Geffen Playhouse today announced seven productions that will make up the 2023/2024 season in its Gil Cates and Audrey Skirball Kenis Theaters. The 2023/2024 season will launch September 6, 2023, and run through July 14, 2024. The seven-show season will feature a mix of world premieres, West Coast premieres and one Los Angeles premiere.
“The Geffen Playhouse 2023/2024 slate is inspired storytelling at its best, crossing myriad genres that will take audiences on an emotional journey of laughter, wonder and joy,” said Geffen Playhouse Executive Director Gil Cates, Jr. “We’re excited to be bringing new voices to our LA stages that are sure to become familiar favorites.”
The 2023/2024 Gil Cates Theater season will launch with the West Coast premiere of The Engagement Party from playwright Samuel Baum, a secret-laden comedy that takes a dark and unexpected turn when a celebration goes horribly awry, irrevocably changing the lives of everyone involved. Next up in the Gil Cates Theater will be the Los Angeles premiere of Selina Fillinger’s POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, a riotous and irreverent farce about the men who hold the power versus the women who get the job done.
The Gil Cates Theater season will continue with the West Coast premiere of the Broadway production of James Ijames’ Fat Ham, his Pulitzer Prize-winning take on Hamlet, where we meet Juicy, a young, queer Black man with a Shakespearean-sized dilemma. Closing the Gil Cates Theater lineup will be the West Coast premiere of Mike Lew’s heartfelt new play, tiny father.
The 2023/2024 Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater season will get off to a humorous start with Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing, featuring Daniel K. Isaac (Billions) inviting the audience on a transcendent and tender coming-of-age journey that reminds us to pay attention to life’s smallest joys—and to each other. Immediately following in the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater will be two world premieres, beginning with Kristen Adele Calhoun’s Black Cypress Bayou, a hilarious, suspenseful tale of loyalty, healing and comeuppance. Closing out the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater season will be the world premiere of The Hope Theory, an entirely new magical experience from the creators of Invisible Tango, The Present and The Future. Written and performed by magician and storyteller Helder Guimarães and directed by Frank Marshall, The Hope Theory offers a unique perspective on America through the eyes of an optimistic outsider. In a Geffen Playhouse first, five performances of The Hope Theory (La Teroía de la Esperanza) will be performed in Spanish.
The 2023/2024 season will also mark Geffen Playhouse’s transition to a schedule of seven performances per week, with shows running from Wednesday through Sunday.
