Mainstage Season 26-27
Rise and Resist:
Acts of Defiance
Fordham Theatre is proud to announce its 2026–27 MainStage season: Rise and Resist: Acts of Defiance. In selecting this year’s season, students and faculty began with the question: how are we engaging with our global community as artist-citizens? We strive to make work that interrogates the world around us through bold, exciting art driven by passion and creative risk. We address the issues of today – from economic inequality to abuse of power to challenge and envision a path for the future.
SWEAT
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by K. Lorrel Manning
Dates: October 8-16, 2026
Opening our season, legendary writer and two-time Pulitzer winner, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, a gripping, sobering portrait of the unraveling of the American dream. Set in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 2008, the play follows a tight-knit group of factory workers whose lives are upended as layoffs, economic anxiety, and rising tensions begin to fracture their community. Inspired by Nottage’s years of interviews with residents of Reading, one of America’s hardest-hit post-industrial cities, this Tony-nominated drama captures the anger, loyalty, humor, and heartbreak of people fighting to hold onto dignity in a system leaving them behind.
To reach Fordham Theatre Box Office, email us at fclcboxoffice@gmail.com
or call 212.636.6340.
measure for Measure
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Kholoud Sawaf
Dates: November 12-21, 2026
An intellectual and political thriller that grapples with moral hypocrisy and abuse of power. When her brother Claudio is sentenced to death under a long-forgotten law, a young novitiate, Isabella, pleads for mercy from the unyielding authoritarian, Angelo. What follows is a dangerous battle between morality and desire, as Shakespeare exposes the hypocrisy lurking beneath the surface of power.
To reach Fordham Theatre Box Office, email us at fclcboxoffice@gmail.com
or call 212.636.6340.
Marie Antoinette
By David Adjmi
Directed by Alexis Kulani Woodard
Dates: February 26- March 6, 2027
Marie Antoinette is a wildly theatrical, darkly comic portrait of a queen trapped inside a crumbling monarchy. As revolution brews outside the palace walls, Marie Antoinette clings to luxury, performance, and fantasy while the world around her spirals toward collapse. Blending modern language, biting satire, and punk sensibility, David Adjmi reimagines the infamous monarch as both absurd spectacle and deeply human figure in a provocative exploration of power, celebrity, excess, and denial.
To reach Fordham Theatre Box Office, email us at fclcboxoffice@gmail.com
or call 212.636.6340
Fordham First: New Works Initiative
World Premiere
By Mona Mansour
Directed by Dr. Fadi Skeiker
Dates: April 22 - May 1, 2026
Following the success of last year’s A Lunar Rhapsody by José Rivera, we continue our Fordham Firsts: New Works Initiative with a world premiere from award-winning (Steinberg, Kesselring, and Helen Merrill Award) playwright, TV and screenwriter, Mona Mansour. Inspired and devised with Fordham Theatre students, Mona Mansour brings her searing intellect, sly humor, and poignant writing to Pope Auditorium
To reach Fordham Theatre Box Office, email us at fclcboxoffice@gmail.com
or call 212.636.6340