Portland State University’s School of Music & Theater has announced their 2026-27 Theater Arts season, featuring three bold and innovative productions to be performed by emerging artists in PSU’s Theater Arts program.
The season kicks off in November 2026 with Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s absurdist workplace comedy Do You Feel Anger?, followed in February 2027 by Gretel! The Musical, a co-production with Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Martin Crimp’s percussive, riveting modern adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac in May 2027.
“Building on the incredible success of our recent productions, we are excited to offer a range of funny, strange and diabolical works for the 2026-27 season — from contemporary comedy to reimagined classics,” said Solomon Weisbard, assistant professor and associate director for Theater Arts at PSU. “At our core, we are committed to creating theatrical work that is as joyous and thrilling for our audiences as it is for the students who create it. This season doubles down on that commitment.”
The PSU Theater Arts 2026-27 Season
Do You Feel Anger?
By Mara Nelson-Greenberg
Directed by Melory Mirashrafi
November 12 - 21, 2026
Boiler Room Studio, Lincoln Hall
Do You Feel Anger? lives in the familiar world of water coolers, staplers and office conference rooms, but Mara Nelson-Greenberg's language quickly reveals something far stranger underneath. When Sofia, an empathy coach, arrives at a debt collection agency as part of a lawsuit settlement, she finds a workplace where toxic masculinity has so thoroughly warped the atmosphere that feelings, empathy and basic human decency have become alien concepts. The absurdly hilarious play is populated by an unusual cast of characters whose skewed logic and bizarre non-sequiturs mask a genuinely unsettling hidden truth. The San Francisco Chronicle called Do You Feel Anger? “a tonal roller coaster with twists, drops, critical commentary and an ultimately cathartic ending. It’s productively shocking, painfully cringey and so much fun (but probably leave the kids at home for this one).”
Gretel! The Musical
Music and lyrics by Jenn Hartmann Luck, Jason Tremblay and Suzan Zeder; book by Jason Tremblay and Suzan Zeder
Directed by Theresa Robbins Dudeck
February 25 - March 6, 2027
Lincoln Performance Hall
Following last season’s highly successful musical Spring Awakening (the first in 14 years), PSU Theater Arts is partnering with Oregon Children’s Theatre to present its next musical: the spellbinding journey of a young girl learning to harness her own ferocity, tend to her own grief and claim her power. Gretel! The Musical owes its origins to the story of Vassilisa the Beautiful (the Russian folktale that inspired Hansel and Gretel) and other Eastern European tales. In the musical, Gretel’s mother has died, leaving the young girl with a magic doll, a cruel stepmother, and a herculean errand: to travel deep into the forest and steal the skull of undying light from Baba Yaga, the fearsome witch. What follows is a journey through darkness and wonder, where she faces horsemen who carry the sun across the sky, a hut that walks on chicken feet, and three seemingly impossible tasks. Featuring an alternative folk-rock score by Jenn Hartmann Luck and a fluid ensemble of actor-musicians and puppeteers, the production will offer six field-trip performances for schools and eight performances open to the public. The musical is produced by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.
Cyrano de Bergerac
By Edmond Rostand; freely adapted by Martin Crimp
Directed by Christine Freije
May 20 - 29, 2027
Boiler Room Studio, Lincoln Hall
Cyrano is a soldier, a duelist, and a man of almost terrifying verbal gifts. But he is also an outsider, marked by his enormous nose as someone the world has decided doesn't belong. When the beautiful Roxane falls for Cyrano’s friend, the handsome but tongue-tied Christian, Cyrano (who harbors secret feelings for Roxane) strikes a desperate bargain: he will lend his words for Christian to utter in his courtship of the young woman. The love triangle that ensues is built on borrowed language, sparking questions around truth, identity, and the nature of connection.
Martin Crimp's dazzling adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand is carried by its fascination with words, supplanting the story’s traditional swordfighting with skewering wordplay. Raucous, funny, tender, and sometimes heartbreaking, the verbal masterwork gives PSU’s young actors a rare opportunity to play with language as a physical, theatrical force. The play's themes, which explore issues of masculinity, desire, insecurity and vulnerability, are treated with a thought-provoking complexity that makes for a challenging, electrifying, cerebral experience in the theater. “You’re likely to leave the theater with words, spoken and unspoken, resounding in your ears — glorious, pyrotechnic words ringing, exploding and shape-shifting forever and ever,” said the New York Times in 2020. Crimp’s adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
Get tickets for the 2026-27 productions.