The Wilma Theater is doubling down on boldness for its 2025–26 season, recently unveiling a slate of daring productions.
Audiences can look forward to the theater’s first-ever all-ages production, a return of a dance-theater cabaret show, and back-to-back plays by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights. The Wilma is also offering more chances to witness works as they’re developed from the page to the stage through limited presentations.
“This upcoming season, we wanted to embrace the work that we’ve been doing over the past 45 years — adventurous, risky work,” said Wilma Co-Artistic Director Lindsay Smiling. “We’re taking a look at the climate of where the country is, wanting to double down on that and doing theater that is brave.
The Wilma will start with ‘The Snow Queen’, on stage Nov. 11 to 23. This all-ages production tells a heartwarming tale of an enchanting journey that celebrates the magic of love and the power of friendship.
“It’s pushing back against those things that look to divide us and the power of community, the magic of love and warmth of friendship,” said Smiling. “It’s a beautiful all ages show that Yury Urnov — who has such an imaginative brain as a director — is going to take into its first foray doing theater for all ages.”
Next up, the Wilma is bringing back a show co-produced with Pig Iron called ‘Poor Judge’, a cabaret of Aimee Mann musicals performed and originated from an idea by Dito van Reigersberg of Martha Graham Cracker fame. Smiling said it is a seductive, inviting variety of musical acts in this fascination with Aimee Mann and her music.
Then the Wilma is turning to spicy satires, how they’re describing ‘The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Miz Martha Washington,’ by Philadelphia’s James Ijames, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for Fat Ham. This is a satire that explores issues of race, power and historical memory.
“It’s going to feature the HotHouse Acting Company in full force looking at the legacy of slavery in the United States,” said Smiling. “This is one of those plays looking at how history has been narrowed in its perspective by our current administration. We’re looking to reinforce those perspectives that are being erased on a daily basis from our institutions.”
This show will be followed by another doubling down of looking at America’s legacy with ‘The America Play,’ by Suzan-Lori Parks, a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright; Smiling will be directing that show.
“This piece is a wonderful investigation into this pursuit of the American dream from the narrative of an African American experience,” he said. “Looking at what it means to be a great man in this country, to idealize Abraham Lincoln and his ideals, and really unpacking what that means in the history of this country.”
The Wilma will also spotlight works in development, with a focus on featuring its resident acting company, the HotHouse.
“We’ll be getting an insight into the process of what we do in our HotHouse sessions to further training and develop pieces with a piece co-conceived by Milo Kramer and Morgan Green called, ‘Jury Duty,’” he said.
The play blends verbatim transcripts, personal testimonies, and media design by projection designer Ray Sun to create a highly engaging courtroom experience that challenges our understanding of justice, power, and civic duty.
The Wilma is also looking at doing a production of a workshop of ‘Animal Farm,’ by George Orwell.
“We’re taking a look at it through the HotHouse perspective with our company of actors and devising that piece,” Smiling explained. “Then there’s a piece that I am very interested in called ‘Horse Girl and Cow Daddy’, which looks at life of a trans woman in rural Pennsylvania and examines what are narratives around urban and rural life and how we perceive each other from those perspectives.”
For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit wilmatheater.org
