WAITING FOR GODOT With Rainn Wilson, and More Set For Geffen Playhouse's 2024/2025 Season

 Geffen Playhouse has announced six productions that will make up the 2024/2025 season lineup, marking the inaugural season from Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney. The 2024/2025 season will launch August 14, 2024, in the Geffen’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater and continue in the Gil Cates Theater through July 20, 2025. The lineup will feature a mix of classics and new co-productions, as well as Los Angeles, West Coast and world premieres. 

“My hope is by beginning the season with The Brothers Size—part of The Brother/Sister Plays trilogy—and Dragon Lady—from multi-hyphenate innovative Broadway star Sara Porkalob’s Dragon Cycle trilogy—we entice our audiences into direct conversations about family, America, and freedom that can expand over multiple theatrical events. It’s a commitment and an invitation to engage,” said Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney. “I also have the great honor of introducing two powerful emerging artists to Los Angeles with their already acclaimed works in a.k. payne’s Furlough’s Paradise and Jake Brasch’s The Reservoir.  

In addressing artistic priorities for the Geffen, McCraney added, “I wanted to deepen the Geffen’s collaborations with theaters across the world. Partnering with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company on Michael Frayn’s Noises Off and working with Gare St Lazare Ireland on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (directed by Gare St Lazare’s Judy Hegarty Lovett and featuring Conor Lovett and Rainn Wilson), felt like bold first steps towards that priority of collaboration.” 

Added Geffen Playhouse Executive Director/CEO Gil Cates, Jr., “We are beyond excited to announce Tarell’s first season for Geffen Playhouse. His vision builds on our nearly 30-year legacy with bold creative choices that will shape our future as theater makers. Under Tarell’s artistic leadership, Geffen audiences are going to be introduced to new voices, new stories and new formats for the live theatrical experience.”

Under McCraney’s artistic leadership, the Geffen’s intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater will take on a new strategic direction beginning with the 2024/2025 season, establishing a dedicated space primarily for creative experimentation and development of new works, including workshops, readings and collaborations with the creative community across all disciplines. While serving as a lab for artistic development, the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater will also continue as a flexible performance space for select ticketed Geffen Playhouse productions throughout the season.

“Classic stories, emerging artists, and finding new, innovative ways to share ideas with live audiences—these are the very foundation of our new works lab to be housed in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater,” stated McCraney. “We have big plans for our intimate space, which will be in close partnership with our neighbors and colleagues at UCLA.”

The 2024/2025 Geffen Playhouse season will launch in its Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater with Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, a raw and heartfelt exploration of the bonds of brotherhood in the Deep South, which also marks the play’s 20th anniversary. The Brothers Size will be performed in the round. The season will continue in the Gil Cates Theater beginning with the Los Angeles premiere of Dragon Lady, written and performed by Broadway star and storyteller Sara Porkalob, who embodies dozens of characters in a trigenerational tour-de-force performance that fuses killer karaoke with laugh-out-loud comedy to tell her family’s incredible origin story.

Next up will be a reimagining of the classic Waiting for Godot, featuring Conor Lovett (I’ll Find You, Versailles) and Rainn Wilson (Thom Pain, The Office) in Samuel Beckett’s tragi-comedy that has captivated audiences for decades. The season will then continue with slamming doors, flying sardines and dropped trousers in Noises Off, Michael Frayn’s side-splitting British farce about a theater company desperately trying to get their act together. This uproarious love letter to the theater is a peek behind the curtain—where everything that can go wrong, does!

The season will carry on with the West Coast premiere of a.k. payne’s Furlough’s Paradise, a poignant tale of grief, home, love and kinship, as two cousins grapple with their conflicting memories of the past and their shared hopes for the future. Poetic and theatrical, Furlough’s Paradise explores family dreams of a utopia yet to be realized. Completing the 2024/2025 season will be the world premiere of Jake Brasch’s The Reservoir, the story of a young man who is trying to get his life together, but can’t manage to stay sober and decides to bring his four loveable grandparents on his road to recovery. Served up with outrageous humor and truth, The Reservoir reminds us that sometimes the path forward isn’t the one we expect. 

Geffen Playhouse will continue its longstanding relationship with UCLA Health for its 2024/2025 season.

GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE 2024/2025 SEASON 

The Brothers Size (Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater)

August 14 – September 8, 2024

Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Bijan Sheibani

A Co-Production with The Shed

Drawing from the rich tradition of the Yoruba people of West Africa, The Brothers Size is a modern-day fable about two brothers in the Deep South. Ogun, the elder brother, embodies hard work and reliability, while Oshoosi, formerly incarcerated, is seemingly carefree and unpredictable. Their relationship is tested when the charismatic Elegba arrives, tempting Oshoosi back to his old habits. As the brothers wrestle with loyalty, freedom, and duty, their humanity is revealed though a raw and heartfelt exploration of the bonds of brotherhood.

Kicking off his inaugural season as Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s acclaimed play The Brothers Size celebrates its 20th anniversary in the intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater.

  

Dragon Lady (Gil Cates Theater)

Part I of The Dragon Cycle

LOS ANGELES PREMIERE

September 4 – October 6, 2024

Written & Performed by Sara Porkalob

Directed by Andrew Russell

On the eve of her 60th birthday, Maria Porkalob Sr. fires up her new karaoke machine to regale her granddaughter Sara with her astonishing life story. As a lounge singer who escaped a gangster-controlled nightclub in Manila to become a free-range mother of five in the United States, Maria is a matriarch not to be trifled with. Broadway star and storyteller Sara Porkalob embodies dozens of characters in a trigenerational tour-de-force performance that fuses killer karaoke with laugh-out-loud comedy to tell her family’s incredible origin story.

Waiting for Godot (Gil Cates Theater)

November 6 – December 15, 2024

Written by Samuel Beckett

Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett

Produced in Association with Gare St Lazare Ireland

Featuring Conor Lovett & Rainn Wilson

Additional casting to be announced.

As Vladimir and Estragon wait and wait for the arrival of the elusive Godot, a cast of mysterious misfits interrupt their endless vigil in Samuel Beckett’s tragi-comic masterpiece that has captivated audiences for decades. Timeless and multi-layered, Waiting for Godot changed the course of contemporary drama and remains as resonant and riveting as ever. Gare St Lazare Ireland, “the unparalleled Beckett champions” according to the New York Times, bring their wit and skill to what promises to be a Godot for the ages featuring Conor Lovett (I’ll Find You, Versailles) and Rainn Wilson (Thom Pain, The Office).

Noises Off (Gil Cates Theater)

January 29 – March 2, 2025

Written by Michael Frayn

Directed by Anna D. Shapiro

A Co-Production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Doors slam, sardines fly, and trousers drop in Michael Frayn’s side-splitting British farce about a theater company desperately trying to get their act together. Both onstage and backstage, chaos reigns for a troupe of floundering actors whose forgotten lines, misplaced props, and steamy romantic entanglements make it nearly impossible for the show to go on. An uproarious love letter to the theater, Noises Off is a peek behind the curtain—where everything that can go wrong, does!

Furlough’s Paradise (Gil Cates Theater)

WEST COAST PREMIERE

April 16 – May 18, 2025

Written by a.k. payne

Directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden

Cousins Sade and Mina used to be inseparable. Now leading very different lives, they return to their childhood town for the funeral of their mother and aunt. While Sade is on a three-day furlough from prison and Mina experiences a brief reprieve from her career and life on the West Coast, the two try to make sense of grief, home, love, and kinship. As the clock ticks down, the cousins grapple with their conflicting memories of the past and their shared hopes for the future. Poetic and theatrical, Furlough’s Paradise explores family dreams of a utopia yet to be realized.

  

The Reservoir (Gil Cates Theater)

WORLD PREMIERE

June 18 – July 20, 2025

Written by Jake Brasch

Directed by Shelley Butler

In Partnership with Denver Center for the Performing Arts & Alliance Theatre

Josh’s life is a mess. He’s come home to Denver from NYU to get his life together, but can’t manage to stay sober. Desperate for camaraderie, he decides to bring his four loveable grandparents on his road to recovery. He drags them to Jazzercise class. He pressures them into playing memory games. He forces them to eat spinach by the handful. And eventually, when he can no longer help his grandparents, they begin to help him. Served up with outrageous humor and truth, The Reservoir reminds us that sometimes the path forward isn’t the one we expect.