2026 SEASON
SEVEN UNFORGETTABLE SHOWS
We are proud to announce our 2026 Season: The Land of The Free from Oakland Theater Project.
April 3, 1968.
On the eve of his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands at the precipice of history.
After delivering one of his most famous sermons, King returns to room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. There, a conversation with a captivating maid named Camae unfolds late into the night as the civil rights leader who risked everything for the freedom of others faces the unavoidable truth of his own mortality.
Katori Hall’s electrifying re-imagining of King’s final night reveals the human beneath the icon, illuminating how fragile, unfinished, and fiercely fought the path toward freedom remains.
In a country built on the promise of liberty, what drives someone to try to kill the person who represents that promise?
Stephen Sondheim’s dark, razor-sharp musical presents a lineup of figures from American history who assassinated, or attempted to assassinate, American presidents.
This daring one-person staging, directed by Weston Scott, features Adam KuveNiemann (Ironbound, Exodus to Eden) as the solo performer portraying every character in this famed musical.
This one-of-a-kind production reveals how an epidemic of white male isolation cascading across the country can lead to violence. Here, every gunman, dreamer, outcast, and would-be revolutionary exists within a single alienated individual. As KuveNiemann moves through history’s most infamous attempts on presidential power, we reckon with how a nation that confuses freedom with independence can unravel itself through violence.
Assassins plays at Oakland Theater Project from March 20 – April 19.
Following the death of her second husband, Bernarda Alba imposes an eight-year mourning period on her household—and all five of her daughters.
Under the matriarch’s iron grip, freedom is a hunger: a pulse beneath floorboards, a body straining against lace and grief.
Featuring OTP Co-Artistic Director Lisa Ramirez in the title role, Chay Yew’s powerful adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s drama merges dance and drama to make visible what repression tries to crush: desire, rebellion, and the human right to self-determination. In a house sealed against the world, freedom claws at the walls — until something breaks.
The House of Bernarda Alba plays from May 22 – June 7.
PERFORMANCE VENUE: To Be Announced
Following 2023’s production of Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, OTP returns to the category-defying work of Taylor Mac with The Fre, in which a lone Hero searches for order in a society that worships impulse.
Part mud-riot, part rave, The Fre is a queer, all-ages play that stages polarization inside a literal ball pit, pulling the audience into a world where freedom looks like chaos, conformity hides inside collective joy, and language dissolves into play.
The result is both liberation and collapse — a muddy reminder that freedom can unite us, but it can just as easily devour us.
Raucous, raunchy, and unexpectedly tender, The Fre explores freedom across class and tribal lines, reminding us that connection, play, and solidarity may be the only way out.
Don’t miss this wild and generous work from a contemporary genius of the American theater, directed by Mylo Cardona.
The Fre plays at Oakland Theater Project from June 18 – 28.
A charismatic young drifter arrives in a small community shaped by prejudice and moral control. His presence awakens desires for love, justice, and self-determination — and sparks devastating consequences.
Born of the Southern Gothic but urgently national, Tennessee Williams re-imagines the myth of Orpheus and Euridice as a fever dream of America — one where the promise of freedom is received not as a refuge, but as a threat.
Will Detlefsen (Confirmation, Machinalia) directs.
Orpheus Descending plays at Oakland Theater Project from August 7 – 23.
In the twilight of his rule, a king sets out to divide the kingdom among his three daughters. But in mistaking flattery for love, Lear’s choices usher in a new reign of domination, cruelty, and collapse.
Stripped of title, authority, and comfort, Lear is left with nothing but his humanity.
Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy examines a man who mistakes his position for his identity, and finds himself in a new world — one in which kings are fools, fools are wise, and the exiled become one another’s unlikely saviors.
Written centuries ago, Shakespeare’s devastating examination of power asks whether freedom is possible in a world where control reigns — and why truth, care for the powerless, and dignity demand such risk.
King Lear, a co-production with New Performance Traditions and directed by Michael Socrates Moran, plays from September 26 – October 11.
PERFORMANCE VENUE: Z Space in San Francisco
In Lisa Ramirez’s newest play, “Sí, se puede” becomes She Se Puede (A Chorus of Huertas) — a world premiere about Dolores Huerta and her lifelong fight for labor rights and true freedom.
This vibrant theatrical portrait, directed by Karina Gutiérrez, explores how Huerta’s perseverance, collective vision, and radical hope remain urgently necessary today — and examines freedom not as a gift, but as something organized, demanded, and won.
Here, the fight for dignity is the fight for freedom, carried forward by those who refuse silence.
She Se Puede (A Chorus of Huertas) plays at Oakland Theater Project from November 20 – December 6.
Performance Location:
2026 Season performances will take place at Oakland Theater Project at 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland CA 94612 unless otherwise noted.
For a map, public transit and parking information, click here.
Tickets for Individual Shows:
$10–70 online or by calling our Box Office at 510.646.1126
Pay-what-you-can at the door (limited number)
If you have any questions, email our Box Office at boxoffice@oaklandtheaterproject.org