FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOUR PRODUCTIONS, INCLUDING TWO WORLD PREMIERES, PLUS TWO TRANSFERS TO OFF-BROADWAY
STONY POINT, NY – March 15, 2026 – Penguin Rep Theatre (www.penguinrep.org), under the leadership of Joe Brancato, founding Artistic Director, and Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, announced its 2026 season – the nonprofit professional company’s 49th in Stony Point, New York – will feature four mainstage productions, including two world premieres.
The company will also transfer to Off-Broadway its acclaimed productions of Tom Dudzick’s Miracle on South Division and Cary Gitter’s The Steel Man. Dudzick’s comedy will have a limited engagement at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (www.sheencenter.org) from April 14 through May 10, and Gitter’s play will be seen at 59E59 Theaters (www.59e59.org), where Penguin is a Resident Co-Op Company, from November 3 through December 13.
Described by Horn as “a celebration of family, friendship, and the pursuit of freedom,” the season at Penguin’s intimate venue in Rockland County officially kicks off May 15 with My Lord, What a Night, a new play by Deborah Breevort. When world-famous singer Marian Anderson is turned away from a hotel in Princeton in 1937 because of her race, she finds an unexpected host in Albert Einstein. “What begins as a simple act of hospitality,” says Brancato, who will direct, “grows into a friendship based on their mutual love of music and commitment to human rights.” Featuring a cast of four who portray real-life historical figures — each with a unique perspective on how to effect change — this moving play is about courage, justice, and our shared humanity.
Performances of My Lord, What a Night will run through June 7.
From July 9 through July 26, the company transports us back to 1973 – Soul Train, Watergate, Disney World – with The Heart Sellers, a new play by Lloyd Suh, directed by Maria Mileaf. Two recent newcomers meet by chance in the supermarket just before Thanksgiving. While their medical-resident husbands work through the night, the young women share stories about their new lives … and how to cook a frozen turkey. Filled with heart and humor, this “laugh-aloud love letter to friendship” (Broadway World) explores what it takes to make a new home.
Next up, from August 14 through September 6, is the world premiere of Take Me America, a rousing new musical full of heart and soul written by Neil Berg (music and additional lyrics) and Bill Nabel (book and lyrics). It’s 2015 and Gary Campbell plans on saving the world. But it’s only his first day on the job as an immigrant official and he confronts heartbreak – and hope – as he listens to the challenges and dreams of those looking to forge new lives in the U.S. … and then must decide their fate.
The mainstage season concludes with the world premiere of Michael McKeever’s In Plain Sight from September 25 through October 18. Says Brancato, who will direct, “the author of Daniel’s Husband and Mr. Parker returns to Penguin to ignite the stage with his customary wit, humor, savvy, and gut-wrenching twists.” After 11 years together, Elliot and Alan are about to tie the knot. Or are they? How do you reconcile choices made to escape an unforgiving past when they undermine who you are today? The past, present, and future collide as one family attempts to deal with buried secrets and a rapidly changing world.
Performances of mainstage productions are scheduled at Penguin Rep Theatre, a repurposed hay barn, located at 7 Crickettown Road. “The converted barn, circa 1880, has never been more inviting” (The New York Times). Says Mr. Horn, “It’s theatre so close you can feel it, with comfortable upholstered seats and no seat more than 30 feet from the stage.” The theatre is air conditioned, handicapped accessible, and has plenty of free parking.
Performances will take place: Thursday evenings at 7:00 p.m., select Friday matinees at 2:00 p.m., Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Season tickets are on sale online now with the box office opening for phone orders starting April 1. Prices for the mainstage season start as low as $175 for the four plays, a savings of more than 25% off the cost of individual tickets.
“The very best seats in the house go to subscribers before single tickets go on sale,” says Mr. Horn. For no additional charge, he says, patrons can select a value-added subscription series that includes post-performance discussions among the artists and audience, coffee and cake with the cast, and – new this season – dessert before the show.
An additional incentive to purchase season tickets, says Horn, “is to dine out at a discount, with select restaurants offering special benefits to Penguin subscribers.”
Individual tickets go on sale April 24. Tickets are priced at $56 (plays) and $60 (musical). Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more and young people (30 and under).
Additional details about the 2026 season, including casting, concerts, readings, and special events, will be announced in coming weeks.
To order tickets or for further information, visit Penguin Rep’s website at WWW.PENGUINREP.ORG or call 845-786-2873.
ABOUT PENGUIN REP THEATRE
Penguin Rep Theatre (Penguin Players, Ltd.), based in historic Stony Point (Rockland County), New York, is an award-winning nonprofit professional theatre company now in its 49th year of operation. Since its founding, Penguin had presented more than 200 productions at its home, a converted 1880’s hay barn, for more than 400,000 audience members from the tri-state and beyond.
Founding Artistic Director Joe Brancato was a high school English and drama teacher in 1977 when he peered into an abandoned barn and envisioned the space repurposed into a theatre. Nearly five decades later, Penguin Rep – the theatre Brancato started with Francine Newman-McCarthy, President of the Board of Trustees, and runs with Executive Director Andrew M. Horn – has grown from a summer operation to become one of the lower Hudson Valley’s most enduring cultural institutions, reaching tens of thousands of theatergoers each year at its home, in New York City and beyond – with its work moving to Off-Broadway and to stages across the country and around the world.
In 2025 alone, Penguin presented six productions — including three world premieres — plus nine concerts, readings and special events, for 18,000 attendees, not counting the thousands who saw the company’s production of Robert Montano’s SMALL at the Tony Award-winning Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California.
Penguin is also a Resident Co-Op Company at 59E59 Theaters where it has transferred such productions as Cary Gitter’s Gene & Gilda, Gitter and Neil Berg’s musical The Sabbath Girl, Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise, and SMALL (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee).
Other notable productions that originated in Stony Point before playing Off-Broadway include: Angelo Parra’s The Devil’s Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Audelco and Off Bway Alliance Award nominee), Erasmus Fenn’s Drop Dead Perfect (New York Times Critics Pick), and Charles Smith’s Freed (Audelco Award nominee).