Refreshed, resilient, ‘radically inclusive’

Long Wharf Theatre announces its 2020-21 season

The Long Wharf Theatre will leave its mainstage shuttered for most of its 2020-21 season, not due to coronavirus but in service of artistic director Jacob Padrón’s mandate that the New Haven theater be “artistically innovative, radically inclusive, and create meaningful connections.”

Undeterred by a week of reactions and reschedulings by arts organizations around the state due to public health concerns, the Long Wharf went ahead with an announcement event at the theater Wednesday night.

The biggest revelation is that four of the five shows in the 2020-21 season will be held in the Long Wharf’s Stage II space, which at 200 seats is half the size of the theater’s mainstage.

In another bold stroke, every show in the season will be directed by a woman. The theater’s new leadership team has been openly addressing the fact that the previous artistic director was removed after a host of “#metoo” complaints chronicled in a 2018 New York Times article. “Given where this company has been,” Padrón says, “I felt ‘Let’s think about that, let’s be transparent about that.’ Let’s celebrate our women. Who are the phenomenal women who may have been denied opportunities in the theater earlier?”

In yet another innovation, each of the productions in the Long Wharf’s 2020-21 season will have designated “community partners.” Managing director Kit Ingui says that allying with other local organizations allows for “different voices” and more diverse audiences to be part of the process.

“Torera” by Monet Hurst-Mendoza, about a female bullfighter. The show, which may feature puppets alongside human actors, is a partnership with Sol Project, a national theater initiative founded and run by Padrón that supports and promotes the work of Latinx theater creators.

“Night’s Dream,” a reimagining of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by director Shana Alexander that abridges Shakespeare’s text and scales down the cast to eight actors.

“The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” a comic drama bu Kristoffer Diaz about a professional wrestler navigating the modern capitalist, religious and political world. The play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist a decade ago. The play is being co-produced