Season 9 at Firelight
Season 9 | 2026
In 2026, we continue to explore the relationship between performer and audience by creating original theatre in intimate spaces. Our projects this year are all about LISTENING.
TINY STORIES 7 is coming June 21-July 21! Tiny Stories is our annual collective art-making venture in which community members write + perform works under 100 words. Each year, the stories + scenes are shared in public spaces in innovative ways. Read below for more details.
Thank you for joining us for Small Mouth Sounds by Pulitzer Prize Winner Bess Wohl. Small Mouth Sounds dropped in on six soul-searchers and their Teacher at a silent retreat. We loved exploring how we communicate without words in this unique + intimate comedy, in the company of 800+ audience members over our 5-week run.
Thank you for joining us for Root Song, a long-in-the-works project conceived + directed by Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil and a partnership with The Harris Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Grammy Award-Winning singing ensemble Roomful of Teeth. And we were delighted to have you at The Firelight Studio for TeaTIME, a solo performance by returning Guest Artist, Erika MacDonald.
All year long we have surprises for you: plays, new works, events, classes, guest artists, readings, and bright ideas for connection.
Read on for current + upcoming projects. We can’t wait to see you, friends.
Tiny Stories 7: Listening
June 21 - July 21
TINY STORIES is one of our favorite endeavors, and it’s been an anchor in our season from the beginning. We’ve met writers, performers, and artists with a wide range of experiences. We’ve performed in dozens of non-traditional spaces. We’ve engaged performers from ages 6 to 81.
TINY STORIES is always written + performed by you.
Firelight Artistic Associate Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil directs TINY STORIES 7, and we are proud to collaborate with beloved Peterborough mainstays Roy’s Market and MAXT Makerspace for this year’s installment.
In keeping with our season’s theme of LISTENING, we invited you to listen for the story in an artwork that you love.
We will share the stories as part of a LISTENING art installation, starting Sunday, June 21 @ 1-3pm.
The listening experience — a public telephone booth with stories on the line — is open to the public outside of Roy’s Market (20 Main St., Peterborough, NH) anytime through July 21.
TINY STORIES operates on the premise that a quick artistic process yields powerful creative work.
Now we listen.
Thank you for joining us for SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS.
May 9 - June 6
How do you speak your mind when you can't say a word?
Small Mouth Sounds, by Bess Wohl, follows six troubled souls who come together for a week-long silent retreat with their Teacher. Without words, they must find a way to listen, and they must find a way to be heard. Join us at Firelight for this unique + intimate comedy.
Run time: 100 minutes without an intermission
May 9 - June 6 | Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2pm
Additional performances Wednesday June 3 + Saturday June 6 at 2pm
Since Small Mouth Sounds takes place at a silent retreat, we invite our Firelight friends to play with silence, too.
Play with Silence: A Firelight Fundraiser | Wednesday, June 3 at 5:30pm
We’ll begin with a Silent Dinner of woodfired pizza, salad, & beer at Post & Beam Brewery. Dinner will be followed by a special performance of Small Mouth Sounds at the Firelight Studio. What happens when we communicate without words?
Directed by Co-Artistic Director Nora Fiffer, the play features Laura Carden, Jason Lambert, Isaiah Lapierre-Palmer, Paul Merrill, Roy Schlieben, Amanda Sennett, and Alix Woodford. Production Team includes Sarah Sandback (Stage Manager), Tori Haring-Smith (Dramaturg), Costume Designer (Aleia Ramsey), Scenic Designer (Bill Cass), Lighting Designer (Quenton Glennon), Ian Aldrich (Props Designer), Sound Designer (Adam Arnone), Travis Hatfield (Asst. Stage Manager), and AMT Productions (Sound Engineer)
Thank you for joining us for
ROOT SONG, a workshop performance
Root Song invited audiences to listen beyond our species and rediscover the ancient wisdom of trees. Premiering at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia in May 2026, the project interweaves the voices of Grammy-award-winning Roomful of Teeth – an eight-voice “singing forest” – with science and storytelling, transforming the unseen realities of the woodland into a musical conversation. With music by acclaimed composer Christopher Theofanidis, libretto by poet Melissa Studdard, and storytelling by Narragansett artist Tchin, Root Song asks: What can trees teach us about how to live, listen, and be human at this pivotal moment?
In collaboration with Firelight Theatre Workshop, Root Song was brought from page to stage over four days at The Harris Center in on May 3, 2026.
Chamber music is a profound act of listening—between musicians, composers, poets, and audiences. Root Song extends this practice outward, inviting the same deep listening to be a bridge to the voices of the more-than-human world, beginning with the trees in our midst.
Directed by Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil, a director, creative producer, singing actor, educator, and wild blueberry picker rooted in the beautiful and artistically fertile Monadnock region of New Hampshire, the ancestral homelands of the Wabanaki. Her work focuses on how live performance can be a stitch in the great reweaving of humanity back into reciprocal kinship with the rest of life on this good, green Earth.
Thank you for joining us for TeaTIME,
a solo performance by Guest Artist Erika MacDonald
Firelight Theatre Workshop was over the moon to welcome back performance artist and Peterborough native, Erika MacDonald, as our Season 9 Guest Artist! Thank you for joining us for Erika's solo show on March 30 + April 1.
It’s about tea. It’s about time. F**k off, I’m steeping!
“Definitely a must-see! Comforting and bold… A tea party for your soul.” - League of Cincinnati Theatres
In this 60-minute one-woman show, Erika MacDonald plugs in her electric kettle and makes cup after cup of tea in a way that will change your relationship with time forever… or at least for the hour. At Tea TIME, you’ll be chanting one minute and closing your eyes the next. You’ll cry some, but laugh more. Whistle if you can. Hum when the time comes. Don’t worry, you’ll know.
The newest one-woman show from internationally-acclaimed performance artist Erika MacDonald (The Barn Identity, Tap Me on the Shoulder) has already started racking up awards and recognition: Artists’ Pick-of-the-Fringe Encore Award at Cincinnati Fringe Festival; CityBeat’s “Top Ten Theater Events of 2025.”
“Ideal for everyone taking time to steep, to brew, to become.” - Liz Eichler, LCT Review
