In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect. Filled with awkward and insightful humor, this unique and compassionate new play asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us.

Funny, sad and raucously rude, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is adapted from Alan Warner’s brilliant novel about six girls on the cusp of change. Young, lost and out-of-control, they’re hit by love, lust, and pregnancy and death over the course of a single day.

“Richard II,” “Henry IV” Parts I & II, and “Henry V”—together they tell a tale of family drama-fueled political conflict that spans three generations of the crown. In this momentous six-week residency marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, director Gregory Doran and the Royal Shakespeare Company present the epic four-play cycle in its entirety, offering a rare chance to experience the playwright—and his most fluent interpreters—on the grandest historical scale.

Loosely based on the real-life experiences of Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight world champion, “The Royale” tells, in six rounds, the fictional story of Jay “The Sport” Johnson, a charismatic Negro Heavyweight Champion. It’s 1905 and as Johnson faces his opponents—and confronts his demons—he exposes the troublesome events in his life that have propelled him into the ring with a burning desire to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

Originally produced in 1940, “Cabin in the Sky” followed “Porgy and Bess” in celebrating African-American music and dance traditions. The musical tells the story of “Little Joe” Jackson (Michael Potts), a charming ne’er-do-well who dies in a saloon brawl and is given six months on earth to prove his worth to the Lord’s General (Tony Award nominee Norm Lewis) and the Devil’s Head Man (Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper)—all while struggling to remain true to his loving wife Petunia (Tony Award winner LaChanze) and resist the wiles of temptress Georgia Brown (Carly Hughes). Long considered a lost treasure, the score of Cabin in the Sky—which includes jazz hits like “Taking a Chance on Love” and “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe”—will be restored to its original glory for Encores!

This fall marks the U.S. premiere of a new musical with a refreshingly offbeat twist. Part comedy, part tragedy—and wholly unexpected—this wildly imaginative story delivers surprises at every turn. The lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir are cut short in a freak accident aboard a roller coaster. A mechanical fortune-teller invites each to tell their story of a life interrupted—offering the chance to come to terms with their fates. At once quirky and smart, edgy and beautiful, “Ride the Cyclone” ultimately reveals the resilience of the human spirit in spite of senseless tragedy.

When Erica, their sixteen-year-old daughter, goes missing during a winter storm, Maggie and Lou — former high school sweethearts, now divorced — are forced to confront the legacy of their past decisions. Lost Girls is a hard-hitting drama about a blue-collar family struggling to rise above their limited prospects to prevent history from repeating itself. Filled with simmering passion, twists and dark humor, the play remains at its core a poignant love story.

America’s most lauded playwrights come together for a celebration of one of America’s greatest wordsmiths. Adapted from Tennessee Williams’ short stories, the plays of Desire are destined to be new classics for the 21st century. Depicting love and innocence, isolation and loss, these unforgettable tales serve as a reminder that great stories have the power to change our lives.

A well-regarded actress agrees to teach six inmates how to tell their stories behind the bars of a men’s maximum security prison. Sharing intimate and sometimes hilarious details of their former lives, this unlikely group forms a bond — even as the actress’s life outside spins out of control. And when what happens in prison doesn’t stay there, no one is sure who to trust. From the team that brought you Everyday Rapture, this new play features Sherie Rene Scott and six men playing two dozen characters in a constant shifting of scenes, ages, genders and races. Whorl Inside a Loop explores the fine line between convicted felons and the criminal inside each of us, the viability of forgiveness and the unreliability of redemption.

Six-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald and Tony Award-nominee Will Swenson take the stage in Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill’s final masterpiece. When Phil Hogan, a salty tenant farmer, fears he will lose his property, his daughter Josie (McDonald), lures their dissolute landlord, Jamie Tyrone (Swenson), into bed one summer night. Under the glow of the moon, truth comes into focus for these two souls, but what awaits them when dawn breaks? Helmed by Gordon Edelstein and featuring scenic design by the world-renowned Ming Cho Lee, this raw and invigorating new look at O’Neill’s poetic and bitterly romantic A Moon for the Misbegotten assures us of the heart’s capacity for infinite love and forgiveness.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country’s top playwrights. Representing some of today’s best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theater, summer and the short form. The festival’s two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles and subject matter. Summer Shorts 2015 offers six world premiere one-act plays, presented as two separate evenings of three each. The two series will run in rotating repertory.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country’s top playwrights. Representing some of today’s best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theater, summer and the short form. The festival’s two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles and subject matter. Summer Shorts 2015 offers six world premiere one-act plays, presented as two separate evenings of three each. The two series will run in rotating repertory.

More than seven decades after its wartime premiere, director Daniel Fish (“Rocket to the Moon,” SummerScape 2005) invites us to experience “Oklahoma!” in an entirely new way—a revelatory chamber production where actors and audience come together as one community, sharing food, music, and song. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration overturned the conventions of musical theater when it premiered in 1943, introducing an unprecedented depth of psychological realism to a form better known for light comic entertainment. Set in the Territory of Oklahoma in the years before statehood, this complex drama combines the sunny romance of farm girl Laurey Williams and cowboy Curly McClain with the darker story of a community rising up against a reviled outsider, Jud Fry. Like his contemporary Carlos Chávez, Richard Rodgers turned to folk sources to create a new national musical identity, in a score that includes many of his best-loved songs, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “Many a New Day,” and “I Cain’t Say No.”Staged in the round with audience members seated at long tables and featuring new music arrangements for a six-piece band, this intimate “Oklahoma!” offers you the chance to experience Rodgers and Hammerstein’s exuberant, complex musical as if for the first time.

In the overwhelming quiet of the woods, six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat. As these strangers confront internal demons both profound and absurd, their vows of silence collide with the achingly human need to connect. Filled with awkward humor, this strange and compassionate new play asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us.

Can a girl who can’t fall at all, fall in love? Two witty wisemen sing a story of a young princess cursed by a wicked witch to float through life indefinitely. Twirling above the stage, through the kingdom and into a magical forest, she must find a way to come back to earth by her sixteenth birthday or be doomed to defy gravity forever! Directed by Allegra Libonati, The Light Princess from the acclaimed American Repertory Theater (Artistic Director, Diane Paulus) showcases the brightest talents of Harvard’s graduate acting program. Funny, romantic and cleverly choreographed to delightfully upbeat original songs, this whimsical new musical will have you giggling your way to cloud nine.

It’s the turbulent sixties, and a young Marine returns home to the Bronx, shaken but hopeful for the future. Met by a mother fighting to keep the family going and a father down on his luck, Johnny finds himself caught between his parents’ dreams for his future and a police captain with plans of his own. Walter Anderson’s compelling new drama about the wars fought at home asks: whose dreams must be sacrificed to protect the ones we love?

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace—a meeting like no other in British public life. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses. The Audience breaks this contract of silence and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional—sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive. In turn, the Queen can’t help but reveal her own self as she advises, consoles and, on occasion, teases.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country’s top playwrights. Representing some of today’s best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theater, summer and the short form. The festival’s two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles and subject matter. Summer Shorts 2014 offers six world premiere one-act plays, presented as two separate evenings of three each. The two series will run in rotating repertory. Series A: July 26th – August 30th, 2014 DOUBTLESS By ALBERT INNAURATO & Directed by JACK HOFSISS With such formidable opponents as hypocrisy, government, hysteria, neurosis, family, religion and pop culture – can we ever really know and accept who we are? Well, these two brave nuns are going to give it a go…. THE MULBERRY BUSH By NEIL LABUTE & Directed by MARIA MILEAF Two men meet up on a bench in the park. One of them is meant to be there. The other is not. What follows is a domestic thriller played out in the harsh sunlight of a weekday afternoon. NAPOLEON IN EXILE By DANIEL REITZ & Directed by PAUL SCHNEE Corey is 25, living at home, can’t hold a job, and is obsessed with Minecraft. His mother has other ideas for him.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country’s top playwrights. Representing some of today’s best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theater, summer and the short form. The festival’s two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles and subject matter. Summer Shorts 2014 offers six world premiere one-act plays, presented as two separate evenings of three each. The two series will run in rotating repertory. Series A: July 18th – August 29th, 2014 THE SKY AND THE LIMIT By ROGER HEDDEN & Directed by BILLY HOPKINS Much to the amusement of his best friend, a young man dives into one of America’s mesa strewn deserts in search of the perfect site for a wedding. RIVERBED By ERIC LANE & Directed by MATTHEW RAUCH A lyrical drama about a married couple the experiences an intense loss and their struggle to find their way back to each other. SEC. 310, ROW D, SEATS 5 AND 6 By WARREN LEIGHT & Directed by FRED BERNER Three guys share two season tickets as they watch the Knicks, and their lives, pass before their eyes.

In 1979, Washington D.C. was a place where people actually talked to each other…where adversaries fought it out on the Senate floor and then smoothed it out over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. But it was all about to change. In this play spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, five-time Tony® nominee Jan Maxwell plays savvy and elegant Hester Ferris, the doyenne of Georgetown dinner parties whose influence in liberal politics is legendary. But when her beloved son suddenly turns up with an ambitious Reaganite girlfriend and a shocking new conservative world view, Hester must choose between preserving her family and defending the causes she’s spent her whole life fighting for.