Round House Theatre Announces 50th Anniversary Season
Round House Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Rilette and Executive Director Ed Zakreski announced the company’s 2026-2027 Season and 50th anniversary celebrations, alongside a new brand identity as Round House looks to the next fifty years.
The 2026-2027 lineup honors a legacy of bold programming that challenges, inspires, and speaks to the moment while never losing sight of humanity. These powerful and timely plays—including two world premieres, three regional premieres, and a major co-production of an August Wilson classic—explore legacy, identity, and what happens when our trust in the systems we expect to support us begins to fracture. In addition, a robust lineup of free events titled 50 for 50, will take place throughout the season, from staged readings and master classes to backstage access and free tickets to selected performances, and more. Additional details will be announced this summer.
“As we mark Round House’s 50th anniversary, we’re celebrating not just five decades of bold work, but the spirit of collaboration and partnership that has defined this theatre since its earliest days,” says Ryan Rilette, Artistic Director. “This milestone season is a celebration of everything that makes us who we are. It honors our legacy while looking toward the future with work that reflects the world we live in and will ultimately resonate with audiences.”
Opening the season is Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson, a playwright who has been central to Round House’s artistic identity for decades. Reuniting two Helen Hayes Award winners for Fela! (director Lili-Anne Brown and actor Melody Betts in the title role), the play—widely considered one of Wilson’s most searing works—is a blistering examination of authorship, exploitation, and theft of Black artistry. The production will be presented at Round House in partnership with Olney Theatre Center. (September 9 - October 11, 2026)
Following the success of Rules for Living and A Hanukkah Carol, Round House once again offers audiences an alternative to traditional holiday fare with Cult of Love, the acclaimed Broadway hit by Leslye Headland. Directed by Round House Artistic Director Ryan Rilette, this darkly funny family drama set during the holidays balances humor and discomfort while exploring the tensions that surface when families gather. (November 18 - December 27, 2026)
Following its off-Broadway premiere at Roundabout Theatre Company in February, Alex Lin’s Chinese Republicans comes to Round House in its first regional production. This sharp comedy from an exciting new playwright tells a truly American story centering on Chinese-American women navigating corporate ambition and generational expectations, and explores how striving for success can conflict with identity and belonging in systems that still expect assimilation, especially for women of color. (January 27 - February 21, 2027)
The sixth annual Bonnie Hammerschlag National Capital New Play Festival returns with the world premiere of Baby Shower Katie by Beth Hyland on the mainstage. Previously presented as a workshop in the 2025 Festival, this hilarious new work explores friendship, motherhood, and the unspoken violences of expectation, asking what happens when the life we are told to want no longer fits the person we are becoming. Baby Shower Katie is a co-world premiere with Primary Stages, New York City. (April 14 - May 9, 2027)
The season concludes with The White Chip by Sean Daniels, an inventive and unflinching autobiographical play about addiction, recovery, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. After acclaimed runs off-Broadway and in London, Daniels will direct the production for the first time, bringing an added layer of personal perspective to a story already deeply lived. Told with theatricality, humor, and brutal honesty, the play asks what it means to rebuild a life after you have burned it down—and whether redemption is possible without illusion. (June 2 - July 3, 2027)
The season also features the 25th anniversary of the annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play, with Round House's Teen Performance Company presenting The Camp Silver Lake Jamboree Massacre, the playwriting debut of former Round House Associate Artistic Director Naysan Mojgani. Blending horror and dark comedy, the play follows teenage survivors battling supernatural forces and the deeper truths that emerge in the wake of trauma. Using the slasher genre as its gateway, it offers a thrilling and theatrical exploration of teen identity. (March 5 - 7, 2027)