Spooky Motion Theater proclaims its twenty second season with three productions exploring themes of storytelling for survival, household drama and energy, and rat revolution (through some inventive puppetry). The season opens with Hakawatis: Ladies of the Arabian Nights, a contemporary and important reimagining of the story of storytelling as survival, written by Irish-Palestinian author Hannah Khalil, directed by Mekala Sridhar, in affiliation with Solas Nua. In her fourth season as Inventive Director, Elizabeth Dinkova directs Father Lear, a brand new musical impressed by King Lear set in an evangelical cult by the creators of the award-winning musical Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Present, in a co-production with Avant Bard Theatre. The season closes with The Undercity, a wordless puppet pageant about greed and revolution populated by rats, directed by Sammy Zeisel. As well as, Spooky Motion’s season will embrace developmental readings and workshops via its New Works in Motion program, and a return of its well-liked Cabaret Sequence that includes new acts by native expertise.
FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ELIZABETH DINKOVA
“Our new season, ‘Remix,’ contains two world premieres and one American premiere which experiment with style: feminist fairytale, mystical musical, puppet pageant,” says Inventive Director Elizabeth Dinkova. “These reveals discover communities in disaster – brides-to-be awaiting execution, believers reckoning with revolution, rat employees awakening to exploitation. This season brings a slate of wildly bold new works that remix our previous and current to make sure now we have a future.”
2026/27 SEASON: REMIX
HAKAWATIS: WOMEN OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS by Hannah Khalil
With contributions from Hanan Al-Shaykh, Suhayla El-Bushra and Sara Shaarawi Translations by Hassan Abdulrazzak
Directed by Mekala Sridhar
September 24 – October 18, 2026
In affiliation with Solas Nua
‘Hakawati /hakəˈwɑːti/. Noun: Storyteller. From the Arabic phrases hekaye that means story and haki that means to speak.
A tyrant avenges his spouse’s infidelity by marriage ceremony, bedding and beheading a brand new bride day by day. Years later, solely 5 brides-in-waiting stay. These ladies are unapologetic, and united of their battle to maintain themselves – and the entire of womankind – alive. They’ve bought different concepts for his or her future, and it begins with a narrative. On this London Globe hit by Irish-Palestinian playwright Hannah Khalil, you’ll be captivated by tales which can be humorous, raunchy, and harmful – and a matter of life and dying.
“FLUENT, WITTY AND GRACEFUL. Their [story] choice concentrates not on the derring-do of males, however on the rivalries, frustrations, passions and ingenuities of their very own restricted lives.” —The Guardian
“That’s the energy of story – to seduce us out of our expectations.” —The Indiependent
FATHER LEAR
Guide & Lyrics by Andrea & Michael Pemberton (Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Present)
Music by Michael Pemberton
Directed by Inventive Director Elizabeth Dinkova
April 8 – Could 8, 2027
World premiere in a co-production with Avant Bard Theatre
Performances at Spooky Motion April 8 – 18, adopted by performances at Gunston Arts Middle April 22 – Could 8.
Charismatic chief Father Lear has grown his church from a touring music present into a significant broadcast and cable community, due to the trouble and charms of his daughters, the Lear Sisters. However as he rallies his followers to wage a non secular battle towards a demonic state and an imminent Armageddon, some start to query if Lear’s thoughts is slipping.Immersed in a cult of persona towards the backdrop of televangelism, this radical reimagining mirrors right now’s live-streamed tradition, the place efficiency, religion, and authority blur in actual time — and the place collapse, like success, occurs in public view.
The most recent creation by the group behind Spooky Motion’s award-winning musical Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Present, Father Lear is a narrative about inheritance — of energy, perception, and injury — as new generations grapple with whether or not to uphold, reform, or dismantle the methods that formed them. Centered on the sisters’ interior lives and company, Father Lear reclaims their narrative from patriarchal interpretation and locations them on the coronary heart of that reckoning.
THE UNDERCITY by Gaby FeBland
Directed by Sammy Zeisel
June 3 – 13, 2027
World premiere in affiliation with LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Membership
A revolution is occurring underground! Within the metropolis of rats beneath our toes — a Nineteen Seventies New York-inspired neon underworld lit by a perpetual crescent moon — our hero, Rat Woman, uncovers an enormous conspiracy that threatens the destiny of her world. Delight on this nonverbal rat puppet pageant about overthrowing a crumbling empire on the verge of ecological collapse, embodied via a mixture of physique puppetry, tabletop rod puppetry, overhead projector shadow puppetry, and masks. The Undercity navigates unchecked greed, local weather disaster, and the engineered hopelessness of business life — a gnarly net of rat tails solely Rat Woman can untangle.
TICKETS
Tickets are at the moment on sale for Hakawatis and Father Lear at https://spookyaction.org/. Tickets for The Undercity can be on sale beginning in August.
ABOUT SPOOKY ACTION THEATER
Spooky Motion Theater is an award-winning skilled theater positioned close to DC’s Dupont and Logan Circle neighborhoods. Based in 2004, SAT takes its identify from a phenomenon of quantum mechanics wherein particles grow to be entangled – so {that a} change in a single is endlessly mirrored by change within the different. SAT recharges individuals’s intuitive and emotional core by linking artists and audiences in a shared act of creativeness that leaves all events reworked. SAT phases and develops groundbreaking performs by numerous writers throughout the globe, trains the subsequent era of artists, empowers college students to precise themselves, and companions with mission-aligned organizations to highlight important themes.
