Behind the Curtain with Mak Secrest
Introducing Company OnStage’s 2026–2027 Season
Sep
When I stepped into the role of Artistic Director of Company OnStage, I knew I was joining a theatre with a long history. What I didn’t yet understand was how many different experiences, memories, and relationships were woven into that history.
Over the past year, I’ve had the chance to see just how many different ways people find their way to Company OnStage. There are patrons who have been coming for decades, including people who first discovered theatre here as children and now bring their own families. There are people who have made Company OnStage part of their regular routine and others who discovered us online, took a chance, and walked through our doors alone, not quite knowing what to expect. There are artists with years of experience, people discovering their creative voice for the first time, and people finding their way back to it after life required them to step away.
What connects our community isn’t a shared taste or relationship to theatre. It’s the knowledge that there is a place for everyone here. And if our community can find so many different ways into this theatre, our season should offer just as many ways in.
That meant embracing the full range of what theatre can do: a season with room for nostalgia and surprise, joy and grief, absurdity and realism, childlike wonder and grown-up questions. A season that proves community theatre doesn’t have to choose between the accessible and the ambitious.
We’ll begin the 2026-2027 Season with something particularly special: We Only Come Out at Night, a world premiere by Houston playwright Austin Brady. How often do you get the chance to be the very first audience to experience a brand-new play, written by a local artist and set in the city you call home? This hilarious supernatural thriller has all the campy fun of a B-horror movie, with a surprisingly heartfelt exploration of how we make the most of what life gives us. It’s the perfect adult adventure for the Halloween season.
Performing alongside it is acclaimed playwright José Rivera’s Maricela de la Luz Lights the World, a bilingual fantasy adventure that follows a young girl and her annoying little brother as they set out to save the world from a mysterious freeze. What follows is a wildly imaginative journey filled with figures from Greek mythology, dancing polar bears, talking fog, and surprises at every turn. At its heart, the play is a reminder that being a hero isn’t about being fearless. It’s about having the courage to do what is right.
Just in time for the holiday season, we’ll move from the new and unknown to two stories generations of audiences already know and love.
Little Women, newly adapted by Heather Chrisler, brings a playful, contemporary theatricality to one of the most beloved stories in American literature. In this new adaptation, four actors in double-cast roles use found objects to bring the world of the March sisters to life, honoring Louisa May Alcott’s original novel while offering a fresh perspective on its enduring questions about womanhood, ambition, family, and the freedom to choose your own path.
The Velveteen Rabbit, adapted by Thomas W. Olson, returns to Company OnStage after previously charming our audiences in 2016. This beloved holiday story invites adults to revisit a treasured piece of their childhood while giving a new generation the chance to discover its timeless magic. Full of heart, imagination, and the enduring power of love, this is a show that reminds us why some stories never stop feeling special.
Next up in February 2027, we’ll present Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, a surreal romantic comedy to get us in the Valentine’s Day spirit. One of the most celebrated playwrights of our time, Ruhl has a remarkable ability to make the wildly absurd feel deeply human. Her plays, including Eurydice, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Stage Kiss, find humor and tenderness in the strange, messy realities of being alive. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Clean House follows a Brazilian housekeeper who hates cleaning and dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. It is the kind of theatrical genre-bending play that reminds us why live theatre can accomplish things other forms can’t.
Also in February is The Rainbow Fish, adapted by Austin Zumbro from the best-selling children’s picture book. For our very youngest audiences, this familiar story offers a shiny underwater introduction to the magic of live theatre, while its lessons about friendship, generosity, and belonging remind us that learning to care for others without losing yourself is complicated at any age.
Next up is Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind, a sharp and timely dramedy about veteran Black actress Wiletta Mayer, whose long-awaited starring role on Broadway puts her at odds with a director determined to tell a story about racism without listening to those in the cast who experience it firsthand. Written in 1955, the play was poised to become the first by a Black woman on Broadway, but its debut was cancelled when Childress refused requests to soften its biting racial critiques for mainstream audiences. More than seventy years later, its questions about representation, power, and artistic integrity remain remarkably relevant.
Our Young Audience Series continues with Don Zolidis’s Empowered: How One Girl Scout Nearly Destroyed the World’s Economy, a hilarious parody of Glengarry Glen Ross that puts the cutthroat world of corporate ambition into the hands of Girl Scouts. Beneath its sharp satire is an empowering story about young girls finding their voices, ambition, and confidence. It’s a reminder that theatre for young audiences can be every bit as smart, satirical, and entertaining as theatre written for adults.
Finally, we’ll close the season with two productions that remind us just how much fun theatre can be. Sandy Rustin’s stage adaptation of Clue brings the beloved board game to life as a fast-paced ensemble farce full of mystery, mayhem, and theatrical chaos. Then, Fantastic Mr. Fox, adapted for the stage by David Wood and popularized by Wes Anderson’s film, brings a clever, mischievous adventure to the stage for audiences of all ages.
Play selections are only part of what makes a season. What truly makes a season is the community that forms around them: the artists, volunteers, families, friends, and strangers who gather in the same room and experience something together. That is what makes theatre so special. It is both a mirror and a meeting place, a chance to recognize something in ourselves reflected on stage and to see the lives and perspectives of others more fully. This season offers many different ways to do that, with room for kids and adults, longtime theatre lovers and first-time patrons, big laughs and difficult questions, familiar favorites and unexpected discoveries. However you find your way to Company OnStage, I hope you’ll find something here this season that makes you want to stay.
2026–2027 Season at a Glance
Evening Series
We Only Come Out at Night (World Premiere) — October 2–24
Little Women — December 4–19
The Clean House — January 29–February 20
Trouble in Mind — April 2–24
Clue — June 4–26
Young Audience Series
Maricela de la Luz Lights the World — October 3–24
The Velveteen Rabbit — December 5–19
The Rainbow Fish — January 30–February 20
Empowered: How One Girl Scout Nearly Destroyed the World’s Economy — April 3–24
Fantastic Mr. Fox — June 5–26
Ready to see the whole season?
Season subscriptions are now available and are a great way to experience all ten productions at Company OnStage.