Season 9 at Firelight
Season 9 | 2026
Welcome back, friends!
In 2026, we continue to explore the relationship between performer and audience by creating original theatre in intimate spaces.
The theme that preoccupies + informs + energizes us this year is:
Listen Up
We’re thrilled to announce that our Spring Play will be Small Mouth Sounds, by Tony Nominee Bess Wohl. Small Mouth Sounds drops in on six soul-searchers at a silent retreat. We’re thrilled to explore physical language + communcating-without-talking in this unusual comedy.
But first, we are thrilled to share Root Song, a long-in-the-works project conceived + directed by Jazimina Creamer-MacNeil as well as 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.
ROOT SONG, a workshop performance
Root Song invites audiences to listen beyond our species and rediscover the ancient wisdom of trees. To be premiered 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 will be brought from page to stage over four days at the Harris Center in early May. We invite you to join in the creation of this important work by being Root Song’s very first audience during a preview performance on May 3rd, 2026 at 2:30pm.
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.
TeaTIME, a solo performance by Guest Artist Erika MacDonald
Firelight Theatre Workshop is over the moon to welcome back performance artist and Peterborough native, Erika MacDonald, as our Season 9 Guest Artist! Join us for Erika's solo show on Monday, March 30 at 7pm at The Firelight Studio.
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
(And don't miss Erika's Intro to Solo Performance Workshop on Saturday, March 28. Details + registration here.)
