LIVE ARTS THEATER ANNOUNCES ITS
2025/2026 SEASON OF PASSION
Dynamic Dramedy, Musical Farce, Romatic Comedy, Timeless Classic, and New Works Festival
7/24/2025
Contact: Andrew Bryce, Marketing Coordinator | andrew@livearts.org
Charlottesville, Virginia – Live Arts Theater announces its 2025/26 Season of Passion: four plays, one musical and a new works festival. The 35th Season opens with Lisa Amour’s AIRLINE HIGHWAY, followed by a holiday offering, the musical WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. In 2026, Live Arts presents Sarah Ruhl’s STAGE KISS, followed by Shakespeare’s HAMLET, and Dominique Morisseau’s BLOOD AT THE ROOT. The Season of Passion wraps up with our fourth annual WATERWORKS Festival, our “fringe-adjacent” celebration of new theatrical works that continues to attract writers near and far and engage hundreds of volunteers every year.
What does passion mean to you?
“Here at Live Arts, theater is our passion, and the shows this Season explore that word in all its infinite variety,” says Live Arts Artistic Director Susan E. Evans. “Party hard on Airline Highway, mambo in Madrid, savor the last onstage kiss, espy vengeful acts, and bear witness to injustice. Whether you’re in the audience, performing onstage, or creating the magic backstage, we invite you to join us for a Season of compelling live theater, and discover where your passions live.”
Subscribers to the 2025/26 Season of Passion get substantial savings off Live Arts affordable single ticket prices, premium seating, and other benefits. Subscription options include discounted packages for educators of all kinds and theater-lovers under 30 years old. Single ticket prices range from $30 to $35 with discounts available for students and senior citizens.
Live Arts is committed towards cultivating the next generation of theater lovers. This Season we are tremendously excited to introduce the 434 Initiative: $4.34 tickets to any performance for anyone 25 or under or anyone new to Live Arts.
Season ticket packages ($125-$300) are on sale now through the Live Arts Box Office at boxoffice@livearts.org, by phone at 434-977-4177 x123, or online at www.livearts.org
The 2025/26 Season of Passion
Live Arts opens the season this fall with an all-nighter celebration:
AIRLINE HIGHWAY
By Lisa D’Amour
Directed by Jude Hansen
Runs October 3-19, 2025
Home Sweet Home. The parking lot of the Hummingbird Hotel, one of those old-school
places with a neon sign, on Airline Highway. During the course of 24 hours, the residents throw a glorious party to celebrate “last call,” a living funeral for Miss Ruby, former burlesque performer, Bourbon Street club owner and a mother figure to them all. AIRLINE HIGHWAY is a gentle portrait of this tight community, the bouncers, strippers, bartenders, hookers, handymen, poets, and other New Orleans outliers, who make their own family.
“A beautiful and mesmerizing kaleidoscope of a play” – New York Magazine
AIRLINE HIGHWAY is sponsored by Barbara & Jay Kessler.
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
London West End Version
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar
Directed by Xavier Taylor
Music Direction by Erica Umback
Choreography by Liberty DeLeon
Runs December 5, 2025 – January 3, 2026
SAVE THE DATE: Special Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Fundraiser Show
A sizzling musical farce of female resilience, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN whisks us off to sexy 1980s Madrid, and to the unravelling world of a voice-over artist, Pepa, plus Pepa’s wandering lover, the lover’s ex-
wife, their son and his fiancée, Pepa’s angsty model friend and her suspicious boyfriend, a lawyer, and a talkative taxi driver. All this black comic chaos is served up with a very specially laced gazpacho, and an irresistible Spanish-flavored beat.
“ … gloriously camp yet seriously heartfelt celebration of female powers of survival and self-emancipation …” — The Independent
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is sponsored by Woodard Properties.
STAGE KISS
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Robert Chapel
Runs Jan 23-Feb 15, 2026
Ruhl’s loving tribute to and sendup of theater, STAGE KISS is a charmingly “wink-wink”
combination of romantic fantasy and backstage farce. Two actors with a steamy past are cast as lovers in an overwrought 1930s melodrama. After the pair share an infamous stage kiss – or two or three – reality evaporates, onstage blurs with offstage, and art and life, and love, all become just a little jumbled!
“Is life imitating art? Or is art imitating life? Ruhl, in her gleeful counterpoint, gets to have it both ways.” – The New Yorker
STAGE KISS is sponsored by Charles & Janet Cheeseman.
HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Susan E. Evans
Runs March 6-22, 2026
Ghosts and swordplay, madness and murders, dark family secrets exposed, and fates sealed. The Tragedy of HAMLET, Prince of Denmark, has all the trappings of a Revenge Tragedy: The ghost of Hamlet’s father commands his son to avenge his
death—he’s been murdered by his own brother, Hamlet’s uncle. Hamlet’s mother has all too quickly remarried, and to that very same uncle. All this we know by the end of the very first Act. But what poetry will we hear! How will that family unravel, and who else gets coiled up in this ever-enduring tale?
BLOOD AT THE ROOT
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Leslie M. Scott-Jones
Runs Apr 10-26, 2026
In 2006, a Black high school student in Jena, Louisiana, reportedly sat under a tree where only White students congregated. Three nooses appeared, hung from the tree, provoking a schoolyard fight. A White student was injured and six Black teenagers were charged with attempted murder; those responsible for the nooses got a three-day suspension. Based on the case of the Jena Six, Morisseau’s potent and timely ensemble drama BLOOD AT THE ROOT calls out racial double standards and bigotry, harsh injustices, and the shattering impact on Black lives.
“Dominique Morisseau knows where the truth lies, and it is rarely on solid
ground … expect no easy answers” – New York Times
WATERWORKS Festival 2026
New Works on Water Street
Runs May 14-31, 2026
New Works on Water Street Putting the playwright center stage! The fourth annual “fringe-adjacent” festival of new theatrical work at Live Arts! It’s a celebration of new voices, building on Live Arts’ long history of showcasing new works and diversifying the stories told on our stage.
WATERWORKS is presented by The Madwoman Project
About Live Arts
Founded in 1990, Live Arts is celebrating 35 years of forging theater and community. Powered by more than 1,000 volunteers, Live Arts is a national model for engaged community theater, known for exceptionally high caliber productions, provocative programming and for supporting new works. Live Arts is guided by these organizational priorities: Artistic Integrity; Educational Excellence; Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion; and Volunteer & Community Engagement. As the anchor tenant in a four-story space, Live Arts proudly serves as a vital cultural resource in the heart of downtown Charlottesville with two state-of-the-art stages, rehearsal studio space, a library, and a rooftop event space.
The 2025/26 Season of Passion is made possible by:
The generous support of our show sponsors and C-VILLE Weekly, WTJU 91.1FM, PJ Networks Computer Services, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, The Madwoman Project, The REA Charitable Trust, and hundreds of theater lovers. Live Arts is grateful for the support of Ting, our Pay-What-You-Can Sponsor, for making theater more accessible in our community. Live Arts is supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
For more information
Please contact Marketing Coordinator Andrew Bryce by email at andrew@livearts.org or (860) 942-0575; or phone at 434-977-4177 x103, or visit www.livearts.org.
CALENDAR INFORMATION
CALENDAR INFORMATION: 2025/26 SEASON OF PASSION
AIRLINE HIGHWAY
By Lisa D’Amour
Directed by Jude Hansen
October 3-19, 2025
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar
Directed by Xavier Taylor
Choreography by Liberty DeLeon
Dec. 5, 2025–Jan., 3, 2026
STAGE KISS
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Robert Chapel
January 23-February 15, 2026
HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Susan E. Evans
March 6-22, 2026
BLOOD AT THE ROOT
By Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Leslie M. Scott Jones
April 10-26, 2026
WATERWORKS: New Works on Water Street
May 14-31, 2026
SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES
● Director’s Wild Card ($300)
● Wild Card ($180)
● Educator Wild Card Package ($130)
● Specific Show Night ($175)
○ Opening Night, Second Fridays, Second Saturdays, Early Bird Thursdays, Talkback Thursdays, and Sunday Matinees options
● Under 30 Club ($125)
● Fan Club ($125)
○ Specific Wednesday or Saturday nights
SUBSCRIBERS SUPPORT THE NEW 434 INITIATIVE: $4.34 tickets to any performance for anyone 25 or under or new to Live Arts
BOX OFFICE
● Purchase tickets online at www.livearts.org
● Purchase subscriptions online at https://livearts.org/show/2025-26-subscriptions/
● Email Audience Experience Director Darryl Smith at darryl@livearts.org
● Call 434-977-4177 x123
MORE INFO
● Visit livearts.org
● Contact Marketing Coordinator Andrew Bryce at andrew@livearts.org
or (860) 942-0575
