(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Thinkery & Verse, the acclaimed theatrical company known for fusing classical inspiration with urgent political consciousness, has announced its 2025–2026 season. This ambitious lineup, all rooted deeply in the cultural fabric of New Jersey, includes original plays, community events, historical storytelling, and interactive public art projects.
2025–2026 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS:
Brick Makers Residency | April–December 2025. A free, hands-on public workshop series in traditional 18th-century brick making at East Jersey Old Town Village, presented in partnership with the Middlesex County Office of Arts and History.
Trees Initiative | Year-Round. Following presentations at CultureLab, LaMaMa, and Berlin’s Atelier Gardens, Thinkery & Verse continue their multi-year Trees initiative. Trees is a climate-forward project committed to planting and maintaining native street trees and urban forests throughout our region. Community members are invited to participate in seasonal plantings, including a Memorial Day event at Willow Grove Cemetery, a community rain garden at Roosevelt Elementary in New Brunswick, an English/Spanish recitation of Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” in New York’s Central Park, and continued collaborations with Butch Mermaid Productions and The Nature of Cities
MACBETH | October 9–25, 2025. Just in time for Halloween, a haunting new adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, reimagined in colonial New Jersey during the first wave of Scottish immigration. This visceral production, directed by Dr. John Meyer and starring Karen Alvarado, explores race, gender, and war in Early America. Performances take place at The Church of St. John the Evangelist in New Brunswick.
Monuments to Migration | Fall 2025. Part of a statewide initiative honoring New Jersey’s immigrant communities. Thinkery & Verse will debut a new play created from community storytelling sessions held throughout the year. A commission from Rutgers University and CoLab Arts
Holiday Spirits | December 4–13, 2025. A festive evening of ghostly tales and timeless poetry by Dickens, Frost, Poe, and more. Set in the candlelit sanctuary of New Brunswick’s historic Episcopal Church, this family-friendly production also features a pop-up holiday market and is available for booking at off-site venues.
Scenes from a Revolution | Spring 2026. Commissioned by Middlesex County for the America250 celebrations, this original production dramatizes the fracture between Benjamin Franklin and his Loyalist son during the American Revolution. To be performed in New Brunswick, Perth Amboy, and Carteret, the play incorporates Indigenous and Black histories and features an all-local cast.
“Our new season is about uncovering what’s buried, whether it’s clay beneath our feet, the untold stories of our ancestors, or the trees that should line our streets,” said Co-Artistic Director Karen Alvarado. “We’re inviting the public not only to attend performances but to actively participate in shaping the narrative of New Jersey’s past, present, and future.”
Thinkery & Verse productions are made possible in part by support from CoLab Arts, Fractured Atlas, and Middlesex County Arts Institute.
For full details and ticket information, visit thinkeryandverse.com.
After first establishing herself as an artist in Texas, Karen Eliza Alvarado completed her training through the Rutgers Mason Gross MFA Acting program, which included training at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Back in Austin, her production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus was named one of the top ten plays of the season in The Austin Chronicle, and while at Rutgers Mason Gross, she earned the Phillip J. Levin scholarship. Her direction of Bride of the Gulf at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe led to four-star reviews from The Scotsman and The List UK. In 2022 The New York Times credited her performances in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and Shakespeare's The Winter's Talefor their energy, clarity, and craftsmanship. Alvarado teaches acting in Rutgers BA Theatre Department, and she continues to act, direct, and write indigenous and Latino plays in honor and exploration of her heritage.
J. M. Meyer's work as a playwright and actor has been featured in the BBC Online, Austin Chronicle, The Austin American-Statesman, KUT radio, andHumanities Magazine. He served as the associate artistic director of BEDLAM, the celebrated off-Broadway theater company, for the productions of Medea: Re-Versed, Wake Up, Tina Packer's Women of Will, and Music City. His stage play American Volunteers won the 2010 Mitchell Award at the University of Texas, and subsequently made the long-list for the Dylan Thomas Prize in the United Kingdom. The Austin American-Statesman cited the play as the first reckon with the first to reckon with the American war in Afghanistan. He performed at the White House thanks to Aquila Theatre's ongoing outreach program, "Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives." His plays have also received support from The Middlesex County Art Institute, the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University, the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Cohen New Works Festival, Austin Scriptworks, University Co-Op, Fort Pointe Theatre Channel, and Frontera Fest. In 2015 he performed with the Veteran Artist Project at the Lincoln Center Home Show. In 2016 he performed off-Broadway in Sophocles' Philoctetes with Aquila Theatre. In 2017 he served as a playwright-performer in Aquila Theatre's national tour and off-Broadway show, Our Trojan War. In the spring of 2016 he began a six-month fellowship with BEDLAM theatre thanks to the Mission Continues project. Much of John's artistry draws on his work in conflict zones including Afghanistan, Iraq, Guatemala, Mexico, and (increasingly) the United States.
Thinkery & Verse seek to perform classically inspired, politically aware plays that challenge us to be empowered, globally-oriented citizens with a keen awareness of the high stakes of modern life. While our primary mission is to create new plays, one of our key creative methods is to perform our plays in repertory with classic works, thereby challenging our writers and actors to achieve new heights of creativity and aesthetics.
