(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep), the award-winning incubator for new plays and daring theatrical voices, kicks off its 2026 Mainstage Season with the world premiere of Samantha Inside Out, running February 19 through March 15, 2026, at the Lumia Theater in Long Branch. Opening night will be February 21, 2026.
Led by Artistic Director SuzAnne Barabas and Executive Producer Gabor Barabas, the 2026 season continues NJ Rep's legacy of developing bold new work that speaks directly to the moment. The season opens with a sharp, funny, and deeply human exploration of reinvention, identity, and the courage it takes to finally say the quiet parts out loud.
Samantha is a woman of a certain age who has had it with her life as it is currently arranged. A high school English teacher, the mother of grown children, and the wife of a cruel, pompous, philandering college professor, she finds herself pushed past her breaking point after a humiliating encounter at a party. Fleeing the scene, Samantha lands unexpectedly in the host's daughter's bedroom, where an evening of self-pity turns into something far more revealing. As the walls come down, Samantha opens up, excavating long-buried secrets and taking stock of the emotional wreckage she has carefully stepped around for years.
The production stars Elizabeth Heflin as Samantha, a resident company member with the REP at the University of Delaware and a former longtime member of the Alley Theatre. Her extensive body of work spans classical tragedy and contemporary comedy, including Medea, Macbeth, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, August: Osage County, Noises Off, and numerous new works by Theresa Rebeck, including O' Beautiful, The Bells, and Yeah Baby.
Performances take place Thursdays at 7:00pm, Fridays & Saturdays at 2:00pm & 7:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm. For updates, tickets, and special events, visit www.njrep.org or call 732-229-3166. New Jersey Repertory Company is located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Subscriptions and single tickets for the 2026 Season will go on sale soon.
The creative team includes set design by Jessica Parks, lighting design by Jill Nagle, technical direction by Brian Snyder, costume design by Patricia E. Doherty, sound design by Nick Simone, assistant lighting designer Janey Huber, production stage manager is Kristin Pfeifer, and assistant stage manager is Ian Duhart.
MARISA SMITH is an award-winning American playwright. Full-length plays: The Gift of the Magi, a Modern Adaptation of the O'Henry short story, Sex and Other Disturbances (2018 Edgerton-winner, Portland Stage Company and The Bridge Initiative semi-finalist), Saving Kitty (Eliot Norton Award-winner for Jennifer Coolidge Best Actress, The Nora Theater Company), Mad Love (O'Neill semi-finalist, Clauder winner/Kilroy list, premiered at Northern Stage), Venus Rising (premiered at Northern Stage), audio drama titled The Defenestrator, produced by Wondery. Marisa's 10-Minute plays have been produced in the Boston Marathon of 10-Minute Plays, Barrington Stage, New Jersey Repertory and more, and include Heideman finalist Total Expression. Co-founder of Smith and Kraus Publishers, publishers of trade books for school, college, and theatrical communities. Screenplays: Second Wind and Surprise Engagement.
THERESA REBECK is a prolific and widely produced playwright, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and abroad. Last season, her fourth Broadway play premiered on Broadway, making Rebeck the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time. Other Broadway works include Dead Accounts; Seminar and Mauritius. Other notable NY and regional plays include: Seared (MCC), Downstairs (Primary Stages), The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels (Second Stage), Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons), The Understudy (Roundabout), View of the Dome (NYTW), What We're Up Against (Women's Project), Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Prize finalist).
As a director, her work has been seen at The Alley Theatre (Houston), the REP Company (Delaware); Dorset Theatre Festival, the Orchard Project and the Folger Theatre. Major film and television projects include Trouble, starring Anjelica Huston, Bill Pullman and David Morse (writer and director), "NYPD Blue," the NBC series "Smash" (creator), and the upcoming female spy thriller 355 (for Jessica Chastain's production company). As a novelist, Rebeck's books include Three Girls and Their Brother and I'm Glad About You. Rebeck is the recipient of the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, a Lilly Award, and more.
NEW JERSEY REPERTORY COMPANY (NJRep) was founded in 1997 by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Its current central headquarters is the Lumia Theater, located on lower Broadway in Long Branch. The theater's mission is to develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting contribution to the American Stage. Over two decades, NJ Rep has produced 152 plays, of which 128 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around the country, totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the US and overseas.
In 2012 and 2018, NJ Rep received a National Theater Company Grant from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction. In addition, the theater has presented over 400 developmental readings as well as introduced 136 new works through its Theatre Brut Short-Play Festivals that focus on visionary and avant-garde works. NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square foot school situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. When completed, the center will present a wide array of programs in acting, playwriting, art, sculpture, poetry, music, and photography and will serve as a catalyst for economic development and as the foundation for the cultural renaissance of the community.
NJ Rep thanks the following for their support: Shubert Foundation, Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Community Foundation of New Jersey and New Jersey State Council in the Arts.
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