Teatro Live's 2026-27 Theatrical Season ANNOUNCEMENT

Teatro Live! is delighted to announce its 45th Anniversary Season, featuring four extraordinary comedies built around what Teatro Live! does best: making audiences laugh. 

For forty-five years, Teatro Live! has built its reputation on sophisticated comedy, exceptional storytelling, and unforgettable performances. The 2026-2027 season proudly builds on that legacy, bringing together Broadway hits, Off-Broadway favourites, award-winning Canadian classics, and an exciting world premiere. As Teatro Live! approaches half a century of theatre making, the company proudly reaffirms its promise to Edmontonians: Teatro Live! has always been, and always will be, where Edmonton goes to laugh.

THE COTTAGE
by Sandy Rustin

November 12 to 29, 2026

Teatro Live's 45th Anniversary Season opens with the Professional Canadian Premiere of The Cottage, the acclaimed Broadway comedy by Sandy Rustin.

Directed by Farren Timoteo, the production stars Jill Agopsowicz, Rachel Bowron, Mathew Hulshof, Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks, and Jake Tkaczyk.

Following its celebrated Broadway debut in 2023, this sparkling, saucy comedy of manners comes to Edmonton for its first professional production in Canada.

Set in the English countryside in 1923, The Cottage is a romantic and (not quite) murderous comedy of manners in which fate, identity, and marriage are called into question as a surprising and hilarious web of secrets unravels. Inspired by the wit of Noël Coward's classic drawing room comedies, Rustin infuses the genre with a fresh contemporary feminist perspective, creating what she has aptly described as "feminist farce."

"The Cottage is exactly the kind of comedy Teatro audiences adore," says Artistic Director Farren Timoteo. "I laughed out loud from beginning to end. Every page. It felt as though Sandy had written the play specifically for our company. It's endlessly clever, gloriously theatrical, and perfectly aligned with the spirit of Teatro Live! and our audiences."

The enthusiasm has been mutual. Since first corresponding with Teatro Live! earlier this year, Rustin has championed the production, and personally assisted the company in securing the rights.

In anticipation of the season announcement, Rustin shared the following message with Teatro Live!

"I am delighted for The Cottage to make its Professional Canadian Premiere at Teatro Live!, a theatre that has built its reputation around comedy. This play emulates the style and tone of Noël Coward's frothy bedroom comedies of the '20s & '30s, but infuses a contemporary, feminist perspective, creating a new genre: feminist farce. I'm so grateful to Teatro Live! for programming female-centric, female-driven, female-written comedies and count myself lucky to have my work produced at a theatre that celebrates the evolution of comedic writing in all its forms."

POPCORN FALLS
by James Hindman

February 18 to March 7, 2027

James Hindman's Off-Broadway hit Popcorn Falls has been specially adapted for Teatro Live!, relocating the action to rural Alberta with the playwright's enthusiastic support.

Marking the directorial debut of Edmonton favourite Ryan Parker, the production stars Farren Timoteo and Garett Ross, who portray more than twenty unforgettable characters.

When a small Albertan town is pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, its residents discover a grant that could save their community, but only if they can produce a play in just one week. With no money, no theatre, and only two actors to bring an entire town to life, they set out to stage an unforgettable production in this joyous farce, proving once and for all that art really can save the world.

"Popcorn Falls completely won me over," says Artistic Director Farren Timoteo. "It's one of the freshest comedies I've read in years. Beneath all of its outrageous humour is a deeply moving story about community, resilience, and the belief that theatre can genuinely change lives. I knew immediately that Alberta audiences would see themselves in it."

In anticipation of the season announcement, Hindman shared the following message with Teatro Live!:

"I have to tell you it's a special thrill to know Popcorn Falls is coming to Edmonton! And how insightful of you to recognize, not only the comedy of the play, but what the play is really about: small towns and their struggle to survive. The play is inspired by the true story of a community that reinvented itself by opening a theatre. Knowing you're localizing the story for Alberta audiences feels like the perfect continuation of that idea, that every town has its own story, and theatre can help bring a community together."

THE GLITTERING HEART
by Stewart Lemoine

May 27 to June 13, 2027

Returning to the Teatro Live! stage for the first time in thirty seven years, The Glittering Heart, winner of the 1990 Sterling Award for Outstanding New Play, is revived as part of Teatro Live!'s 45th Anniversary Season. Following its acclaimed Toronto engagement, The Globe and Mail praised Stewart Lemoine's "boisterous, sexy, slyly intelligent script."

Directed by Stewart Lemoine, the production stars Belinda Cornish, Bella King, Mathew Hulshof, and Aidan Laudersmith.

In 1959, a Winnipeg housewife flees her home and family in pursuit of a more extraordinary life in Venice. A soulful, elegant, and surprisingly subversive comedy, suffused with mystery and dark glamour to a truly breathtaking degree, The Glittering Heart celebrates reinvention, romance, and the irresistible pull of a bigger life.

"The Glittering Heart completely surprised me," says Artistic Director Farren Timoteo. "One evening, an audience member stopped me in our lobby after a performance and said, 'Bring back The Glittering Heart.' I realized I'd never actually read it, so I went home that night and immediately opened the script. From the very first pages, I was captivated. It's funny, romantic, mysterious, and unlike anything else in Stewart's catalogue. As we celebrate Teatro’s 45th Anniversary, it felt like the perfect opportunity to celebrate the remarkable depth and range of Stewart's body of work, revive one of Teatro's most celebrated plays for longtime audiences, and share it with an entirely new generation of theatre lovers. It's also an incredible opportunity to showcase some of the extraordinary artists who make Teatro Live! so special."

In anticipation of the season announcement, Lemoine shared the following message with Teatro Live!:

"I'm so excited to be returning to Venice by way of this revival. An impossible story set in an improbable location in which having too much ambition is still not quite enough. Well, that's just the Teatro template, isn't it? It's also a treat to be revisiting the play in the company of my longtime collaborator Leona Brausen, whose elegant costumes for the 1990 production set an early high water mark for the company. The denizens of our lagoon will be very glamorous indeed."

JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA
adapted by Camille Pavlenko

July 8 to 25, 2027

Closing Teatro’s 45th Anniversary Season is the world premiere of a brand-new adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved classic, commissioned by Teatro Live! and written by award winning Alberta playwright Camille Pavlenko.

Directed by Farren Timoteo, the production stars Dayna Lea Hoffman as Emma.

Pavlenko takes Jane Austen's famously headstrong heroine and brings her to life in a production so charming, warm, and theatrical, audiences won't be able to resist falling in love with her. This fast-paced adaptation transforms a small ensemble into the bustling world of Highbury, delivering all the romantic social chaos Austen fans love with all the comedic sparkle audiences have come to expect from Teatro Live!

"Emma was actually the first show I programmed for this season," says Artistic Director Farren Timoteo. "Almost as soon as I arrived at Teatro Live!, I knew I wanted to commission Camille to adapt a Jane Austen novel. I've long admired Camille's remarkable body of work, and I've had the privilege of directing one of her plays. Her instincts as a writer align beautifully with my own as a director. I also couldn't shake the feeling that Jane Austen belongs at Teatro. Like Stewart Lemoine, Austen's writing is intelligent, alive with wit, rich in beautiful language, and wonderfully funny. I felt it was exactly the kind of theatrical experience our audiences would fall in love with. I wanted to celebrate Austen's extraordinary wit in a way that felt fast, inventive, actor-driven, and unmistakably Teatro, and I can't imagine a better collaborator than Camille to bring that vision to life."

An award-winning playwright, actor, and educator, Calgary based Camille Pavlenko has established herself as one of Alberta's most exciting theatrical voices. Her work has been produced and developed by Lunchbox Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Foster Festival, Calgary Young People's Theatre, and Alberta Musical Theatre Company, where her adaptation of Rapunzel received the 2025 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Production for Young Audiences.

In anticipation of the season announcement, Pavlenko shared the following message with Teatro Live!:

"There is no challenge I am more delighted by than taking Jane Austen's famously headstrong protagonist and bringing her to life in a production so charming, warm, and theatrical, audiences can't help but fall in love with her! This fast paced, fresh adaptation transforms a small ensemble into the entire bustling world of Highbury, delivering all the romantic social chaos Austen fans love, with all the comedic sparkle that Edmonton audiences have come to expect from Teatro's offerings."