Speakeysie News Desk
We may be late to the party on this announcement, but we’re just in time to help the arts flourish! As we usher out the old year, we like to profile a theater a day in hopes that you will find it in your heart to give to the arts. Today’s theater is….Actor’s Express!! This place is near in dear to our hearts. It is known for its intimate setting and cutting edge programming. We hope you will consider either buying season passes for this great season or making a donation. Thanks for supporting the arts!
Also, we are so excited for the opening show, GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY as it features our friend Riley Given! We hope to see you at opening night. Thanks for your leadership and your support of the arts. Peace be with you, happy holidays, and may you have a healthy and prosperous, 2026.
Your humble servant,
Jody Tuso-Key; Managing Editor
ATLANTA, GA – Actor’s Express is proud to announce its 38th Season full of bold and exhilarating theatre. This five-show season includes a World Premiere play, an Atlanta Premiere musical and the fifth annual collaboration with Oglethorpe University. In addition to the five-show subscription season, AE welcomes back its longstanding, popular cabaret partnership with Atlanta icon Libby Whittemore, as well as the sensational Candybox Revue as well as the second year of hilarious drag duo Olive & Agatha.
Season 38 opens in January with Girl From The North Country, an incredibly beautiful juke-box musical packed with 20 of Bob Dylan’s most beloved songs reimagined by Connor McPherson. Girl From The North Country will be presented in partnership with Oglethorpe University. Girl From The North Country will be directed by AE’s Artistic Director, Freddie Ashley who most recently directed AE’s productions of Cabaret and Doubt, A Parable. “With every play we produce at AE, we interrogate how it engages with the current moment”, Ashley noted, “With Girl from the North Country, you see a group of people coming together by circumstance and creating community in the midst of a tough time.”
In April, AE continues its 38th season with the celestial pitch-black comedy Venus by one of Atlanta’s favorite playwrights, Steve Yockey. Venus will star Kate Donadio McQueen and Suehyla E. Young, who were most recently seen in Yockey’s hit production, Mercury at Actor’s Express in 2024. “Steve Yockey’s work often walks a delicate balance of fiendish comedy and real heart. Venus captures so bitingly the complexities of love and connection in the modern world,” AE’s Artistic Director Freddie Ashley notes. “In Venus, you get to explore how hard it can be to connect with another person, but how urgently necessary it is.”
The season continues in June with the Pulitzer-Prize winning masterpiece Wit by Atlanta’s own Margaret Edson, starring Atlanta theatre icon and AE vet Carolyn Cook (Mercury, Prayer for the French Republic, Angels in America, Blackberry Winter) and directed by AE Artistic Director Freddie Ashley. “Atlantan Margaret Edson’s landmark play is as powerful now as it was 25 years ago. And to see Carolyn Cook play Vivian Bearing is a remarkable opportunity whose time has come,” Ashley remarked.
Up next, Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s beloved coming-of-age play Choir Boy returns to Atlanta on the AE stage in June. AE Artistic Director Freddie Ashley noted, “Atlanta loves the work of Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Choir Boy is among his most trenchant plays. With glorious music and tenderly observed writing, it transcends the coming-of-age trope as a paean to the heroism of self-discovery.” Choir Boy will be directed by AE Associate Artistic Director Amanda Washington, who has directed critically acclaimed Actor’s Express productions A Strange Loop, Blues For An Alabama Sky and cullud wattah.
AE’s 38th season closes with the world premiere of Jayne Deely’s warmhearted comedy i never asked for a gofundme. In Mobile, Alabama chaos ensues when a nosy, evangelical neighbor mistakes gender-affirming top surgery for breast cancer, and creates a GoFundMe in the name of doing the Lord’s work. i never asked for a gofundme was workshopped at the La Jolla Latinx New Play Festival and New Harmony Writers Conference, and it was a finalist for the Dramatist Guild Foundation’s National Fellowship.
According to Actor’s Express Artistic Director Freddie Ashley, “This season offers opportunities to experience new stories for the first time. It offers the opportunity to rediscover in completely new ways the music of a legend that we think we know already. There are intensely cathartic emotional moments and stories that ask us to confront our preconceived notions. Each production offers a sometimes challenging and always satisfying journey of emotions and ideas.”
Season subscription packages are now on sale and can be purchased online at actors-express.com or by calling 404-607-SHOW.
ABOUT THE PLAYS
Girl from the North Country
Written by Conor McPherson
Music and Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Directed by Freddie Ashley
In partnership with Oglethorpe University (performed at Actor’s Express)
January 29 – March 8, 2026
It’s 1934 in Duluth, Minnesota and a group of restless travelers find respite from the Great Depression in a modest boarding house— a place where love and loss intertwine, and where music, resilience and hope breathe life into their weary spirits. Connor McPherson daringly transforms the cherished songs of Bob Dylan, weaving them into a tale as breathtaking as the tunes that underscore it.
Venus
By Steve Yockey
Directed by Melissa Foulger
April 9 – May 3, 2026
Breakups are never fun. It’s easy to romanticize all of the good times: star-gazing, waxing poetic about literature, that instant spark the first time your hands brushed. It’s even easier to forget about all of the bad times, like when they ghosted you after the perfect first date, or that one time you woke up in a shallow grave. From the brilliant mind behind Mercury and Pluto, Atlanta’s own Steve Yockey brings us another celestial, pitch-black comedy where two women learn that true love isn’t the only thing that bonds two people together…forever.
Wit
By Margaret Edson
Directed by Freddie Ashley
Starring Carolyn Cook
June 4-28, 2026
Dr. Vivian Bearing has spent her life mastering the art of intellect but keeping the world at arm’s length. When an unexpected diagnosis of ovarian cancer shatters the careful structure of her life, Vivian is confronted with questions that require a level of vulnerability that she has long avoided. What unfolds is a journey marked by courage, piercing wit, and unexpected grace, revealing the transformative humanity within her.
Choir Boy
By Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Amanda Washington
August 6-30, 2026
Pharus struggles to find his place at The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys, an esteemed institution committed to shaping the future of young Black men. This year, however, his talent has earned him the honor of leading the school’s renowned choir—an opportunity that calls upon him to be a leader to his peers, and earn the respect he so craves. Tarrell Alvin McCraney, the Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight, weaves together joyous gospel music with a coming-of-age story unlike any that you’ve witnessed before.
i never asked for a gofundme
By Jayne Deely
Directed by Rebecca S. Wear
October 1-25, 2026
Millie and her partner Avery have landed back in Millie’s hometown of Mobile, Alabama, while Avery recovers from gender-affirming top surgery. Things spiral out of control when a nosy, evangelical family friend mistakes Avery’s top surgery to be a battle with breast cancer and makes a GoFundMe for the couple (all in the name of the good Lord, of course). Suddenly, Avery and Millie find themselves at the center of small-town gossip, flooded with donations they never asked for. As they wrestle with the decision to accept this money, they must decide if being unapologetically themselves comes with a price tag.
Libby’s at the Express
December 18-21, 2025
Atlanta icon Libby Whittemore returns to ring in the holiday season once again with her classic “Ho Ho Home for the Holidays and a Connie Sue Day Christmas,” Catch Libby again in February for her Valentine’s show, “Valentine Love.” A uniquely Atlanta tradition!
Winter Burlesque with the Candybox Revue
December 6, 2025
The Candybox Revue brings their glitzy, saucy, and audacious brand of satirical burlesque to Actor’s Express, all wrapped up in rhinestones and feathers – and sealed with a pastie!
Olive & Agatha’s A Gay in a Manger
December 12-13, 2025
Olive & Agatha’s A Gay in a Manger is not your Sunday school nativity play. Can you imagine two drag queens spending the night in a manger? Where would the wigs sleep? This evening of campy fun includes an irreverent retelling of the Nativity, brilliant improvisation, rousing musical numbers, and an audience game to find out who’s been “Naughty” and who’s been “Nice.”
WE ARE GRATEFUL TO OUR SPONSORS
City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural AffairsWarner Brothers Discovery
Fulton County Arts and Culture Charles Loridans Foundation
Georgia Council for the ArtsThe Imlay Foundation
National Endowment for the ArtsMolly Blank Fund
The Shubert FoundationHomestead Foundation
And hundreds of individual donors
Major support is provided by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Major funding is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This program is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT ACTOR’S EXPRESS
Since its founding in 1988, Actor’s Express has become the preeminent hub for dynamic, provocative and consistently outstanding theatre in Atlanta, presenting work that sparks personal transformations and catalyzes community conversations. We are committed to enacting Anti-Racist and Anti-Bias principles that create a diverse, inclusive, safe and brave space for artists and audiences. Actor’s Express is located on the westside of Atlanta in the King Plow Arts Center at 887 W. Marietta Street, Suite J-107, Atlanta, Georgia 30318.
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