Off-Broadway’s Theatre for a New Audience has drawn the curtain on its 2026-2027 season, the first to be programmed by new Artistic Director Arin Arbus. The full slate of programming will be seen at Brooklyn’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center.
The season will kick off with the North American premiere of Sarah Jones‘ solo show, America, Who Hurt You?, playing September 11-27. Presented as a co-production with National Black Theatre and in association with Foment Productions and Jayson Jackson, the work has been developed from Jones’ podcast of the same name, exploring who gets to tell America’s story. Eric Ting will direct the solo play, which was commissioned by Oxford University to premiere at its first-ever performing Arts Center. The work is now touring the U.S. to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.
Next up will be the New York premiere of Elektra, newly translated from Sophocles by Anne Carson. Performances will run November 10-December 6, with Daniel Fish (Oklahoma!) directing. The performances will feature music by Ted Hearne.
Moving into 2027, the company will present Suzanne Bocanegra’s Honor, An Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili Taylor January 13-31. Directed by Geoff Sobelle and part of the 2027 Under the Radar Festival, the project is the result of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s inviting Bocanegra to create a work about the largest tapestry in their collection, a 16th-century piece titled Honor. The performance will see Bocanegra opposite Taylor as they explore “ownership, cruelty, and feminism together with personal and collective histories,” per press notes.
The season’s final offering will be an Arbus-directed production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, with stage and screen star John Douglas Thompson taking on the title role. Performances will run February 28-March 28, 2027.
Tickets are at TFANA.org.