Constellation Theatre Company Celebrates 20th Season w/ Fantasy, Fright & Folly
*Lead image: Constellation’s 2023 performance of The School for Lies. Image courtesy: Constellation Theatre Company
Two decades in, Constellation Theatre Company is still reaching for the stars, and its landmark 20th Anniversary Season promises plenty of adventure, intrigue, and theatrical invention.
For the upcoming 2026/27 season, the DC company is expanding its footprint with three productions in three distinctive venues. Two are new to Constellation, including a partnership with the Atlas Performing Arts Center, while a third brings the company to Bethesda’s The Writer’s Center for the first time.
The season opens with The Old Man and The Old Moon (Nov. 19-Dec. 13), directed by Founding Artistic Director Allison Arkell Stockman at the Atlas’s Sprenger Theater. This folk-rock fantasy follows the moon’s caretaker on an epic quest to find his true love across the sea. Expect towering ships, flying sharks, an overstuffed hot-air balloon and the kind of theatrical magic Constellation does best.
Next comes a decidedly darker adventure.
Dial M for Murder (Feb. 19-March 21, 2027), directed by Aria Velz, takes over The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. This sleek adaptation of Frederick Knott’s classic murder mystery (made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film) turns marital discord into a deliciously dangerous game of vengeance, greed, and deception. The twists are plentiful, the stakes are deadly, and the endgame is anything but predictable.
The season closes with Failure: A Love Story (May 14-June 13, 2027), directed by Nick Martin at Atlas’s Theatre Lab II. Set in 1920s Chicago, Philip Dawkins’ whimsical tale follows the three Fail sisters as they chase dreams, romance, and adventure during a single life-changing year. Between a family clock shop, jazz, jitterbugging, and dreams of swimming across Lake Michigan, this bittersweet story promises equal parts tragedy and triumph.
Together, the three productions showcase Constellation’s signature range: fantasy, farce, mystery and musicality. And the new venues are also part of the bigger story: Twenty years on, Constellation isn’t simply celebrating its history, it’s stretching its stage, expanding its audience, and setting the scene for its next act.
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