MainStage Season 28 continues Producing Artistic
Director, Bridget Leak’s bright, new vision
Cincinnati, OH – The Know Theatre, Cincinnati’s premiere black box professional theatre, is thrilled to unveil its highly anticipated 2025-2026 season under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Bridget Leak and Managing Director Ri Moodie. Known for its intimate performance space and for the community they have built by showcasing local writers and artists, the Know Theatre continues to push artistic boundaries with a lineup of thought-provoking, emotionally-resonant productions that celebrate our humanity and the ties that bind us to one another.
“There is a thread that runs through this season’s productions,” says Producing Artistic Director Bridget Leak. “These are stories about people finding their community and bracing themselves for the hard times to come. Right now I think it’s really easy to feel incredibly insignificant, that your voice does not matter. If your world is feeling lonely right now, the Know can be a place for you.”
The 2025-2026 season begins with the Regional Premiere of King James by Rajiv Joseph, running September 11–27, 2025. Set in a sports bar, this clever two-man comedy about basketball, brotherhood, and LeBron James, will be directed by Darnell Pierre Benjamin and staged in the Know Theatre’s Underground Bar.
The Cincinnati Storytelling Festival comes to the Know Theatre Mainstage November 13–15, 2025. Founded in 2020 by Paul Strickland, Erika Kate MacDonald and Alice Flanders, this three-day celebration of stories features local and national storytellers from a variety of backgrounds and traditions.
Die Hard is a Christmas Movie, the Know Theatre’s second best-selling show ever, is back by popular demand and with added performances, running November 28–December 21, 2025. Penned by local writers A.J. Baldwin and Alexx Rouse and directed by Tatiana Godfrey, this goofy and outrageous Mainstage comedy is the perfect holiday offering for the whole family.
SERIALS!, Know Theatre’s Monday Night Episodic Theatre Party returns for its 16th season featuring local writers and actors performing five never-before-seen plays over the course of five nights on the Know Theatre’s Underground Cabaret Stage. SERIALS! 16 will run January 26, February 9 and 23, and March 9 and 23, 2026. A call for submissions will open in early October and close in early December 2025.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the Regional Premiere of Constellations by Nick Payne. This beautiful and heartbreaking love story about the infinite possibilities contained in one couple’s relationship runs February 12–21, 2026. Bridget Leak directs.
The spring brings a World Premiere by Cincinnati native Derek J. Snow to the Know Theatre Mainstage. Originally commissioned and developed in a workshop production by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park through its Jerome Fey Play Collection Fund, The Ravenside Occurrence chronicles the night that four women escape from an asylum and take refuge in an abandoned inn only to have the bonds of their found family tested by the ghost that haunts its halls. This curious tale with a score for string quartet by composer Jimmie A. Parker runs March 27–April 18, 2026.
The region’s largest and longest-running live performing arts festival, the Cincinnati Fringe Festival kicks off its 23rd year of bringing local, national and international theatre artists to pop-up venues around OTR. With over 40 distinct hour-long shows and 150+ performances over the two week festival, there’s a reason that artists from around the world know the Cincy Fringe as Cincinnati’s Summer Theatre Party. Produced by Katie Hartman, this jury-curated festival opens artist submissions in early October 2025. For more information go to www.cincyfringe.com.
A collaboration with local theatre company InBocca Performance, the Know Theatre Youth Education Program offers youth grades 3-12 the opportunity to create an original production as an ensemble. Led by local theatre-maker Caroline Stine, whose popular summer youth theatre camps have thrilled local audiences for their fierce imagination and creative storytelling, Fall and Spring sessions take place over three-month periods on Saturday mornings. 2026 Summer Camp will occur weekdays in July and culminate in performances during the first week of August.
The Know Theatre is committed to creating an atmosphere of radical hospitality where all are welcome to come as they are. Season 28 Mainstage productions will continue to have ASL-interpreted performances on the final Friday of each run, $20 tickets for Arts & Service Industry Workers on select Monday night performances, and $15 advanced reservations and pay-what-you-wish tickets for every Thursday Mainstage performance.
Subscriptions for the 2025-2026 season are now on sale for $250. Subscribers now enjoy reserved seating and may also purchase discounted Die Hard is a Christmas Movie tickets. Subscriptions may be purchased online at http://www.knowtheatre.com or by phone at (513) 300– 5669.
MainStage
King James
by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Darnell Pierre Benjamin
September 11–27, 2025
Playwright Sponsors: Michelle & Drew Petersen
When “King” LeBron James shoots to basketball superstardom with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the city unites to cheer on their hometown hero. Matt and Shawn, an unlikely duo bonded through shared adulation of their sports idol, weather together the highs and lows of a twelve-year friendship – from LeBron’s rookie season through his NBA championship. King James is a celebration of basketball and chosen brotherhood.
Rated: PG
The Cincinnati Storytelling Festival
November 13 – 15, 2025
Founded in 2020, the Cincinnati Storytelling Festival is a 3-day celebration of stories rooted in tradition and told for a contemporary audience. Featuring national and local storytellers from a variety of backgrounds and traditions, the festival brings communities together to enjoy fairy tales, scary stories, laugh-out-loud tales, and everything in between.
Die Hard is a Christmas Movie
by A.J. Baldwin & Alexx Rouse
Directed by Tatiana Godfrey
November 28 – December 21, 2025
Picture this: the movie Die Hard actually happened and the blockbuster action classic is a dramatization of the hero’s memoir. Two years after that daring rescue, fame has taken its toll on the family and their relationship is on the rocks. The teenage kids know what to do: hire actors to kidnap Mom, Dad springs into action, saves her, and boom! marriage saved. When the plan goes off the rails and the family finds itself in real peril, they’ve got to work together to make it to Christmas morning … or die hard trying.
Rated: PG-13
Serials! Season 16
January 26, February 9 & 23, March 9 & 26, 2026
15-minute episodes of five new, never-before-seen different plays by local playwrights, every two weeks, for a total of five installments! At the end of each installment, the audience votes on a this-or-that style question that shapes the arc of the next episode. Miss an episode? No problem! Each episode starts with a “previously on…” recap at the top of each show to catch
the audience up to speed.
Constellations
by Nick Payne
Directed by Bridget Leak
February 12–21, 2026
Playwright Sponsors: Michelle & Drew Petersen
Marianne and Roland meet at a barbecue, date, and break up. Or maybe they don’t. Maybe they fall in love and live happily ever after. Or again, maybe they don’t. This sparkling and passionate love story explodes open the vast possibilities contained in ordinary lives, exploring the paths we take – and those we don’t – through multiverse theory, free will, and honey.
Rated: PG
The Ravenside Occurrence
by Derek J. Snow
March 27 – April 18, 2026
London, 1876. Four headstrong women break out of the asylum to which their families have committed them. An abandoned inn offers welcome shelter, but the restless spirit who walks the halls will test the bonds of this little found family before he decides whether to shelter them or cast them back out upon the mercy of the world. With an original score for string quartet by Jimmie A. Parker, this new production by local playwright Derek J. Snow is about how racism and misogyny haunt the living. Originally commissioned and developed in a workshop production by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park through its Jerome Fey Play Collection Fund.
Rated: PG-13
The 23rd Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival
May 29–June 13, 2026
A 14-day celebration of curated new work and uncensored live performance from local, national, and international indie theatre artists, the Cincinnati Fringe Festival is the region’s largest and longest-running performing arts festival. Featuring more than 40 unique, hour-long productions and hundreds of live performances, free children’s programming on weekend afternoons, and free Late Night events starting at 10pm every night at the Know Theatre.
Know Theatre Youth Education
Fall Semester 2025:
September 6th–November 8th
Every Saturday 9am–11am
Spring Semester 2026:
February 7th–April 18th
Every Saturday 9am–11am
Summer Camp 2026:
July 6th–August 2nd
Monday through Fridays, 9am–noon
An ensemble-devised, production-driven, process-centered, socially-conscious education program in partnership with InBocca Performance. Grades 3 through 12.
Performance Times
All evening performances are at 7:30pm, matinee performances are at 2pm.
Ticket Prices
- Mainstage Subscription : $250
- Reserved Seating and Complimentary Concierge Service
- One ticket for each MainStage production (3 shows)
- $25 Die Hard is a Christmas Movie tickets
- Entry to all five Serials! performances
- *Three complimentary tickets for guests that have never seen a
show at the Know
- Subscribers also receive discounted drink prices, a MainStage ticket for one guest and discounted ticket prices for guests.
- Subscriber Happy Hours and Underground Bar Discounts
- First Access to Exclusive Know Theatre-produced Performances *excludes Die Hard is a Christmas Movie
- $25 Rush Tickets for 35 and Under, one hour before showtime
- Flex Pass : $190
- Six MainStage tickets for the price of five ($228 value)
- Single tickets : $38
- Welcome Thursdays: Each Thursday during a MainStage production we offer $15 advance reservation tickets and Pay-What-You-Wish Walk-Up tickets an hour before the show.
We are Know Theatre of Cincinnati: where artists and audiences can come together to produce and experience work that you haven’t seen before. We strive to build a community around viscerally theatrical, exciting new works.
The 23rd Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival is made possible by a generous partnership with our neighbor the Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Know Theatre is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Know Theatre with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
Know Theatre is also supported by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.
Know Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.
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Cincy Fringe Unified Auditions are like speed dating but we prefer to call it a speed pitch.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 