Christopher Sergel’s play is a faithful adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age-novel about rival teenage gangs in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greasers come from troubled working-class backgrounds, contrasted with the Socials, whose members are from upper-middle-class families. Like the novel, the play centers on 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis, a member of the Greasers gang, as he recounts the violent aftermath after his friend Johnny fatally stabbed Socials member Bob. This adaptation places much of the violence off-stage and minimizes the strong language and mature content of the novel and movie, making it a fitting choice for high school productions. The characters are crafted with compassion and nuance, offering opportunities for rich character study and conversations about violence and social status.

Hailed as a female Journey’s End, this classic play – the story of nurses serving on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines during WWII – is a compelling, caustic revelation of human beings under fire. In a makeshift dugout, subjected to gunfire, thirteen very different women emerge to offer a collective reaction to war. These include the strong-minded doctor, her restrained and poised assistant, and the volunteer nurses: a vacuous Southern girl, a swaggering bully, a couple of timid aesthetes, an ex-burlesque performer and the inevitable spy. They get on each other’s nerves, arrest the wrong person for spying, and ultimately confront the real traitor. In the end, they are rescued from their buried dugout – only to face the firing squad.

May 22^st-31^st, 2026

Godspell was the first major musical theatre offering from three-time Grammy and Academy Award winner, Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Pippin, Children of Eden), and it took the world by storm. Led by the international hit, "Day by Day," Godspell features a parade of beloved songs, to be sang by an intergenerational cast.

A small group of people help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques and hefty doses of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, is employed as the story of Jesus' life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus' messages of kindness, tolerance and love come vibrantly to life.

July 17^th-26^th, 2026

A modern American triptych of plays, By the People is a MainStage festival pairing 3 contemporary plays with an evolving lineup of short new works by Ohio playwrights. Each weekend features one of three MainStage productions, and each show opens with a unique short play presentation by an Ohio author. The final weekend is an expanded presentation featuring all of the locally written shorts alongside the MainStage production.

The Amish Project (9/11-13) is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of community and forgiveness in the wake of gun violence. American Moor (9/18-20) is a gripping solo work confronting race, power, and artistic ownership through the lens of a Black actor auditioning for Othello. Lastly, Italian American Reconciliation (9/25-27) is an offbeat, big-hearted romantic comedy about love lost, reclaimed, and fiercely pursued.

September 11^th-27^th, 2026

Set in 1828 in a tavern outside Boston, this Eugene O’Neill drama follows Con Melody, a volatile and fiercely proud Irishman determined to maintain the appearance of status and authority in a community that sees through him. Having served as a major under the Duke of Wellington at Talavera, he clings to those memories as proof of his worth, spending his days riding through town, rehearsing speeches, and putting on his old British uniform to mark each anniversary of the battle.

But these displays convince no one. In true O’Neill fashion, Con is an outsider trapped between who he is and who he believes himself to be—deeply in debt, isolated by his pride, and reliant on his patient wife, who keeps the tavern operating despite his treatment of her. His daughter responds only with resentment, especially as he demeans her and treats her more like hired help than family. Through Con’s unraveling, O’Neill examines the illusions people build to survive, and the painful reckoning that follows when those illusions collapse.

November 13^th-22^nd, 2026

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson follows America's seventh president from his early days as a child on the wild frontier to his controversial reign in the White House. With the country divided into rich and poor (and with continued skirmishes with the Native Americans upsetting pieces of the new world), Jackson begins his steady climb from military strategist to populist rabble-rouser to President of the United States. Along the way, he meets his wife, Rachel, takes on the Founding Fathers — and rocks like no political figure has ever rocked before, with the help of an onstage trio and an entourage of singing, joking cohorts. It also asks the question: is wanting to have a beer with someone reason enough to elect him?

January 29^th-February 13^th, 2027