MCLA Theatre Announces 2026-2027 Season Celebrating Collaboration, Creativity, and the Art of Storytelling
October 20, 2026
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Theatre announces its 2026-2027 performance season, featuring six events that celebrate the
possibilities of live theater through professional collaboration, inventive storytelling,
student experimentation, and original performance.
The season opens October 23-25 with “Flight,” a special co-production with Cape Cod-based
theater company P3/East and MOSAIC, and continues with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' “Everybody,” Patrick Barlow's “The 39
Steps,” a festival of staged readings, and two student acting showcases.
Throughout the season, audiences will encounter a wide range of theatrical forms,
from physically driven ensemble performance and contemporary reinterpretations of
classic stories to devised movement, Shakespeare, and new explorations of dramatic
literature. Together, the productions reflect MCLA Theatre's commitment to collaborative
theater-making, creative experimentation, and opportunities for students to develop
their artistic voices.
All performances are free and open to the public, and take place in Venable Theater
on the MCLA campus.
“Flight”
Conceived by Steve Pearson, written by Robyn Hunt
October 23-25, 2026
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
MCLA Theatre, MOSAIC, and Cape Cod-based theater company P3/East come together for
a highly physical theatrical exploration of the women who challenged convention and
took to the skies at the dawn of aviation.
Long before Amelia Earhart, pioneering aviators such as Harriet Quimby, Raymonde de
Laroche, Bessie Coleman, Katherine Stinson, Blanche Stuart Scott, and Matilde Moisant
pursued the exhilarating and dangerous possibilities of flight, often in the face
of tremendous social and technological obstacles.
Part of a trilogy that also includes “Gravity” and “Balance,” “Flight” honors these
remarkable women and the many others whose contributions to aviation history have
been overlooked.
Drawing on P3/East's rigorous physical training and movement-based performance practice,
the production brings these stories to life through the expressive possibilities of
the human body. Featuring performers from P3/East alongside MCLA Theatre alumni, “Flight”
brings professional artists and MCLA graduates together on the Venable stage for a
celebration of courage, imagination, and ensemble storytelling.
“Everybody”
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
December 4-6, 2026
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
MCLA Theatre presents a bold, funny, and surprisingly moving reimagining of the medieval
morality play “Everyman” by acclaimed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Co-directed by Professor of Theatre Laura Standley and senior MCLA Theatre major Rory
DiVenuto ’27, the play follows its title character on an unexpected journey toward
life's one unavoidable destination. Along the way, Everybody turns to Friendship,
Kinship, Stuff, Love, and others for help answering a question that belongs to us
all: What really matters when our time runs out?
Presented as part of the College’s Theatre Lab, a workshop venue for student experimentation
and artistic exploration, “Everybody” extends its collaborative spirit beyond performance.
The company will work together to develop the production's design elements, creating
its theatrical world through a shared process of experimentation, discovery, and invention.
Playful and deeply human, “Everybody” transforms a centuries-old story into a contemporary
exploration of what it means to be alive while inviting MCLA student artists to discover
together how that story can best be told.
Moments from the Studio: Fall Acting Showcase
Friday, Dec. 11, 2026, at 7 p.m.
MCLA Theatre invites audiences into the studio for an evening celebrating the work
of its developing student actors.
The fall showcase features work created in Acting, Culture, and the Creative Self
and Rehearsal Ready Acting. Audiences will experience realistic scenes alongside original
solo performances developed by students throughout the semester. Part performance
and part glimpse into the actor's creative process, Moments from the Studio brings
classroom exploration to the stage, highlighting the creativity, growth, and artistic
discoveries of MCLA's student performers.
“The 39 Steps”
Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan and the film by Alfred Hitchcock
April 16-18, 2027
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
MCLA Theatre presents a fast-paced theatrical comedy directed by Professor of Theatre
Laura Standley.
When an ordinary man is unexpectedly drawn into a world of spies, murder, secret organizations,
and international intrigue, he finds himself racing across Britain to clear his name
and uncover the mysterious secret of "The 39 Steps."
Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller and John Buchan's novel, Patrick Barlow's
adaptation transforms the story into an inventive theatrical adventure in which a
small ensemble plays dozens of characters. Part spy thriller, part romantic adventure,
and part loving send-up of old-fashioned stagecraft, “The 39 Steps” is a whirlwind
of quick changes, narrow escapes, theatrical invention, and comic mayhem.
Staged Reading Festival
April 30-May 2, 2027
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.
MCLA Theatre presents a weekend celebrating plays, playwrights, and the power of stories
brought to life on stage.
The Staged Reading Festival offers audiences the opportunity to experience a selection
of plays in an intimate, actor-centered format that places the words and ideas of
the playwright at the heart of the event.
With scripts in hand and minimal production elements, MCLA student artists will bring
each work from the page into the shared space of live performance. Each reading offers
a different theatrical world and a chance to encounter dramatic literature through
one of theater's simplest and most immediate forms: actors, an audience, and a story
unfolding between them.
Moments from the Studio: Spring Acting Showcase
Friday, May 7, 2027, at 7 p.m.
MCLA Theatre closes its season with an evening of performance, movement, and theatrical
exploration featuring work developed in Movement Improvisation and Composition, and
Acting Shakespeare classes.
Audiences will experience original devised movement pieces alongside monologues and
scenes from Shakespeare, showcasing two distinct approaches to creating dynamic, embodied
performance.
Bringing the discoveries of the classroom into public performance, Moments from the
Studio offers audiences a chance to see MCLA student artists experiment with movement,
language, character, and storytelling.
For more information, visit mcla.edu/academics/academic-departments/theatre.
About MCLA
The Commonwealth’s designated public liberal arts college, MCLA offers the personal
attention of a private college at a public tuition, with more than 90 academic programs
and faculty who know their students and invest in their success. Nearly half of MCLA
students are the first in their families to attend college—a commitment to access
and opportunity reflected in its ranking of #4 among public liberal arts institutions
nationally for social mobility and #13 among public liberal arts colleges (U.S. News
& World Report, 2027).
Founded in 1894, MCLA is located in North Adams, in the heart of the Berkshires—just
a 10-minute walk from MASS MoCA and surrounded by world-class performing arts, thousands
of acres of protected land, and Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts