PHOTOS BY COREY OLSEN
WRITTEN BY
BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS
DIRECTED BY PHYLICIA RASHAD
FEATURING ALANA ARENAS, GLENN DAVIS, JON MICHAEL HILL , L ATANYA RICHARDSON JACKSON, HARRY LENNIX & KARA YOUNG
Meet the Jaspers: generations of a powerful Black political family under one roof where nothing stays buried for long. When their youngest son returns home, instincts kick in to protect their public image of leadership and moral authority, and fractures soon appear as private grievances, betrayals, and longsimmering questions of identity rise to the surface.
Direct from Broadway, this 2025 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning play makes its LA debut with the original Broadway cast, directed by the incomparable Phylicia Rashad. Both intimate and epic, Purpose is provocative, often hilarious, and ultimately a devastating exploration of legacy and the cost of believing in something bigger than yourself.
Production Sponsor
Originally Produced on Broadway by David Stone, Debra Martin Chase, Marc Platt, LaChanze, Rashad V. Chambers, Aaron Glick, Universal Theatrical Group, Eastern Standard Time, Trate Productions, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, James L. Nederlander, John Gore, ATG Entertainment, The Shubert Organization, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
PHOTOS BY COREY OLSEN
ON
NWRITTEN BY BESS WOHL
DIRECTED BY WHITNEY WHITE
A CO-PRODUCTION WITH BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE & STUDIO THEATRE
Following its smash Broadway run, Liberation makes its West Coast debut with sharp wit, emotional insight, and fearless ambition to challenge the status quo. It’s 1970, somewhere in Ohio: six women gather in a basement gymnasium for a consciousness raising group, determined to shake up their lives and change the world. These meetings quickly become complicated—friendships are tested, alliances shift, the personal becomes political and vice versa, ultimately calling into question the very meaning of freedom itself.
Directed by Tony Award nominee Whitney White ( Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), this daring and sharply funny new play explores what it truly means to claim power, both on your own and together, and reminds us that revolution is never simple, but always worth the fight.
PHOTOS BY COREY OLSEN
As a seasoned MMA fighter at the end of his career, Big reluctantly agrees to coach his younger sister, Lil, a fierce and hungry newcomer with something to prove. But years of distance, resentment, and unresolved pain simmer beneath every training session. Does Big have what it takes to make Lil a champion…
Told with raw honesty and lyrical intensity, The Monsters explores the complicated intimacy of sibling relationships when family can be both a sanctuary and a battlefield. With sharp dialogue and moments of surprising tenderness, this sibling love story examines the ways we protect one another, even when bruises stay hidden just under the surface.
SPECIAL LIMITED ENGAGEMENT is not part of any subscription package , but subscribers will receive to purchase single tickets with no per-ticket fees before the general public.
PHOTOS BY COREY OLSEN
WRITTEN BY GRACE MCLEOD
DIRECTED BY HANNAH WOLF
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Housing prices in LA are already criminal, but in this home, they may actually be fatal. A scrappy real estate agent and her Uber-driving boyfriend are secretly living in the “luxury” property she’s desperate to sell: a disastrously flipped fever dream where corners are cut and nothing works the way it should. When the home’s bro developer shows up, things go from unethical to unhinged.
A newly successful gay couple and a pregnant lesbian couple spiral into a bidding war over the supposedly hot property as the agent and her boyfriend scramble to keep the sale alive—and the skeletons in the closet—in a perfectly escalating farce. Closing Costs is a whip-smart send-up of the absurdity of trying to buy a home in Los Angeles, where the market is cutthroat, the wiring is questionable, and everyone is just one inspection away from disaster.
Production Sponsor
PHOTOS BY COREY OLSEN
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
WRITTEN BY ALICE
CHILDRESS
DIRECTED BY L ACHANZE
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH L ACHANZE PRODUCTIONS
Set during the height of the 1964 Harlem riot, Wine in the Wilderness unfolds in the apartment of Bill Jameson, a painter determined to capture “the essence” of Black womanhood in his latest triptych. As friends take shelter from the rising tensions outside, the arrival of a young woman disrupts Bill’s carefully constructed vision and exposes the assumptions, judgments, and hierarchies shaping both his art and his community.
With incisive humor and unflinching honesty, Alice Childress’s play interrogates class, colorism, gender, and the politics of representation, asking who gets to define beauty, respectability, and worth. Under the direction of Broadway legend LaChanze, this production foregrounds the play’s emotional immediacy and radical compassion, revealing a story that feels as urgent today as when it was first written.
NEW THEATER IN THE MAKING
At Geffen Playhouse, the future of theater takes shape on our stages. Throughout the 2026/2027 Season, the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater will serve as a creative home for new play development, hosting a series of workshops dedicated to nurturing bold voices and original stories. Investing in new work isn’t just part of our mission; it’s essential to the vitality of the art form. By championing plays in their earliest stages, Geffen Playhouse helps ensure that the next generation of groundbreaking theater is not only imagined, but realized.
DONATE TODAY
Geffen Playhouse is a non-profit theater. With ticket sales only covering 40% of expenses, we rely on the generosity of our audiences to fund our educational and artistic programs. Your support helps to create new theater, including the workshops and readings below.
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
DRAGON BABY PART III OF THE DRAGON CYCLE
Book & Lyrics by SARA PORKALOB
Music & Lyrics by BRIAN QUIJADA
Directed by ANDREW RUSSELL
In Dragon Baby, Sara Porkalob unleashes her own story in a fierce, funny, and deeply personal musical about inheritance, culture, rage, and love, with original music and lyrics by Brian Quijada ( Mexodus).
COMMISSIONS IN WORKSHOP
As part of the Geffen’s robust commissioning program, artists are guaranteed development time for their drafts, in collaboration with, a director, dramaturg, and actors.
• Nazareth Hassan
• Beth Hyland
• Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel
• York Walker
• Lauren Yee
IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER
Written by TARELL ALVIN M c CRANEY
Directed by WEYNI MENGESHA
A Co-Production with DEAF WEST THEATRE
In preparation for the 2028 Summer Games, we’re reimagining what an outdoor performance of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water can be as a co-production with Deaf West Theatre.
THE WRITERS’ ROOM
2025/2026 Writers’ Room playwrights have gathered monthly to share their work and receive feedback from their peers and Geffen artistic staff, with their residency culminating in a reading with a director and actors.
• Diana Yifei Dai
• Louis Reyes McWilliams
• Zharia O’Neal
• Frank Paiva
• Ryn Stafford
• Habib Yazdi
EXPERIENCE THE GEFFEN UP CLOSE
Donors receive a variety of benefits to enhance their theatrical experiences, including:
• Access to the Marcia Israel-Curley Founders Room
• Invitations to behind-the-scenes events
• Invitations to Opening Nights
• Complimentary drinks, parking, and more!
Geffen Playhouse is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Federal Tax ID# 95-4492653). Donations are tax deductible under the fullest extent of the law.
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SUBSCRIBERS RECEIVE THESE BENEFITS:
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PACKAGES START AT JUST $196!
Whether you prefer to plan ahead or play it by ear, there’s a 2026/2027 Season subscription package for you.
4-PLAY GIL CATES THEATER SUBSCRIPTION
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4-PLAY FLEX SUBSCRIPTION
Prefer more freedom? With a Flex Subscription, pay one low price now and choose your seats later—before tickets go on sale to the general public. It’s the easiest way to secure priority access while keeping your schedule open.
†Flex subscription includes one seat for each Gil Cates Theater production, redeemable for any Section A, Section B, or Section C seating location; upgrade to a Premium seating location at time of booking for $30 per ticket. Flex subscribers will be able to select their seats beginning in July 2026 (before the general public on-sale) and receive all standard subscriber benefits.
*Savings compared to single ticket prices plus fees. Events, artists, dates, and times are subject to change. Seating locations may change depending on production design.
