By Erik Kvarnberg
Palm Beach Dramaworks’ 2026-27 season will feature plays for audiences seeking world premieres, modern classics, and absurdism, including works by Harold Pinter and a celebrated musical.
The West Palm Beach-based company will announce the last two productions of the 2026-27 season later this year.
The season opens with the world premiere of Alejando Rodriguez’s Alba, inspired by the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca’s 1936 play The House of Bernarda Alba. Rodriguez’s play follows a Cuban matriarch in Miami trying to hold onto her house amid a world of changes and obstacles. New technology, impatient debtors, and a suspicious suitor threaten her way of life. Alba opens October 9.
Another world premiere is Jennifer Maisel’s Provenance, a unique play about the life of a painting. Introduced in the 2026 Perlberg Festival of New Plays, Provenance takes place in early 1900s German society and follows a mythical portrait through its theft by the Nazis and its subsequent travels around the world. Provenance opens December 9.
Also of note will be a rare musical at Dramaworks, Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza. A multiple Tony winner, this 2005 musical is set in the 1950s and features an American woman, Margaret Johnson, who is on vacation in Florence with her daughter, Clara, who is developmentally disabled. When Clara falls in love with an Italian man, Margaret must face some difficult questions. The Light in the Piazza opens Feb. 12, 2027.
Also on tap is British playwright Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, described as a classic comedy of menace. In an act of kindness, a boarding house owner throws her only tenant a birthday party. When two strangers show up, the occasion turns into a nightmare. The Birthday Party opens April 2, 2027.
The season closes with Richard Strand’s Ben Butler, based on the real-life general who fought for the Union during the Civil War. When a group of enslaved people shows up to seek his help, he has to make the decision to turn them away or obey his conscience. Ben Butler opens May 21, 2027.
Although not part of Dramaworks’ official season, the company also will present Hershey Felder’s The Piano & Me. Felder opened his play George Gershwin Alone at Dramaworks 25 years ago, and returns in this personal show to share his experiences from his last 30 years on stage, accompanied by the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and others. The Piano & Me opens Oct. 30.
For more information, visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.