The Public Theater sets additional 2026-27 season productions, including Shakespeare in the Park

Actors Wendell Pierce and Annaleigh Ashford, playwright Caryl Churchill, and directors Rachel Chavkin and Saheem Ali are among the artists attached to upcoming shows.

Summary

• The Public Theater has set new Off-Broadway programming for its 2026-27 season
• Newly announced are five shows at the Public's downtown venue and three Shakespeare in the Park shows at the Delacorte Theater
• They join nine previously announced shows in the institution's season

The Public Theater has named additional productions in its 2026-27 season, including five plays at its downtown venue, three productions for its Shakespeare in the Park season in summer 2027, and more programming.

From October 8-18 is Triumph, a world premiere written by Caryl Churchill and directed by Saheem Ali. Spouses Annaleigh Ashford and Joe Tapper star as Iris and Marcus in the play about the press secretary to the Roman emperors, inspired by Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars. Tickets to this production are free, but advance reservations are required.

Documentary theatremakers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen return with their newest work, The Surge, in winter/spring 2027. Directed by Blank and produced in association with the Guthrie Theater, the show is a response Operation Metro Surge, which involved the deployment of over 3,000 ICE agents in Minnesota starting in December 2025.

From April 8 to May 2 is the New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathan Englander's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, directed by Patrick Marber. The show is a comedy about two Jewish couples — one secular, one ultra-Orthodox — having an argument they never expected to have. Opening night is April 20.

The Drama Desk Award-nominated rock musical Meet Me at the End of the World runs from May 4 to June 13, with an opening on May 12. Written by Jesse Malin and Wilder L. Ludwig and directed by Ellie Heyman, the show tells the story of Jesse Malin, an acclaimed singer/songwriter who became partially paralyzed from a spinal stroke. ArKtype and David Bason produce the show.

Finally, experimental theatre company Elevator Repair Service (Gatz) returns to the Public with Phil, based on George Saunders's novella The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, about a small country's despotic populist leader. John Collins directs the production, running from May 25 to June 27 with a June 10 opening.

For its summer 2027 Shakespeare in the Park season, the Public will present three productions at Central Park's Delacorte Theater. The first is Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, featuring Wendell Pierce as Falstaff. Rachel Chavkin directs the play about a young prince learning to balance his lively social life at the tavern with his royal duties.

The second production is a return engagement of Counting and Cracking, which previously ran in 2024 at the NYU Skirball Center as a co-production with the Public. Written by S. Shakthidharan with Eamon Flack, and directed by Flack with Shakthidharan, the play dramatizes Shakthidharan's family history as one 3.5-hour epic that spans from 1956 to 2004, starting with a pregnant woman fleeing her native Sri Lanka amid conflict.

The show is a Belvoir St Theatre and Kurinji co-production. Read our review of the 2024 production.

The final Shakespeare in the Park show is A Midsummer Night's Dream, adapted and directed by Saheem Ali with music and lyrics by Michael Thurber. The classic romantic comedy is a Public Works production, in which the Public casts New Yorkers from all five boroughs to perform alongside professional actors.

Additional programming in the Public's 2026-27 season includes various concert and cabaret performances at Joe's Pub, a play reading series titled What's Past Is Prologue: Plays That Grapple with the Future, and a yet-unannounced Mobile Unit show — a free summer Shakespeare production that plays in all five boroughs — directed by Lori Elizabeth Parquet. The newly announced programming joins nine previously announced shows.

Additional information on casting, creative teams, performance dates, and ticketing for the above productions has yet to be announced.

Photo credit: Wendell Pierce, Annaleigh Ashford, and Joe Tapper. (Photos courtesy of The Public Theater; Pierce photo courtesy of CBS)