Cold War Choir Practice
November 19 – December 13, 2026
Cold War Choir Practice
Written by Ro Reddick and directed by Tom Story
Based in 1987, a ten-year-old Meek wants a nuclear radiation detector for Christmas. Her father, a former Black Panther, now runs the local roller disco, her uncle works for Reagan’s administration, and his wife has just come home from something nobody wants to talk about. Throw in a peace choir with a nationalist streak and thirteen original songs, and you have COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE: the buzzy, critically acclaimed play-with-music that won the 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and became an Off-Broadway sensation, earning a New York Times Critic’s Pick and praise as “alive and audacious.”
Following its acclaimed New York run, Theater Alliance presents the first production since – with a story centering a young Black girl navigating family, identity, and the particular terror of growing up when the world might end before you do.
Woody Guthrie's American Song
- Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Rhiannon Giddens
- Once, Million Dollar Quartet, HAIR
- Concerts are your jam, but you’re not really a theater person
- Solidarity
- Community
- Belonging in America
- This is What De-mo-cracy Looks Like
- Art as Protest, Music as Resistance
- Exuberant, celebratory, casual
- Picnics on the lawn with family and friends
- Timeless, relevant, intergenerational
A public celebration of the stories, struggles, and songs that shape America.
Woody Guthrie's American Song
Songs and Writings by Woody GuthrieConceived and Adapted by Peter Glazer
Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements by Jeff Waxman
Directed by Tim Seib
Waterfront Park at The Wharf
515 Water St SW
Washington, DC 20024
August 6-29 at 7:15pm
From the iconic anthem “This Land is Your Land” to protest songs like “All You Fascists Bound To Lose,” the music of folk poet and social agitator Woody Guthrie persists as a dynamic force of dissent and hope for the American people. Woody Guthrie’s American Song is a musical that weaves Guthrie’s storytelling with scenes drawn directly from his life, wielding music as a loudspeaker for the voice of the working people, speaking up for those swept aside by economic collapse and political indifference. This production is a panoramic tribute to the legacy of activism in the arts, celebrating the spirit of what America looks and sounds like. As the United States marks its 250th Anniversary, Woody Guthrie’s American Song offers a necessary counterpoint – reminding us that America’s story is always unfinished and that the most joyful and enduring voices have always come from the people.
Creative Team
Director / Tim Seib~
Music Director / Emily Baltzer
Music Director / Emily Erickson
Choreographer / Siani Nicole
Stage Manager / Leigh Robinette*
Assistant Stage Manager / Zora Allison
Takeover Stage Manager / Regina Vitale*
Reston Assistant Stage Manager / Hansin Arvind
Bass Player / Yusef Chisholm
Scenic Design / Jonathan Dahm Robertson^
Costume Design / Danielle Preston^
Lighting Design / Minjoo Kim^
Sound Design / Kevin Lee Alexander^
Props Design & Assistant Scenic Design / Sophie Smrcka
Audio Supervisor / Allison Pearson
Sound Engineer / Will Stutzman
Co-Lighting Supervisors / Moki & Alex Anthes Rojas
Co-Wardrobe Supervisors / Finn Fairfield & Reigen Coffee
*Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The theatre operates under an agreement between Theater Alliance and Actors’ Equity Association.
^Members of United Scenic Artists Local 829, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. This theatre operates under an agreement between Theater Alliance and United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
~Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.
Hothouse New Works Block Party
June, 2027
Hothouse New Works Block Party
New Plays. New Voices. All DC.
Theater Alliance’s signature new works initiative returns with the Hothouse New Works Block Party, a public festival-style celebration of bold voices and fresh stories from the DMV. The Block Party invites audiences into the heart of the creative process, where works-in-progress meet a live audience for the first time. The festival will feature a slate of new play readings and excerpts from local DMV playwrights, alongside sneak peeks of works-in-progress from the writers of Theater Alliance’s 2026-27 mainstage season and emerging playwrights from our civic engagement programs. The Hothouse New Works Block Party continues Theater Alliance’s twenty-plus year commitment to developing new work: an incubator, amplifier, and pipeline for playwrights at every stage of their career, right here in DC.
Business Ideas
May 6 – 30, 2027
Business Ideas
Written by Milo Cramer and directed by Aria Velz
Theater Alliance closes out its 2026-27 season with a Washington, D.C. debut of BUSINESS IDEAS, marking its regional premiere. This award-winning dark comedy about hustle culture, the entrepreneurial fantasy, and what it costs the people underneath it is set entirely in a café over one increasingly unhinged day. The play skewers the myth that one good idea can fix what’s actually broken, with sharp, funny, big-hearted storytelling.
Fool For Love
February 11 – March 7, 2027
Fool For Love
Written by Sam Shepard and directed by Shanara Gabrielle
One of the great American plays of the last half-century and a 1984 Pulitzer Prize finalist, FOOL FOR LOVE is one of the most acclaimed works by Sam Shepard, the writer who redefined what American mythology looks like on stage. Eddie and May are former lovers pulled back together by an obsession neither can explain, until a secret surfaces that makes the danger between them make sense, and makes it worse.
Old flames. Family Secrets. One night that presents the least expected ending. Reimagined through the lens of the Black experience, Theater Alliance presents this piece of American mythology with local DC artists, Renea S. Brown & Yao Dogbe at the center.