Theatre UAB
UAB theater students perform "Dear Evan Hansen" in April in a collaboration with UAB Theatre and Red Mountain Theatre. has announced its upcoming 2026-2027 season of performances, which will kick off this fall.
Theatre UAB is the performance company of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Theatre at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Visit the UAB Department of Theatre online at uab.edu/cas/theatre, or call the department at 205-934-3236. These performances are held in UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, 1200 10th Ave. South. Purchase tickets or call 205-975-2787.
This season’s plays will explore power in its many shades and manifestations, says UAB Department of Theatre Chair Megan Lewis, Ph.D.
“All of these works are timely plays that explore the personal and political nature of power,” Lewis said. “But they also model how we remain human and loving in times of crisis. They speak to our contemporary world through historical scenarios, sparking conversation about the most important ideas of our world. All the works in the season demonstrate the vital work theater does in our world — how we tell the stories of our times — in entertaining, sizzling and provocative ways.”
The new season will offer students many performance, design and dramaturgical opportunities. Students can learn about an array of genres and styles: “poor theater,” which strips away elaborate sets, lighting and costumes to focus on the actors; activist work; contemporary and classic musicals; important playwrights; and classic and contemporary periods for design; plus vernacular speech and heightened Shakespearean text. Find your degree at UAB.
Oct. 14-18 “We are Proud to Present … a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between 1884-1925”
By Jackie Sibblies Drury. Directed by Mona Eldashoury. With a Saturday understudy matinee. Alys Stephens Center’s Odess Theatre.
A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the early 20th century. Within a rehearsal room, a group of actors collaborate to wrestle with the history of German colonial rule in Namibia. Along the way, they test the limits of empathy as their own stories, subjectivities, assumptions and prejudices catalyze their theatrical process. Eventually, the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, and what seemed a faraway place and time comes all too close to home. Drury is astute at writing plays that “play” with politics onstage. This will be Eldashoury’s directorial debut at UAB.
Nov. 11-15 “Cabaret”
Music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff. Directed by Assistant Professor and Head of Performance Santiago Sosa. Music direction by Jonathan Parks. Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theatre.
UAB Theatre's March 2026 production "Murder on the Orient Express."In this stylish, classic jazz musical, American writer Cliff Bradshaw falls in love with English cabaret performer Sally Bowles at the decadent Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Weimar, Germany. They navigate the complexities of love against the hedonism of Berlin’s nightlife and the looming threat of the rising Nazi Party. Created by the musical theater powerhouse team of Kander and Ebb, and as groundbreaking now as when it first premiered on Broadway in 1966, “Cabaret” explores political and social tensions as the characters struggle with their personal desires, indifferent to the existential threats in the streets of Berlin and across Europe.
Feb. 24-28, 2027 “Artemisia”
By Lauren Gunderson. Directed by Assistant Professor Kelley Schoger. Alys Stephens Center’s Odess Theatre. In partnership with the UAB Department of Art and Art History.
Artemisia Gentileschi was the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century, yet her name was all but lost for centuries. Attacked at just 17, publicly shamed and tortured to prove her truth, Gentileschi’s painterly prowess equaled the men of her time, and she fought to make art on her own terms. Contending with her father’s vision for her, consumed with passion for her lover and ferociously devoted to her children, Artemisia is a woman ahead of her time. Gunderson is one of our most exciting contemporary playwrights, whose work of humor and warmth celebrates the courage, artistry and humanity of a woman who attacked the glass ceiling with every brush stroke.
April 7-11, 2027 “Twelfth Night”
By William Shakespeare. Directed by Santiago Sosa. Alys Stephens Center’s Sirote Theatre.
Twins Viola and Sebastian are separated by a shipwreck and washed ashore in the land of Illyria. Protectively disguising herself as a boy in this unknown and dangerous territory, Viola gets caught in a love triangle between the infatuated Duke Orsino and noblewoman Olivia, while struggling to reunite with her lost brother. It is a story of the power of love, mistaken identities and of refugees in foreign lands playing whatever parts enable them to survive. Sosa, whose creative research focus is voice, movement and dialects, directs Shakespeare’s heightened language in this beloved classic.
April 2-18, 2027 “Mean Girls”
Co-presented by UAB Theatre and Red Mountain Theatre. Book by Tina Fey, lyrics by Neil Benjamin and music by Jeff Richmond. Directed by Associate Professor of Musical Theatre Roy Lightner.
Cady Heron, the new girl at school, tries to adapt and belong, befriending outsiders and infiltrating the “Plastics” clique run by queen bee Regina George. Inspired by Rosalind Wiseman’s 2002 book “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” “Mean Girls” is a high-energy rock musical that addresses the power plays of high school life, including the pressure to fit in, the consequences of blind judgment and the struggle to be true to oneself amid social pressures.