Coal Mine Theatre has introduced the lineup for its eleventh season of programming in 2025/26. Coal Mine’s season will embrace bringing up to date hits to their Toronto stage, together with remodeling a basic of the theatrical repertoire, the latter impressed by the success of their presentation of Hedda Gabbler in 2024.
Coal Mine’s tenth anniversary season garnered the corporate a file 13 Dora Award nominations, and runs had been prolonged from three to 4 and 5 weeks for all their reveals..
The brand new season will see Inventive Director Ted Dykstra stepping onto the stage for the primary time in additional than six years, in addition to directing the Canadian premiere of an Obie Award-winning work.
“We’re launching our eleventh season feeling stronger and extra energized than ever earlier than,” Coal Mine Inventive Director Ted Dykstra feedback in an announcement.
“Coming into our second decade having taken over our dwelling constructing and now beginning to extra actively develop new work via our relationship with The Vault, it appears like we’re rising in all the correct methods. But we all the time stay trustworthy to our founding imaginative and prescient of manufacturing thrilling, sharply produced, of the second theatre at a scale that permits for a significant relationship between the artists and our wonderful audiences.”
The 2025/26 Season At A Look
Ready for Godot by Samuel Beckett (September 14 to October 5, 2025)
Kelli Fox directs Beckett’s basic absurdist tragicomedy, starring Ted Dykstra and Alexander Thomas as Estragon and Vladimir, with Jim Mezon, Simon Bracken, and Kole Parks. The play explores existential themes and asks questions concerning the nature of human life.
“As an actor I’ve had just a few probabilities to discover the classics over my a few years on this enterprise, nevertheless it has been some time now, and I’m itching to sort out one thing enormous, and effectively, Godot is big,” says Dykstra.
“The play is unknowable in any quantifiable method, and I really like that problem and the concern it brings up in me. Jackie Maxwell steered I act on this, and I thank her for the concept. As for casting Alexander Thomas as Vladimir, effectively I couldn’t be luckier or extra excited that he mentioned sure. The wonderful Kelli Fox and Alex have already collaborated to deliver Between Riverside and Loopy to Toronto audiences with unbelievable success, and Jim and Simon and Kole are icing on this classical cake.”
Actor Alexander Thomas additionally returns from Between Riverside and Loopy, a task for which he gained a Dora Award for Finest Efficiency.
Fullfillment Centre by Abe Koogler (November 16 to December 7, 2025)
Ted Dykstra directs Canadian Premiere of Abe Koogler’s Obie Award-winning play, that includes Kristen Thomson, Evan Buliung, Emilio Vieira, and Gita Miller, all of whom are making their debuts with Coal Mine.
Achievement Centre gained the 2018 Obie Award-recipient for playwriting. The story revolves round a web-based retailer’s achievement centre within the New Mexico desert the place 4 characters come collectively in a battle to attach.
“I heard the mounting buzz about this play when it opened off-Broadway and managed to trace down a replica of the script,” says Dykstra.
“Inside three pages I knew that — unbeknownst to playwright Abe Koogler — the position of Suzan was written for Kristen Thomson, an outdated good friend and somebody whom I really like and admire. I actually laughed out loud on the sound of her voice in my head doing the half. So, I went and obtained the rights, despatched it to Kristen, and by chance, she needed to do it. The remainder of the solid has come collectively fantastically, and I can’t wait to be within the room with Kristin, Evan, Gita and Emilio this winter!”
Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector (February 1 to 22, 2026)
Mitchell Cushman directs English language Canadian Premiere of Jonathan Spector’s 2025 Tony Award-winning play, with actors Kevin Bundy, Jake Epstein, and Sophia Walker (who all make their Coal Mine debuts.
The satirical play focuses on a progressive day college in Berkeley, California, the place an outbreak of mumps throws everybody for a loop.
“Eureka Day is concerning the fable of homogeneity, the fallacy of certainty, and the potential for civil warfare that lurks inside each PTA assembly. In case that doesn’t sound like a very good time, I also needs to say that it’s the funniest play I’ve learn in I don’t understand how lengthy,” feedback director Mitchell Cushman.
“That Jonathan Spector had the imaginative and prescient to put in writing it three years earlier than COVID implies that he ought to begin betting liberally on the inventory market. I couldn’t be extra excited to be helming its Canadian Premiere at Coal Mine, with this all-star solid and crew.”
Dance Nation by Clare Barron (April 12 to Might 3, 2026)
Diana Bentley directs Clare Barron’s play, that includes Katherine Cullen, Amy Keating, Amy Lujan, Zorana Sadiq, and Salvatore Antonio with Motion Course by Alyssa Martin. This immersive manufacturing was co-produced and conceived with Outdoors the March in affiliation with Rock Backside Motion.
Director Diana Bentley and motion director Alyssa Martin return after the success of Coal Mine’s Folks, Locations & Issues. Clare Barron’s play was a 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner, and was additionally a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Shot with darkish humour, the story revolves round a bunch of pre-teen aggressive dancers.
“I’m overjoyed that Outdoors The March and Coal Mine Theatre are becoming a member of forces for this immersive manufacturing of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation,” shares director Diana Bentley.
“As quickly as Coal Mine took the entire constructing over, Mitchell and I began dreaming of a undertaking that may make use of each the upstairs (now The Vault Creation Lab) and the downstairs. Dance Nation is the proper present for our corporations to hitch forces on and produce this immersive dream to life. Alyssa Martin and I had such an exhilarating time collaborating on Folks, Locations and Issues final season, I can’t wait to see the place we take this undertaking with this particular group of actors and designers.”
Tickets & Season Passes
Tickets at the moment are on sale, together with specifically priced tickets for folks beneath the age of 25, arts employee and preview tickets. Season passes go on sale September 22.
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
