The forces that would have us turn away from each other, that would have us distrust our neighbors and fear the unfamiliar, are louder than they have been in a long time. Gathering around art, song, dance, and story has always been how people metabolize the unbearable, imagine the impossible, and reach across great divides to find each other again. This season, we’re bringing back one of the most extraordinary shows ever made at HERE and premiering work that couldn’t exist anywhere else. We invite you to choose wonder with us this year, because every moment of collective awe is a tender refusal to give in to forces that would suppress our imaginations.
Arias with a Twist
Presented by Tandem Otter Productions
Created by Joey Arias & Basil Twist
Performed by Joey Arias
Part cabaret, part fever dream, part visual spectacle, this unforgettable theatrical fantasia unleashes Joey Arias’s electrifying voice inside Basil Twist’s wildly imaginative puppet universe. Surreal, funny, emotional, and unlike anything else on stage, the cult sensation Arias with a Twist is a theatrical experience not to be missed.
September 17 – November 1
The Kick Inside
Presented by The Million Underscores
Directed by Nicolás Noreña
The Kick Inside is an exquisite corpse of a play written by eleven New York City based playwrights. The story follows Alenka, a woman who grows awfully tired of the way that people talk to one another and begins experimenting with language in every scene of this one-and-a-half-act play. Visually rich and littered with strange phenomena, action sequences, dogs, algorithm possessions, hitmen and a world that speaks back, The Kick Inside uncovers a lost city that tilts language to ask where words come from within us, and how deeply we transform each other’s emotional fabrics.
October 21 – November 7
Dream Feed
Created & Performed by The HawtPlates
Presented at ArtsEmerson in Boston
Drop into Dream Feed, the latest electro-acoustic vocal work from two-time Grammy Award Winning theatrical family band The HawtPlates. Can we remember our own dreams? Can we share the dreams we have in common? Can we awaken ourselves to the origin of our aspirations? In this shared dream sequence and live concept album, The HawtPlates metabolize the surreal allure of the active mind within a slumbering body through trip-like lullabies and bold reverie. A 2023 HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) commission with additional co-commissioning support from the Under the Radar Festival, this psychedelic live concept album invites audiences into a hypnotic journey through the subconscious.
November 19 – 22
SEE/UNSEE
Written by Lila Blue, Directed and Developed by Jillian Jetton
In an evening of music and storytelling, Lila Blue and their eight-piece band commune with the work and imagined life of artist Hilma af Klint. Surfacing where Blue’s life overlaps with that of the painter – in queerness, in love, and in loss – SEE/UNSEE invites you to delve into the alchemical waters of ecstatic creation.
March 2027
Stone Belly
Created & Performed by Marie Lloyd Paspe
A dance, music, and installation artwork that re-imagines myths of the Philippines for returning the queer diasporic body back home.
May 2027
Puppetopia 2027
Curated by Barbara Busackino & Basil Twist
A springtime review of HERE’s puppetry state of mind; Dream Music’s annual celebration of imagination, possibility, exciting techniques and community creation. Featuring the World Premiere of WATER WALKER by Ash Winkfield, plus more to be announced.
April 2027
Works in development by Janani Balasubramanian, nicHi Douglas, Angélica Negrón, Piehole, Nissy Aya, Annalisa Dias, and Lanxing Fu
HERE members get early access, discounted tickets! Sign up now to save on 365 days of wonder!
Choose HERE
For $9 a month, HEREsocial makes HERE’s downtown home your clubhouse. Members receive discounted tickets to every performance, a dollar off every drink at the bar, early access to HERE’s community updates, and invitations to special events, openings, and parties throughout the season. No membership required to feel at home: HERE’s lobby is open during regular business hours with expanded cafe offerings, a living room for the neighborhood’s funkiest, most offbeat, most genuinely avant-garde community. HEREsocial just makes it official.
Choose to go further
For those ready to support HERE more robustly, HERE’s donor membership program offers a direct way to sustain the daily operations and annual programming that make the work possible. Every donor level includes meaningful ways to connect with that work like discounted tickets, exclusive event invitations, and more.
Choose Community
Through post-show dialogue, community partnerships, and street-level voter engagement, HERE treats every production as an entry point into public life beyond the four walls of the theater. The lobby becomes a town square. This season, HERE’s lobby will host free public activations including a little free library, a resource-sharing wall, talkbacks, teach-ins, and pop-up outdoor performances, turning the space between the street and the stage into one more place to gather. The work continues beyond HERE’s walls, through ongoing collaborations with the Hudson Square BID, University Settlement, and First Nations Performing Arts. HERE also continues its Access Programming by providing captioned performances, masked performances, and tools for neurodivergent audiences in collaboration with Seats on the Spectrum. HERE will also continue offering its 10 for $10 ticketing access initiative and free rush tickets for students and seniors.
Choose Artistic Infrastructure
This year, HERE also announces the formalization of its Fiscal Sponsorship Program for select HERE Hosts projects, creating better-than-industry-standard-rate opportunities for growing production companies to actively fundraise, protect their teams, and receive fiscal and compliance guidance. That same investment in infrastructure extends to people. HERE will pilot Learning Labs for lifelong artistic learning and professional development, as well as a Summer Internship Program for early career artistic administrators that gives a robust overview of multidisciplinary producing, marketing, general management, programming, and fundraising. And it extends outward: through dramaturgical and producing consultations, and professional development workshops, HERE puts that same infrastructure to work for the field at large.
Choose Celebration
HERE’s Fall Season will launch on Saturday, September 19th from 3pm-6pm with a Season Kickoff Party! Join season artists and HERE community members to toast the upcoming year of performances, and get a sneak peak at all that is to come!