Featuring a world premiere by local playwright, a twist on Twelfth Night, and Firecracker Festival Follow Up
WASHINGTON, DC–Theatre Prometheus announces its thirteenth season featuring a world premiere by local playwright, a twist on Twelfth Night, and a follow up to their successful 2025 Firecracker Festival.
The season opens in the Fall with the world premiere of Where Dead Women Go to Dance by DC-based playwright Stephen Spotswood. Where Dead Women Go to Dance is the story of the night Kim uses ancestral magic to bring her recently deceased best friend back from the dead. But magic comes with consequences, and consequences breed difficult conversations about friendship, love, mental health, and what we owe each other. Where Dead Women Go to Dance opens September 25, 2026 at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center and is directed by Theatre Prometheus Co-Artistic Director, Lauren Patton Villegas. She says:
“There is a quiet magic to this play, that is what struck me most about the show. It deals with the huge, existential concept of life and death in a very quiet and intimate way. The situation may be unrealistic, but the relationship is real, the way the characters respond is real. ”
In early 2027, Theatre Prometheus will revive The Firecracker Festival, a new works reading festival that debuted last year and featured two plays by local playwrights, as well as works by DC artists The Welders and Confetti Collective.
Amanda Zeitler, one of the 2025 featured playwrights and Theatre Prometheus’ Managing Director, says: “DC has always been a great city for new works and emerging playwrights. There are so many opportunities and amazing companies who develop new pieces and we are so excited to be at a point where Prometheus can be a part of that process. We hope that the Festival will not only help playwrights and local artists develop their art, but spark future productions as well.”
DMV-based playwrights are invited to submit their work for the festival via the Theatre Prometheus website.
Prometheus will wrap up its season in the Spring with a drag-inspired production of Shakespeare’s classic Twelfth Night directed by Co-Artistic Director, Ileana Blustein. “I’ve been in love with Twelfth Night forever. It was one of the first Shakespeare plays I was exposed to. I’m so excited to put my own twist on it, emphasizing the queerness inherent in the text. Viola goes on a journey of gender exploration and expansion and I am excited to explore that by setting the piece in a drag bar. Queer art, but drag especially, has been publicly under attack over the past few years. I think it’s important to celebrate this meaningful art form, which has been pervasive in theater since the inception of drama. Lest we forget – Viola, and every one of Shakespeare’s heroines, would have been played by a young man in drag!” says Blustein.
Where Dead Women Go to Dance by Stephen Spotswood runs September 25-October 17, 2026 at Montgomery College’s Cultural Arts Center Studio Theatre. The Firecracker Festival and Twelfth Night will open in Spring 2027. Exact dates will be announced closer to time. Ticketing information for all events will be available approximately one month before opening at theatreprometheus.org.
About Theatre Prometheus
Centered around compassion, courage, and care, Theatre Prometheus invites artists and audiences to engage in queer and feminist art, both new and classic. We enkindle exploration and revolutionary empathy through practice, performance, and the nurturing of our person-first artistic community.
