2025-2026 SEASON
LOCALLY GROWN. COMMUNITY FED. ARTIST DRIVEN
We continue to serve our local community, not just by creating new, vital work, but by expanding access, championing emerging playwrights, and supporting the artists who make it all possible.
From our theatrical home in Long Island City, the Court Square Theater, we grow outward, partnering with neighborhood businesses, increasing programming, and investing in long-term artistic development. Because a thriving arts ecosystem doesn’t just reflect a community…it helps build one.
Bringing back one of Theatre East's most beloved programs, the Neighborhood Reading Series, to our home, the Court Square Theater.
The acclaimed Neighborhood Reading Series returns with an audience-favorite, the spooky, hilarious adaptation of Friday the 13th. Audience participation, raffle off some roles, drinks, candy, laughs, and thrills!
OCTOBER 31
Court Square Theater in LIC
This year, we honor the incredible contributions of storyteller Tim Blake Nelson. From roles in films like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Old Henry, and Leaves of Grass, which he also wrote and directed to his plays including Eye of God , The Grey Zone, Socrates, to his directorial work with films such as O, The Grey Zone, Anesthesia, and Eye of God. Tim has demonstrated time and time again, a curiosity and compassion to explore the greater and often turbulent side of our humanity.
Join us cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and entertainment.
JANUARY 20
Court Square Theater in LIC
HCLAB in association with Theatre East presents annA, an intimate and explosive new take on Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina adapted by Matt Minnicino. As Tolstoy’s doomed heroine wrestles with self-realization, Minnicino’s adaptation queers the classic tale with a resonant exploration of sexual and social identity.
annA is an experimental workshop production, presented in a black box theater, with minimal lighting, tech and costumes. It makes use of highly physical acting and magical realism to focus on telling this timeless and timely tale about choice, love, and if we can truly write the book of our own lives.
MARCH 7-22
The Jimmy Theater, Stella Adler Center for the Arts
This World Premiere explores the personal, often turbulent journey of faith. After losing a difficult pregnancy, a young evangelical couple faces another tragedy when Jenn suffers a stroke that not only removes all memory of the relationship with her husband but also removes all memory of the faith she has spent her life depending upon.
More information
MARCH 28-APRIL 19
Court Square Theater in LIC
The series, which was founded in 2016, continues to present innovative new plays moving beyond the confines of traditional productions. Each season, we commission 5 playwrights, and hire 5 directors, along with 5 casts, to mount 5 brand new and unique short plays. Fulfilling one of our core beliefs to make theatre more accessible to all, tickets are available on a suggested donation basis.
As part of our continued commitment to play development, the Play Room is where scripts completed in the Writers Room are read and discussed in their entirety. Work developed here will potentially feed into other Theatre East programming, including the Neighborhood Reading Series, 5X5 Drama Series, and Main Stage productions.
Readings are free and open to the public.