OUR 2025-2026 SEASON
Fridays at 8:00 PM
Saturdays at 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM
Sundays at 2:00 PM
DRY SUMMER by Robert Axelrod
World Premiere
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Two lives on the rocks; One Ann Arbor summer to start over.
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Depressed and longing to get his life back on track, gay, Jewish, twenty-something Ethan returns to his Ann Arbor family home. When he takes a job as a “sober companion” to his recovering alcoholic neighbor, an unconventional friendship ensues. Full of Ann Arbor references, this charming and nostalgic play takes us all home. Directed by Brittany Connors.
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World Premiere - October 10 - November 9, 2025
Tickets: General $30 / 65 & Over $25 / Students $15
DJ WHITTINGTON'S KOOL KAT: A HIP-HOP PANTO by Carla Milarch & R. MacKenzie Lewis
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Based on the beloved fairytale, Dick Whittington’s Cat!
The holiday hilarity of our annual Panto returns. Bring the whole family to this rollicking all-ages entertainment with a hip-hop twist. Cheer the hero, boo the villain, and enjoy original tunes and kid-friendly parodies of popular hip-hop songs -- set to The Kool Kat’s sick beats. Directed by Mike Sandusky.
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December 5, 2025 - January 4, 2026
Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:00 pm
Single tickets: $32 for adults, $12 for kids 16 years and under​
KAYAK by Jordan Hall
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How high’s the water, Mama?
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Alone on a vast stretch of water, Annie Iversen recounts the chain of events which stranded her in her son’s old kayak. A doting suburban mother, Annie is blindsided when her son, Peter, falls in love with Julie, a passionate environmental activist. Desperate to protect her son from what she sees as a reckless path, Annie fights to hold on—until the danger she feared finds her instead. Directed by Briana O'Neal.
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January 30 - February 22, 2026
Tickets: General $30 / 65 & Over $25 / Students $15
Reach for the Stars
A Musical Theatre Cabaret Fundraiser ​​
Be part of the magic at ‘Reach for the Stars’, Theatre NOVA’s Musical Theatre fundraiser. Together, we’ll raise our voices—and the funds—to keep bold, original theatre thriving.
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March 1, 2026
Tickets: General $25-$2,500​
The JonBenét Game by Tori Keenan-Zelt
NNPN Rolling World Premiere ​
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It’s not whether you win or lose…
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When best friends Molly and Rae were 12, they secretly played JonBenét Ramsey at sleepovers. Twenty years later, in the wake of Molly's tragic death, Rae returns to her hometown school as a guidance counselor. But when Molly’s 12-year-old daughter, Hazel, knocks on Rae’s door, she and Rae slide back into the game, and the dark and liminal spaces of their unresolved grief. Directed by Carla Milarch.
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March 27 - April 19, 2026
Tickets: General $30 / 65 & Over $25 / Students $15​
The Last Wide Open by Audrey Cefaly
Michigan Premiere
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A love song in three movements.
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Over the course of three brief acts, the lives of weary waitress Lina and immigrant dishwasher Mikolaj play out in parallel universes—each a variation on a theme of longing, chance, and connection. With echoes of fate and flashes of magic in the mundane, this tender, time-bending story asks: what if love is less about destiny, and more about timing? Directed by Diane Hill.
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May 22 – June 14, 2026​
Tickets: General $30 / 65 & Over $25 / Students $15
Athena by Gracie Gardner​
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“A deadly serious comedy about ambition, success, and owning your superiority.” --NY Times
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Mary Wallace and Athena are brave, and seventeen, and fencers, and training for the Junior Olympics. They practice together, they compete against each other, they spend their lives together. They wish they were friends. Can they overcome their fierce competitiveness? Would they even want to? Directed by Shelby R. Seeley.
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July 17 - August 9, 2026
Tickets: General $30 / 65 & Over $25 / Students $15
2026 Michigan Playwrights Festival
Cultivating Michigan Playwrights
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This dynamic event showcases five curated, original, full-length plays by Michigan-based playwrights, each presented as a staged reading followed by optional talkbacks and audience feedback sessions. ​The festival is a cornerstone of Theatre NOVA’s mission to champion new voices and develop fresh works for the stage. Plays that were products of Michigan Playwrights Festivals that have received their world premieres at Theatre NOVA include ECLIPSED: The Sun, the Moon, and Gladys Atkinson Sweet by D. L. Patrick, Mazel Tov, John Lennon by David Wells (Wilde Award for Best New Script), Resisting by David Wells (Wilde Award for Best Original Production), Mrs. Fifty Bakes a Pie by Linda Ramsay Detherage, Clutter by Brian Cox (Wilde Award for Best New Script), Irrational by R. MacKenzie Lewis and David Wells (Wilde Award for Best New Script), Katherine by Kim Carney (Wilde Award Nomination for Best New Script), Spin (aka Swimming While Drowning) by Emilio Rodriguez, and Bird by Kristin Hanratty.
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August 12-16, 2026​
Tickets: Individual tickets $10, Festival passes $30)
