(PHILADELPHIA, PA) -- Philadelphia-based, Tony Award-winning theater company Wilma Theater has announced four productions for its 2026-27 season that celebrate the Wilma's contribution to visionary theater locally and nationally. Audiences can expect joyful, challenging, and collaborative work on the Wilma's stage, including the world premiere of an original coming-of-self story, an inventive spin on a children's literary classic, a project exploring the Wilma's first ever production in 1979, and a subversive cabaret blurring the line between parody and poignancy.
The upcoming season marks 30 years since the Wilma first opened its theater on the Avenue of the Arts. The theater has remained dedicated to creating adventurous art, engaging artists and audiences in imaginative reflections on the complexities of contemporary life. From allegory and fable to cabaret and documentary theater, these productions use inventive forms to invite Wilma audiences to consider how care, resistance, and imagination shape our personal lives and broader communities.
“As we mark 30 years on the Avenue of the Arts, we continue to build a creative home for theater to illuminate the complexities of contemporary life,” said Leigh Goldenberg, Managing Director of the Wilma. “In our space and through our work, we’re also fostering a much-needed gathering space for connection and conversation. Each production explores transformation from the intimate to the political through inventive forms that expand how stories are told.”
That spirit of experimentation, risk, and collaboration is embodied by the Wilma’s acclaimed, award- winning resident acting company, the HotHouse, whose members are central to the theater’s creative process. The ensemble meets weekly to train, read plays, and develop new work. HotHouse members appear throughout the 2026-27 season, with members Justin Jain and Suli Holum leading productions.
This commitment to artistic development and ensemble-driven work is reflected in the season’s opening world premiere production, Horsegirl & Cowdaddy by playwright and screenwriter DJ Hills, presented as a co-production with Soho Rep. The Wilma previously introduced the piece through a 2026 staged reading. Directed by Adil Mansoor, the play takes place in a present-day rural Pennsylvania town, where Horsegirl, a trans woman in her 30s, shares a steady, insular life with her father, Cowdaddy. When a newly arrived teacher captures her heart, Horsegirl begins to undergo a startling transformation, one that forces her to confront who she is, what she wants, and how she defines happiness on her own terms. Horsegirl & Cowdaddy runs from September 22 to October 4.
The season continues with the Wilma’s all-ages production of Rick Cummins and John Scoullar’s adaptation of the classic children’s story The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. After directing The Snow Queen in 2025, the theater’s first all-ages production, the Wilma’s visionary Co-Artistic Director, Yury Urnov (A Summer Day, My Mama and The Full-Scale Invasion), brings this whimsical adventure to life with a stellar cast and imaginative staging. When a stranded aviator meets a mysterious little prince from a faraway planet, they forge an unlikely friendship. The play’s run includes select performances for student groups, and can be purchased by contacting [email protected]. The Little Prince runs from November 17 to November 29, 2026.
In 1979, The Wilma’s Founding Artistic Directors Blanka and Jiri Zizka put the theater on the map by staging an experimental adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Following years of exploration in HotHouse, including an upcoming reading on April 18, The Animal Farm Project reexamines power, corruption, resistance, and hope through a contemporary lens. Lead artist and Wilma HotHouse Acting Company member Justin Jain and director Eva Steinmetz draw on George Orwell’s political allegory, weaving in multimedia design, documentary theater techniques, and migrant stories gathered through community workshops and interviews. Supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, The Animal Farm Project runs from March 30 to April 11, 2027, and includes select daytime performances for student groups.
To close the 2026-27 season, the Wilma welcomes the Bearded Ladies Cabaret to the stage with Mx. Rogers’ Neighborhood: You Can Never Go Down the Drain, a musical written and performed by the Beards’ founding Artistic Director, Rose Jarboe. Directed by HotHouse Company Member Suli Holum, the show was originally hosted at the Wilma during the 2018 Fringe Festival and reimagines the gentle world of Mr. Rogers. The Wilma and The Bearded Ladies invite you to “hop aboard Trolley and take a gay romp into Mx. Rogers’ Neighborhood!” Jarboe takes off her heels to put on... other heels... and asks earnest questions about irony, including: What if I don't want to feel my feelings? And would it kill you to be my neighbor? Mx. Rogers’ Neighborhood: You Can Never Go Down the Drain runs during Pride Month from June 2 to 13, 2027.
From March 26 to June 1, patrons can purchase an Early Bird subscription for the Wilma’s 2026-27 season. A four-show weekday subscription is $120; a four-show weekend subscription is $140. The four- ticket whenever subscription – which includes tickets to be used in any combination throughout the season – is $180. The Wilma is also offering a limited quantity of Opening Night subscriptions for $250, providing patrons with tickets for each production’s festive opening performance and post-show reception. Additionally, subscribers will receive exclusive first access to special events and presentations throughout the season. The Wilma’s subscriptions offer theatergoers savings of up to 60% compared to single ticket purchases.
Subscriptions can be purchased at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling The Wilma’s box office at 215-546-7824. The Wilma Theater is located at 265 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, PA.
Established in 1979, the Wilma Theater, recipient of the 2024 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre, is a non-profit theater company creating living, adventurous art engaging artists and audiences in imaginative reflections on the complexities of contemporary life. The theater presents bold, original productions representing a range of voices, viewpoints, and styles in order to develop the form and push existing conventions. Many of the roles in the Wilma’s productions are cast from its acclaimed, award-winning resident artists, the HotHouse Company, who meet weekly to train, read plays, and develop their artistry.
The organization is currently led by a creative cohort of three co-artistic directors, Morgan Green, Lindsay Smiling, and Yury Urnov, and Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg. In 2024, the Wilma became the first Pennsylvania theater company to receive The Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre.
