New Charlotte theater scene offers musicals, plays and a dash of politics this season

This fall, theater companies around Charlotte kick off their seasons with a diverse array of productions. 

From rocking musicals to one-person shows, rollicking comedies to intense dramas, there are options for every theater fan’s taste. And as the country races toward an election, politics and contemporary issues will also be front and center.

We spoke to four companies about their plans for the new season, some of the risks they are taking with their programming, how they are continuing to work to attract and retain diverse audiences, and a can’t miss show for 2024-’25. 

Every company stressed the importance of serving the community by striving to reflect it on stage — something they each do in a different way.

Theatre Charlotte

Artistic Director Chris Timmons said Theatre Charlotte’s 97th season is full of great stories and hidden gems. 

A title with some risk: A choice that may surprise some, he said, is the dystopian play “1984,” (Oct. 25- Nov. 10). An adaptation of the George Orwell novel, it centers on a futuristic society where citizens are under constant surveillance by a totalitarian regime.

Timmons, who directs this show, said the story hits on themes that are, unfortunately, still relevant today and likely to be on people’s minds heading into the election.

It also presents a new challenge for both performers and the audience. It’s not going to be for everybody, he said, but part of the draw is pushing the company to try something audiences might not expect.

Timmons said there are multiple reasons for the work they do, beyond entertainment alone. 

“There’s a certain amount of social work — giving people an escape from challenges in their own lives, bringing people together, building friendships and providing a safe place where people can be free to be themselves and free from judgment”

Connecting with the community: Theatre Charlotte is launching the first North Carolina chapter of The Penguin Project, a national organization that serves youths and young adults with developmental, physical and learning disabilities. 

Timmons said this is an under-served group that’s too often relegated to the background when they participate in theater.

With the Penguin Project, these young artists become the leads — singing, dancing and being featured in the scenes. (Broadway actor and Theatre Charlotte alum Liam Pearce, who is autistic, is featured in a promo on Theatre Charlotte’s website.) Each participant is paired with a peer mentor, with whom they rehearse and perform. The cast will mount a full-scale musical in June 2025 of “Annie, Jr.”

Timmons said colleagues at other community theaters around the country tell him The Penguin Project helped “change the culture and change the dynamic, not just within that theater but within that community.” 

Also coming this season: Longtime holiday favorite “A Christmas Carol” (Dec. 6-15) returns along with the madcap comedy “The Play That Goes Wrong” (Feb. 7-23, 2025) The lesser known “Stick Fly” (May 16-June 1, 2025), a drama with comic elements about a wealthy African American family on vacation that experiences mounting intrigue, was a story Timmons said he couldn’t put down while reading it.

A must-see show: Another lesser known musical that trades in splashy for a solid score and a moving story, is “Violet” (March 28-April 13, 2025). With a folk, gospel and honky-tonk music score, it traces the story of a young girl, with facial disfiguration, who heads on a quest across the country in hopes that a televangelist can heal her. Timmons said it provides a great opportunity to showcase Charlotte’s local talent.

Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

Dedicated to serving Charlotte’s youngest theater patrons, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte launches its 77th season with “School of Rock” (now through Oct. 20). Artistic Director Adam Burke said this must-see show puts the talent and passion of young teens on display. 

Some risk taking: The show is unusual for the company because it includes some adult content and language. (CTC spells out exactly what phrases are used on its website so parents can decide if they’re comfortable with it.) Burke said he also initially worried whether they would find enough young performers with the talent to act, sing, dance and play the needed instruments, which include drums, electric guitar and bass. 

But Charlotte teens were up to the challenge.

“As Dewey Finn in the play says, ‘These kids will blow your freaking mind,’ ” Burke said. “...It’s just gonna be hilarious and amazing and touching, all at the same time.”

“Grace for President” returns Oct. 19-Nov. 3. The story follows a third grader who asks, during a history lesson on U.S. presidents, “Where are the girls?” Frustrated, she launches her own political career with a run for class president. 

The show premiered in Charlotte during the 2016 election. A revival was originally scheduled for 2020 but was canceled due to the pandemic. Serendipitously, it returns right as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump vie for the White House.

Burke said that’s risky, too. 

“I think it’s important that we model young people asking big questions and challenging the status quo and reaching for the glass ceiling and smashing that… But we never know in the political climate what the response is going to be to us producing something.”

The company also is presenting the world premiere of “Tiara’s Hat Parade” (Feb. 22-March 9, 2024), a one woman show, co-developed and co-commissioned with four other children’s theaters around the country. It’s part of The Kindness Project, a Children’s Theatre initiative focused on developing original plays for young audiences that emphasize active expressions of kindness.

The story focuses on the African American fashion tradition of hat culture. Tiara’s mother makes hats but her shop is at risk when a rival store opens. 

“Tiara takes it upon herself to put together a parade of all of the people in their community that have been impacted by the hats that were created by her mother for them,” Burke said. He loves the reversal of expectations, where the young girl does something kind for her mother, rather than the other way around.

Expanding representation: Burke said the company strives to represent Charlotte’s diversity through its story-telling, the performers and artists it hires both on stage and behind-the-scenes. 

One way the group helps expand representation, develop and retain talent in the children’s theater field, he said, is through a three-year fellowship for a young aspiring artistic director, currently filled by Alicia Tafoya, a female Latinx artist. 

CTC also selects one recipient annually for the Paige Johnston Thomas Directing Assistantship, a paid internship program for young artists whose directorial opportunities have been limited by one or more “barriers to access.” Recipients assistant direct three shows during the season, gaining hands-on experience with an institutional theater company.

Three Bone Theatre

Three Bone Theatre dedicates its 13th season to exploring “the ties that bind.” It features stories about connection and empathy among families and communities, said Artistic and Operations Director, Robin Tynes-Miller. She hopes they provide an antidote to the isolation many people have experienced due to factors like the pandemic, the prevalence of technology and social media, and polarizing political ideologies.

A must-see show: First up is “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” (Nov. 8-24), a 2024 Tony Award nominee for Best Play (one of two in their lineup). The show also won a special Tony Award for hair and wig design.

Tynes-Miller said the comedy was a huge hit on Broadway. Recreating the range of hair styles and fitting its large cast of 10 on stage in the cozy black box theater Three Bone calls home is “definitely going to be a challenge,” Tynes-Miller said.

The joyful story also has deeper messages about humanity, focusing on a community of immigrant women, she said. The show opens the week of the election and that was intentional. 

“Immigration has just been such a huge political issue,” Tynes-Miller said.

The theater hopes to “center that and provide resources” through its community partnerships, discussion guides and other materials for people who are hearing rhetoric about immigration in the news but may not be connected to it in their daily lives.

A risk that’s paying off: Immigration will also be a theme in the season’s final show, “Electricidad” (Aug. 15-31, 2025). That production is play number two in Three Bone’s multi-season trilogy that reframes classic Greek tragedies as modern stories about concerns within the Chicano and Latino communities. “Electricidad” is set in a Los Angeles barrio, as a revenge story within Mexican gang culture. 

Three Bone is the first company in the country to produce all three plays in “The Greek Trilogy,” written by MacArthur Genius Grant Winner Luis Alfaro. Committing to all three shows before producing any of them was a big risk, Tynes-Miller said. 

“There’s very little Latino theater in Charlotte,” she said, “... even though the population is so immense here.” 

That risk-taking has brought in new audiences and also led to the company’s first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, one of several new major grants this season.

What else is coming: Tynes-Miller will direct the poignant “Mary Jane” (Feb. 7-23, 2025), a semi-autobiographical story by playwright Amy Herzog, and another 2024 Tony Award Best Play nominee. It’s about a woman caring for her chronically ill child and the community of women from whom she draws strength. Tynes-Miller said it’s a somber topic but a beautiful and life-affirming play.

The company also brings “...what the end will be” (May 2-18, 2025) about three generations of Black, gay men, written by playwright Mansa Ray. Tynes-Miller described it as a beautiful portrait of a family, how they relate to one another and navigate the complexities of life, death and grief together.

Tynes-Miller said the theater continues to diversify the types of stories it tells and the populations represented on stage by way of playwrights, directors and designers. Those individual artists help bring in their communities and signal that the theater is a safe space where people of all backgrounds are welcome. 

“Our goal is really for our audiences to look demographically, at least racially, like the city of Charlotte,” she said.

BNS Productions

It’s a big season for August Wilson plays at Brand New Sheriff (BNS) Productions, the city’s only Black repertory theater, now in its 11th year.

“How I Learned What I Learned” (Dec. 5-8) is an autobiographical one-man show from the playwright. It will be produced in partnership with Charlotte’s Off Broadway at the VAPA Center.

The show is an intimate look at Wilson’s life through his childhood memories and as a young artist. BNS Founding Artistic Director Rory Sheriff said the show presents a risk for the company since the title isn’t well known. A show like that is harder to market to occasional theater-goers, he said.

That play is not part of Wilson’s renowned Century Cycle, a collection of 10 plays set in Wilson’s hometown of Pittsburgh that aim to evoke the Black experience across every decade of the 20th century. But two other Wilson shows from the cycle will be presented with BNS ties this season. 

In February, the company will produce “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” The show is set in a boarding house in 1911, where a man arrives in search of his lost wife.

North Carolina Black Repertory Company also announced that Sheriff will direct the 40th anniversary production of Wilson’s “Fences” for the company, based in Winston-Salem. 

NC Black Rep is best known for producing the International Black Theatre Festival, a biennial event that draws more than 65,000 attendees. “Joe Turner” and “Fences” will be cross-promoted as part of an August Wilson Experience, Sheriff said. He said directing “Fences” is a dream opportunity for him.

A must-see show: Sheriff is also a playwright. A newly revised version of his play, “Boys to Baghdad” (Nov. 8-10) will run over Veterans Day weekend. The play is loosely based on Sheriff’s own experiences serving in the army during Desert Storm. Sheriff said his writing has matured since it first ran five years ago.

He said its focus on the African American military experience is something rarely shown on stage. “When we do see that, it’s maybe one or two in a story, and if it’s more than one, one of them is dying.”

“Boys to Baghdad,” by contrast, will give an authentic first-hand look at the experience, Sheriff said, showcasing “the comedy, the camaraderie, the love that we build together, lifelong friends and brothers throughout… life.”

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This story was originally published September 25, 2024 at 6:00 AM.