Opening TheatreSquared’s next season with one of American theater’s most recognizable works was equal parts magic and intention, according to T2 Executive Director Shannon Jones.

“‘I’m really pumped to see what our audiences and what the community thinks of all the shows we have to offer. I think we’ve got such an incredible lineup,” Jones says.

For the first show of the 2024-25 season, she says that the professional company based in Fayetteville wanted to make sure that veteran theatergoers and newbies alike have something to get excited about. To that end, Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” will open the next slate of shows.

Artistic Director Bob Ford says the universal themes in “A Raisin in the Sun” — tensions between generations and the aspiration to make life better for the next — are part of what makes the 1959 drama remain relevant. He says that Hansberry’s play stands alongside works like “Death of a Salesman” and “The Glass Menagerie” as the greatest examples of American theater.

“Whenever I finished those plays, I’m just like, these are great, brilliant plays,” he says. “And the last time I read [‘Raisin in the Sun’], I was like, this is the greatest American play ever written.

“[Lorraine Hansberry] has written a three-generation family drama that’s tightly interwoven into the social fabric of the time, the social reality of the time,” Ford says. “What’s amazing about it is that the things that come up about social justice are still very much part of American society.”

Ford will also release his play, “In The Grove of Forgetting,” this season. He says that he’s been writing the piece for the last three years and after workshopping it at the Arkansas New Play Festival this past June at T2, he finally felt confident to share the piece on stage.

“I got a lot of really positive feedback and also a lot of helpful feedback from the other professional playwrights and directors who were there,” says Ford. The story follows a fictional woman with “caustic” wit who has to come to terms with surviving the Holocaust.

“One of the things that I love about this piece is that there’s going to be a good bit of live music performance in it as part of the storytelling because she is a pianist,” Ford adds.

Another new play, the political thriller “twenty50,” has been on T2’s shortlist for a while, Ford says. Written by Tony Menses, who worked on another of his plays at the play festival in 2022, the drama is perfect for election season.

“It really lined up this year because the subject matter of the play is so much on our minds,” Ford says of the play, set in the year 2050 during a congressional race where a Mexican American politician is forced to face his own sense of humanity when a stranger appears at his home.

T2 will also reimagine Shakespeare through a partnership with the National Asian American Theatre Company for a production of “Twelfth Night” next season.

“It allows us to really dive into a part of our mission which broadens access and highlights these different communities and tells different stories maybe in a way that we haven’t thought of before,” Jones says. She explains that this production will place Asian actors into roles frequently aimed at white or Western casts.

This Christmas season will be the last chance to see Ebeneezer Scrooge on stage for a while when “A Christmas Carol” runs Nov. 20-Dec. 24.

“We want to keep that holiday slot as a moment to bring the entire family to the theater and celebrate the season,” says Ford, but he is keeping mum on what they are planning for Christmas 2025 while Scrooge is on break.

Two very different comedies will also add some levity to the season, “Primary Trust” in January 2025 and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” next summer.

Ford describes “Primary Trust” as “a quiet comedy that sneaks up on you over 90 minutes,” while the latter is “just screamingly funny, [a] brilliant farce with a lot of heart and brilliant songs and brilliant lyrics.”

Next up at TheatreSquared is “Laughs in Spanish,” which opens March 27. The T2 Gala for Education and Access is May 2. Find out more at www.theatre2.org.

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FYI

TheatreSquared

2024/25 Season

“A Raisin in the Sun,” Aug. 21-Sept. 15

“twenty50,” Oct. 2-Nov. 3

“A Christmas Carol,” Nov. 20-Dec. 24

“Primary Trust,” Jan. 22-Feb. 23, 2025

“Twelfth Night,” March 5-March 30, 2025

“In The Grove of Forgetting,” April 16-May 11, 2025

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” June 4-June 29, 2025

Subscriptions and more information available at theatre2.org.