THE WORLD TO COME World Premiere And More Set for Theater J 2025-2026 Season

Theater J has announced its 2025-2026 season, marking its 35th year of producing thought-provoking, dynamic, and impactful theater. The season includes a mix of new works and beloved classics, featuring stories that explore identity, resilience, and the intersections of Jewish life and the broader human experience.

Curated by Artistic Director Hayley Finn, this season offers audiences an expansive journey, weaving between history and the present, from intimate family dramas to global narratives that challenge and inspire. “This season's plays traverse theatrical styles and modes of storytelling,” says Finn, “yet each play poses questions relevant to our current moment. What is our responsibility to the truth? What is our role in our community, and how do we find solace and inspiration from friends? From bold gestures to passionate pleas to surprising romance and unexpected transformation, the plays in our season reflect on our past and present and send us soaring toward the future.”

The Theater J 2025-2026 season:

An Enemy of the People

by Henrik Ibsen, in a new adaptation by Amy Herzog

Directed by János Szász

October 29 - November 23, 2025

Goldman Theater at the Edlavitch DCJCC

Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding Adaptation and recent Broadway sensation, Amy Herzog's work unearths the relevance of Ibsen's tale for our time, weighing the cost of standing up to power when pressured into silence. Ibsen's tale highlights the reverberating power of citizens who go against the status quo to do what's right by their community. The story raises powerful questions around the importance of keeping society healthy over economic gain, integrity within influence, and the personal cost of speaking up.

The story follows a small-town doctor who considers himself a proud, upstanding member of his close-knit community. When he discovers a catastrophe that risks the lives of everyone in town, he raises the alarm. But he is shaken to his core when those in power, including his own brother, try not only to silence him, but to destroy him. 

WORLD PREMIERE

Theater J and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company present

The World to Come

By Ali Viterbi

Directed by Howard Shalwitz

February 3 - March 1, 2026

At Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The residents of the SeaBreeze Hebrew Home for the Aging carry on as usual: knitting, playing Scrabble, fighting, and falling in love. As the apocalyptic outside world threatens their way of life, Fanny, Barbara, Ruth, and Hal fight to protect the community they've built together. Even while battling armored nurses, a wild ostrich, strange prophecies, and their ailing bodies, they find joy in each other's company. THE WORLD TO COME is a surprising new epic that reveals how powerful friendship can be as a form of resistance. 

In this world premiere from Theater J and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company by playwright Ali Viterbi – winner of the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest – some of DC's greatest performers will grace the stage with warmth, heartbreak and the sheer will to protect each other, even as the outside world crumbles.

This Much I Know

By Jonathan Spector

Directed by Hayley Finn

March 11 - April 5, 2026

Goldman Theater at the Edlavitch DCJCC

Multi-award winner Jonathan Spector, fresh from his Broadway debut Eureka Day, returns to Theater J after his sold-out hit This Much I Know, bringing a soon-to-be-announced revelatory new work teeming with dynamic characters, vibrant storytelling, and the riveting alchemy of youth, friendship, and conflict. 

Olney Theatre Center's production of Avaaz

Written and performed by Michael Shayan

Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel

June 6 - 21, 2026

Goldman Theater at the Edlavitch DCJCC

In what The Washington Post calls “the role he was born to play,” Michael Shayan explores his Iranian heritage and complicated family through the sparkle and luster of a dinner party by embodying the real star of the story - his mother, Roya. A dazzling hostess, Michael's Roya welcomes the audience into her home to celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. She prepares a feast for her guests in both the form of a meal and the tale of her life: she's a resilient and hilarious narrator, diving deep into the immigrant experience as a single mother of a queer son, a Jew in Iran, and a Persian in America, all while crafting an irresistible feast for her guests. It's the dinner party of the season - and one you won't want to miss.

Michael Shayan's transformative storytelling power shifts between tenderness and strength, motherhood and memory. His comedic timing and physical ability to shift character is a wonder in and of itself. The fullness of his solo show creates the kind of humor that opens our hearts and lets us fall in love - both with the woman who raised him and the universal depth of her immigrant story.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION 

Stories From the Brink

By Iris Bahr

January 24-25, 2026

Stories from the Brink is a wild ride of near-death experiences, hilarious retellings, and insightful revelations in one transformative performance from Theater J favorite and Lucille Lortel Award-winner Iris Bahr (Curb your Enthusiasm, Hacks, The Last Exorcism). As Variety magazine puts it, “Bahr has more voices at her command than a symphony has strings." Returning to the stage fresh off her acclaimed one-woman show at Theater J, See You Tomorrow, Bahr brings a wild new show that promises raucous laughter and life-affirming wonder all at once. 

THEATER Jr. 

December 2026

After the success of Theater J's first Theater Jr. theater programming for young audiences Tiny Lights by Aaron Posner adapted from folk tales by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Theater J will be bringing another holiday title for young audiences to the stage in December for families with children ages 3-6. 

The season will also feature Creative Conversations talkbacks and community partnerships, with more details to be announced.

Additionally, Theater J will continue its commitment to new play development through workshops and readings of commissioned works from the Yiddish Theater Lab and the Expanding the Canon new play commissioning programs. 

OFF-BROADWAY PREMIERE

Theater J has announced their first Off-Broadway transfer.  Jonathan Spector's stirring play THIS MUCH I KNOW will be produced by Theater J in New York City in September 2025. It will feature the same brilliant actors as the Theater J production from 2024 with more details to be announced at a later date. “After 34 years of producing groundbreaking work in our nation's capital,” says Theater J Managing Director David Lloyd Olson, “it is an honor for Theater J to be bringing one of our hit shows from Hayley Finn's inaugural season to Manhattan this fall.” 

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