The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts is pleased to announce its 2025 – 2026 theatre season. Tickets go on sale in September.

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.

Acute Exposure
By August Hakvaag
Directed by J. Briggs Cormier

March 5 – 13
Blackbox Theatre

In the small town of Loving, New Mexico, Dell has a mission: to tell the people of the far-flung future that there is a dangerous store of nuclear waste hidden below the ground. Her neighbor and morbidly curious classmate, Mara, comes along for the ride after they're assigned to work on a project together for English class. As they grow closer, and the enormity of what's buried in their backyards sinks in, they find that their relationship is changing them: for better, for worse, forever. When Dell's path out of town becomes uncertain, the two will have to choose what they bring with them into their futures, and what they leave behind.

August Hakvaag (they/them) is a butch theatre artist currently based in Philadelphia. They received a BA in Theatre, and are currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, from Temple University. They have worked internationally as an actor, director, and playwright. They are a Princess Grace Fellowship Award semi-finalist, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee, and a proud member of the Ring of Keys Collective. Highlights include working with Moxie Arts NY, The Palace Collective, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, The Twenty Sided Tavern, Impulse Control Freaks, Richmond Triangle Players, Tokyo International Players, and Aporia Artists Collective, of which they are a founding member. Most recently, their immersive piece A Seance for Mae West enjoyed a sold out run at the Hot Bed Art Studio in Philadelphia. Currently, they can be heard on the award-winning podcast Wing Women as Nino. They are finishing their second year of the PlayPenn Foundry program, where they are working on a play about superconductive electricity.

Acute Exposure is the 2025-26 winner in the EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights’ Festival. Celebrating 20 years, the EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights’ Festival uplifts new plays that celebrate ecological interdependency, call for environmental justice, and inspire climate action. Ohio State will host the festival in conjunction with Acute Exposure’s opening.

Environment Matters on Stage (EMOS) was founded by Theresa May and Larry Fried in 2004. EMOS is a consortium of artists, educators, activists, and scholars who believe that theatre and the performing arts must respond to the environmental crisis. EMOS calls forth and fosters new dramatic work and performances that help us re-imagine our human place in a more-than-human world.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Revised)
Based on the Comic Strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Clark Gesner
Additional Dialogue by Michael Mayer
Additional Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Directed by Mandy Fox

April 9 – 11
Proscenium Theatre

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang grapple with life’s big questions as they enjoy a childhood filled with baseball, kite-flying, difficult homework, childhood crushes, and Snoopy’s heroic aerial battles with the Red Baron. This revue of songs and vignettes, based on the beloved comic strip by Charles Schulz, is filled with charm, with, and heart. This family-friendly, energetic musical appeals to young and old alike.

Award-winning Clark Gesner composed for stage and television. “Happiness” became a hit standard after You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown opened in 1967. Gesner also wrote for Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, and The Electric Company. Award-winning composer, lyricist, and producer Andrew Lippa is best known for Tony-nominated The Addams Family. The Columbus resident wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The Wild Party; music and lyrics for Big Fish; and the oratorio I Am Harvey Milk, commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.