ArtsEmerson Celebrating 15 Years of Connecting Communities with 2025-2026 Season
ArtsEmerson will celebrate 15 years of bringing challenging and inspiring contemporary world theater to Boston audiences with its 2025-2026 season, a collection of nine live performances that reflect the diversity of the city and look to deepen our connections to one another.
The 2025-2026 season, announced Thursday, May 22, in the Paramount Center, will include modern circus arts, a one-man show, multidisciplinary performances, and new spins on old classics. The shows have roots in Russia, Norway, Canada, and here in the United States.
“For the past 15 years, ArtsEmerson has been privileged to uplift artists and works from all over the globe that prompt key civic conversations and connect us across difference — and this year is no different,” said Interim Executive Director of Emerson’s Office of the Arts and ArtsEmerson Director of Artistic Programming. “Boston is an arts city, hungry for diverse work and narratives, and we are committed to delivering on our promise through works that explore and celebrate our collective humanity and resilience.”
In addition to live performance, ArtsEmerson will continue to screen narrative and documentary films as part of the Shared Stories series (in partnership with Boston Asian American Film Festival, CineFest Latino Boston, and Roxbury International Film Festival), and Projecting Connections: Chinese American Experiences, alongside BAAFF. Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBTQ+ Film Festival will also screen films in partnership with ArtsEmerson.
ArtsEmerson will continue to offer community engagement opportunities, including the Play Reading Book Club, a theater literacy and community education program that provides unique access to scripts, artists, and conversations, as well as dynamic discussions following shows and films.
Season packages will be available later in the summer, on artsemerson.org or at the Paramount Center Box Office. As always, Emerson students, faculty, and staff can get one free ticket to any ArtsEmerson presentation on the day of the show, and can purchase up to two $10 tickets in advance to any ArtsEmerson presentation.
2025-2026 Shows:
Self-proclaimed Food Bank Influencer Kristina Wong offers her rendition of the American musical that nobody asked for by celebrating our emergency food system. Having experienced food distribution (or lack thereof) from New York to the Navajo Nation, Wong shares irreverent commentary while illuminating American food insecurity. (September 19-21, 2025)
Three brothers chew the fat under an old, wide tree in Hang Time, an exploration of intergenerational bonds and a peek into the great loves and bitter blues of Black men in America by Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard. (October 9-12, 2025)
Manuel Cinema (Ada/Ava, Frankenstein) returns to ArtsEmerson with The 4th Witch, a tale inspired by Macbeth that chronicles the story of a girl who escapes war and seeks protection from three witches. Told through inventive effects executed in plain sight, the troupe employs shadow puppetry, live music, and silhouette actors to create a new world. (October 30 – November 9, 2025)
Inspired by the 1983 peace mission to the U.S.S.R led by 12-year-old Samantha Smith and the satellite-mediated citizens’ debates, known as “spacebridges,” between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., SpaceBridge tracks the struggles of children living in New York’s shelter system whose families were forced to escape Russia because of their antiwar views. (November 21-23, 2025)
Noli Timere (Latin for “be not afraid”) is a soaring aerial show featuring eight performers moving over and within a custom-designed net sculpture suspended 25 feet in the air. Conceived by Guggenheim Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Lazier, with renowned sculptor Janet Echelman, this culmination of a five-year collaboration renders interconnectedness visible and tangible. (January 29 – February 1, 2026)
The Things Around Us is a dazzling, funny, introspective new work from acclaimed musician, artist, and storyteller Ahamefule J. Oluo. In this one-person show, Oluo builds layers of live, looped music and tells us revealing, personal stories to create an evening about strangers, acquaintances, and friends, and how all three might be more similar to each other than we think. This is the third in a trilogy of Oluo’s shows, following Now I’m Fine and Susan. (February 20-22, 2026)
Deep within the underworld, a skeleton dodo and boy dig daily for fresh bones to replace their deteriorating ones, desperately trying to keep from disappearing. Until one day, the dodo sprouts feathers and everything changes. From Norway’s Wakka Wakka, Dead as a Dodo is a musical odyssey about friendship and the will to survive against all odds. (March 2-8, 2026)
Abasiama Ufot, still living in the house of her dead husband, forms an unexpected spiritual bond with a soft-spoken, church-going carpenter. As their connection deepens, and Abasiama’s house and soul become clearer, she comes to understand the true nature of love, sending her off on one last journey through life. The penultimate piece of Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-part play Ufot Family Cycle, In Old Age comes to ArtsEmerson in partnership with Front Porch Arts Collective, as part of a two-year, citywide production of Udofia’s epic in Boston. (March 21 – April 4, 2026)
DNAWORKS’ bold adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s 1909 novella The Secret Sharer transforms the text into a powerful multimedia performance blending dance, music, sound, text, and video projection. Often considered an early queer text, The Secret Sharer tells the tale of two men, outsiders in their societies, who forge an intimate, and ultimately healing connection. Audience members are invited to share their own stories throughout the performance in this world premiere event. (April 24 – May 3, 2026)
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