Looking for the latest on Philly’s theater scene? Metro has you covered. Here are some highlights for the month of May.
‘Endlings’
Normally, we wouldn’t start at the end, but this time, this grand finale is all about ‘Endlings‘, the newest production at Hedgerow Theatre, written by Canadian-South Korean screenwriter and film director-turned-playwright Celine Song. Best known now for her directorial film debut ‘Past Lives’ and its nominations for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, Song’s ‘Endlings’ cuts deeply into the heart of Asian identity politics with its traditional tale of aging haenyeos (female divers in South Korean harvesting seafood, mollusks, seaweed, and such, independently) balanced against a story of a young Korean author questioning the ownership of her heritage.
Kalina Ko, the director of the regional premiere presentation of ‘Endlings’, says of Song’s work that, “I fell in love with her play the very first time I read it in 2019 at a theater company on the coast of Connecticut. Now, five years after its world premiere, I’m truly thrilled to have the opportunity to bring such vibrant characters and their underwater world for Hedgerow Theatre’s audiences.”
Ko has attended other productions of ‘Endlings’ at several theaters around the country since that first reading, and believes it is appropriate to have interacted with the play in so many places, because it is a story about the collision of different geographies and different generations of women.
“Even ones that are half a world apart,” says Ko.
Each character in the play brings their own uniquely combined landscape: the haenyeos swim between their underwater domain and the island they live on, the playwright navigates her Korean and American immigrant identity. Even the physical locations in the play collide: Manjae Island turning into Manhattan. The play emerges from these rich intersections of place and culture, asserting their vital importance. That’s what makes bringing this piece to Hedgerow both thrilling and challenging—especially now, in a time when global cultural and geographic collisions often seem to yield only tension and unrest. ‘Endlings’ invites us to look deeper, to consider what might be discovered through these very collisions—what we might gain by entering the world of the haenyeos, even from seats in Media, Pennsylvania.
‘Endlings’ is on stage now through June 1. Tickets are available at hedgerowtheatre.org
‘The Return of Benjamin Lay’
Currently on the stages of Quintessence Theatre Group – through May 18 – audiences can watch Pennsylvania history come to life in ‘The Return of Benjamin Lay‘ from playwright, screenwriter and poet Naomi Wallace, with University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History, Marcus Rediker.
Quintessence is producing ‘The Return of Benjamin Lay’ as a collaboration with New York’s Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, and the one-man play starring actor Mark Povinelli is inspired by the real life tale of an 18th-century Quaker, born a dwarf in Copford, England, who emigrated to America, settled in Abington, Pennsylvania, and lived his life as an activist revolutionary who fought and advocated for the abolition of slavery in colonial America. If you’re looking for a history lesson that jumps off the page, and a story you surely never knew before, check out ‘Benjamin Lay’.
‘The Return of Benjamin Lay’ runs until May 18. Tickets are available at quintessencetheatre.org
Supporting local arts
May’s Theater in the Round (Up) wants to share two developments that are no longer distant or abstract threats to live theater and performance—but two very real, and deeply disheartening, realities.
First: After more than 21 years of covering and championing Philadelphia’s live and visual arts, Artblog will officially shut down when co-founder and executive director-editor Roberta Fallon steps away on Jan. 1, 2026, to pursue new projects. Though Artblog is still publishing, its closing is a significant loss. We encourage you to dig into its incredible archive of sharp, insightful writing at theartblog.org, and mark your calendars for their farewell celebration on Oct. 25 at Moore College of Art.
Second: On May 2, the National Endowment for the Arts announced sweeping funding cuts and the sudden cancellation of promised federal support to local arts organizations and theater companies. This includes funding for productions already in progress, shows about to open, and critical promotional efforts like those led by Theatre Philadelphia for the just-announced 2025–2026 season and Philly Theatre Week.
In the face of these losses, we urge our readers to show up, attend charity events and auctions that many local theaters are organizing in May and June. More importantly, buy tickets. Support the incredible array of staged and pop-up theater happening across Philadelphia. The best way to respond to these funding setbacks is to keep showing up—for the work, for the artists, and for the future of live performance in Philly.
