike
1/26/26-2/1/26
SecondStory Repertory, www.secondstoryrep.org
Siblings Vanya and Sonia lead quiet, unfulfilled lives in their childhood home until their glamorous movie star sister, Masha, arrives with her much younger, dim-witted boy toy, Spike. What follows is a riotous collision of Chekhovian ennui, modern anxieties, and absurd humor. This brilliant play is a witty, poignant, and wildly entertaining exploration of family, aging, and the search for happiness.
 
The Seagull
1/29/26-2/8/26 (at Jones Playhouse)
UW School of Drama, www.drama.uw.edu
In this new translation of Chekhov’s ”serious comedy of human contradictions”, a group of artists and dreamers meet in the countryside and wrestle with the costs of ambition, unspoken longings, and the harsh realities of artistic pursuits. Set against a backdrop of love, passionate aspirations, and the search for meaning, The Seagull captures the fierce hopes and quiet heartbreaks of an artistic career.
 
The Wild Party
1/30/26-2/8/26 (at Seattle Center, Armory)
Sound Theatre Company, www.soundtheatrecompany.org
Set in the Manhattan apartment of vaudeville performers Queenie and Burrs, a group of burlesque artists gathers for one unforgettable night. When a mysterious newcomer enters the mix, the couple’s already-fractured relationship is pushed to the brink, sending the party spinning into a glittering, dangerous spiral of temptation and thrill-seeking. Sound produced this play in 2013 to acclaim and may well sell out!
 
Love’s Labour’s Lost
1/30/26-2/22/26
The Phoenix Theatre, www.tptedmonds.org
King Ferdinand of Navarre and his three loyal friends--the Lords Berowne, Longueville, and Dumaine--decide to retreat from the world to study and fast, foregoing the company of women. However, the Princess of France, and her ladies Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine arrive on political business. Letters are exchanged, hijinks ensue, and the King and lords who said they’d give up women end up falling in love with the Princess and her ladies. “Love is familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.” (This is Phoenix’s first Shakespearean effort.)
 
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