Avant Bard Announces 36th Season

Sep 4, 2025
Avant Bard Theatre

Avant Bard Theatre has unveiled plans for its 36th Season, a lineup that examines timeless stories through the lens of today's challenges. The season opens this fall with the 10th Annual Scripts in Play Festival and continues in spring 2026 with two bold productions that blend classic inspiration with contemporary urgency.

A Festival of New Voices

Celebrating a decade of nurturing fresh plays, the Scripts in Play Festival (October 2025) brings staged readings, lively talkbacks, and a spotlight on groundbreaking playwrights. This year's festival includes:
  • The Robotics of Love and Longing by Germaine Shames, directed by Kathleen Barth, which reimagines the Pygmalion myth to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping human connection.
  • As We Like It by Oded Gross, directed by Tracey Erbacher, a gripping exploration of what it means to confront dark forces by revisiting the classics.
  • Overcoming Orion by Abby Dunbar, directed by Audra Jacobs, which re-envisions the mythic figure of Orion as a trans man, leaving Artemis to grapple with a very human sense of grief.
The festival runs October 3-19 at venues across Arlington, including The Schnider Gallery, Mason Exhibitions-Arlington, The Filling Station, and MoCA Arlington.

Spring Productions

In early 2026, Avant Bard shifts to full productions with two dynamic works:
  • Two Gentlemen of Killarney. Written by Seamus Miller (The Margriad, Coriolanus), this fresh adaptation of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona transports audiences from famine-stricken Ireland to America. With live traditional Irish music, the play blends comedy, immigration stories, and Shakespearean wit into a lively celebration of resilience and love.
  • Ghost Limb. Penned by Marisela Treviño Orta and directed by Elena Velasco, this haunting drama is set during Argentina's Dirty War. Inspired by the myth of Persephone and Demeter, the story follows a mother whose son is "disappeared" by the military. When she discovers a psychic connection between her wounded arm and her tortured child, she races against time to find him.

A Season with Purpose

Avant Bard has long grappled with the role of theatre in a turbulent world. "What part, if any, does theatre-especially Avant Bard's theatre-have to play in resisting the nihilism, intolerance, and authoritarianism that plague our time?" the company has asked. This season is presented as a direct response: a call to resist, to reimagine, and to inspire.