The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts is pleased to announce the autumn shows in its 2025 – 2026 theatre season. (Spring titles will be announced when rights are secured.)

The Squirrels
By Robert Askins
Directed by Mandy Fox

October 29 – November 8
Blackbox Theatre

Winter is coming and the wealthy Gray Squirrel family is prepared for the next ten winters. The less fortunate Red Squirrels face starvation and plead with Scurius, the Gray patriarch, to share his family’s bounty. A vicious war breaks out between the haves and the have-nots in which no one wins. With a pending apocalypse, this dark, satirical allegory questions who’s responsible for destruction of the environment.

Robert Askins, best known for Tony- and Olivier-nominated and Obie Award-winning play Hand to God has received several awards and grants for playwriting. He also writes for television, serving as writer and producer for the Netflix Series The Umbrella Academy (2020 – 2024). Other plays include Permission, Fish Display, Princes of Waco, Matthew and the Pastor’s Wife, and Doll Parts.

After the Blast
By Zoe Kazan
Directed by Kevin McClatchy

November 13 – 21
Proscenium Theatre

After a global environmental disaster, humans have retreated to a sterile and bleak life underground, only made bearable thanks to chips implanted in their brains that can simulate tastes, smells, sights, and sounds. Ever hopeful that partial re-habitation is imminent, reproduction is strictly regulated in order to maintain genetic diversity. Against this bleak background, one couple desperately want to raise a child, but Anna’s depression prevents her from clearing the mental health exam. She is given hope when her husband Oliver brings her a helper robot to train for another family. As her mental health improves, she discovers a devastating truth that could turn society’s carefully constructed world upside down.

Zoe Kazan is an actor and playwright whose first full-length play, Absolom was produced at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville as part of the 2009 Humana Festival. The Manhattan Theatre Club commissioned her second play, This Thing of Darkness. Kazan’s Broadway credits as an actor include The Seagull and Come Back, Little Sheba. Her Off-Broadway credits include Things We Want, 100 Saints You Should Know, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.