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Charleston, SC(For Immediate Release) — PURE Theatre is proud to announce its 24th season, featuring five mainstage productions, including two Southeast Regional Premieres and two World Premieres. Additional offerings include the World Premiere Summer Slam production of Red Shirts and the Second Annual PURE Theatre Playwrights Festival. Performances in the 2026-2027 season will take place at the Cannon Street Arts Center and virtually through PURE Live, the company’s live-streaming program.
“A friend recently asked me how, after all of these seasons, I remain so energized by the work,” says PURE Co-founder and Executive Artistic Director Sharon Graci. “And the answer is easy: because the work is hard, the artistic bar is high, and the stories are brilliant. I really do have the best job. I get to make art with people I love, in a city we are all devoted to, for audiences who have become like family. How could I not be thrilled?”
“I spent a long time with these plays. I always do. It takes a great deal for a script to earn a place in a PURE season, and every one of these playwrights has written something I simply could not shake.
Some made me laugh out loud. Some broke my heart. Some left me unsettled for days. They all challenged me.
They don’t share a point of view or a style, and in fact, they disagree with one another in fascinating ways. But what they have in common is that I couldn’t stop thinking about them.
That’s the kind of theatre I love. Theatre that stays with you long after the lights come up. Theatre that sparks conversation. Theatre that reminds us how complicated, funny, frightening, and extraordinary it is to be human.
I cannot wait to share these stories with our audience.”
PURE SUMMER SLAM: RED SHIRTS
A World Premiere by Rodney Lee Rogers. Directed by Sharon Graci.
July 16-August 1, 2026
PURE’s Summer Slam production is an annual preseason event that keeps the company producing during the summer months. This year’s Summer Slam will feature the world premiere of Red Shirts by PURE Co-founder Rodney Lee Rogers.
From PURE Theatre Co-Founders Sharon Graci and Rodney Lee Rogers, building on twenty-four years of uncompromising storytelling, comes their most dangerous collaboration yet: a new Southern noir anthology for the theatre.
In this inaugural production, three stories take the stage. A stuntman who has spent his life taking hits meant for someone else. A musician still waiting for the end of the world. A man in the Charleston marsh country who discovers that some debts are older than the people who owe them.
These are the red shirts. The expendables. The people nobody expects to survive the story. Until they do.
CHURCH WARS
A World Premiere by Fred Thompson. Directed by Sharon Graci.
August 27-September 19, 2026
Season 24 officially kicks off in August 2026 with Church Wars, a world premiere play by Fred Thompson.
When a struggling church discovers a way to save itself, everyone agrees it’s a blessing. Until the selection committee gets involved.
What begins as a fundraiser quickly becomes a fight over whose recipe makes the cut and whose gets left out. Which, as it turns out, is the same thing as fighting over everything else.
From the creator of PURE audience favorite Atwater comes a mockumentary comedy in the tradition of Christopher Guest, where the stakes are absurd, the people are sincere, and nobody is nearly as reasonable as they think they are.
Church Wars will coincide with the Second Annual Playwrights Festival, a weekend of storytelling, workshops, conversations, and celebration featuring playwrights from Season 24, including Rodney Lee Rogers, Fred Thompson, Maggie Kearnan, Josh Tobiessen, and the welcome return of York Walker, whose play Covenant opened Season 23.
THE ANTIQUITIES
A Southeast Regional Premiere by Jordan Harrison. Directed by Sharon Graci.
October 22-November 14, 2026
Next comes The Antiquities, a “brilliantly imagined drama” (The Wall Street Journal) by Jordan Harrison.
At the Museum of Late Human Antiquities, curators work to reconstruct a vanished civilization from the fragments it left behind. Piece by piece, they begin to tell the story of us.
As glimpses of ordinary life come into focus, first loves, family dinners, scientific breakthroughs, impossible ambitions, a larger picture begins to emerge.
So does something else.
Funny, haunting, and unexpectedly moving, The Antiquities invites us to see ourselves from a distance and wonder what future generations might make of the story we’re telling right now.
HERE THERE ARE BLUEBERRIES
by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich. Directed by Rodney Lee Rogers.
January 28-February 20, 2027
Winter 2027 brings Here There Are Blueberries by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich.
Called “the greatest detective story ever told” (Los Angeles Times), Here There Are Blueberries begins with the arrival of a photo album at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Inside are snapshots of ordinary life. Friends laughing together. Young women enjoying a day in the sun. Moments of leisure. Moments of joy.
The photographs were taken at Auschwitz.
As archivists begin to investigate the album’s origins, a remarkable true story unfolds. The deeper they look, the more difficult the questions become. Not only about the past, but about ourselves.
LIKE FLIES
A Southeast Regional Premiere by Maggie Kearnan. Directed by Sharon Graci.
March 4-27, 2027
March 2027 ushers in Like Flies by Maggie Kearnan.
In a small, tightly bound community, the women have found a way to keep themselves safe.
They share it quietly. Pass it hand to hand. And never speak of it beyond their circle.
For a while, it works.
But safety has a way of changing people. As whispers spread and loyalties begin to fracture, what began as protection takes on a darker shape.
Because once you decide who deserves to be spared, you also decide who doesn’t.
Fresh from its world premiere at Portland Stage, Like Flies arrives at PURE Theatre for its Southeast Regional Premiere.
BAT CITY
A World Premiere Co-Production with Warehouse Theatre by Josh Tobiessen. Directed by Caroline Jane Davis.
April 22-May 15, 2027
Season 24 concludes with the rolling world premiere of Bat City by Josh Tobiessen, produced in partnership with Warehouse Theatre in Greenville.
In Austin, where everyone seems to be one good idea away from becoming somebody, Amy, Charlie, and Liz are trying to figure out what comes next.
Amy is convinced her big break is just around the corner. Charlie already had his and would rather not discuss it. Liz blew up her entire life in search of something better and is still waiting for it to arrive.
They spend their nights working at a restaurant, closing down the bar, making plans, and promising themselves that change is coming.
Then one night, a terrible idea starts to sound like a very good one.
Josh Tobiessen gives us a comedy that is fast, funny, and just a little bit dangerous.
Bat City is a World Premiere co-production of PURE Theatre and Warehouse Theatre.
The Season 24 Flex Pass is on sale now and offers audiences access to one of the most compelling seasons in PURE Theatre’s history. The pass includes five flexible tickets for the mainstage season, concierge ticketing services, first invitations to all PURE events, and discounts on additional ticket purchases, including the Summer Slam. The Flex Pass also includes access to PURE’s Dining Benefits Program, in partnership with the Charleston Arts Festival, which offers patrons discounts and specials at favorite local restaurants throughout the season.
Flex Passes start at $212, a savings of more than 15 percent off the cost of purchasing five individual tickets at the average single-ticket price. In recognition of their service to the community, current and retired K-12 educators are eligible for a specially priced Educator Flex Pass for $100 by contacting PURE.
Patrons and ticket buyers should visit PURE Theatre’s website at puretheatre.org for additional information about Season 24. Information on purchasing season Flex Passes and individual tickets is also available on PURE’s website, social media platforms, and through PURE Theatre’s box office at 843-723-4444, Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
ABOUT PURE THEATRE
Founded in 2003, PURE Theatre is Charleston’s award-winning professional theatre company, now in its 24th season. Built around a resident ensemble of actors, directors, and designers, PURE produces bold contemporary plays, often Southeastern and regional premieres, that bring the most current voices in American theatre to Charleston. Known for its quality, intimacy, and consistency, PURE offers audiences a boutique cultural experience that complements the city’s historic and culinary landscape. Grounded by a five-play mainstage season, PURE also produces educational and touring programs, strengthening South Carolina’s arts ecology and contributing to its reputation as a world-class cultural destination.
PURE’s staff includes Sharon Graci (Co-founder and Artistic Director), Rodney Lee Rogers (Co-founder and Producing Director), David Mandel (Associate Artistic Director), Joy Vandervort-Cobb (Associate Artistic Director), Tippy Trombly (Patron Experience and Marketing Manager), and Isabella Gardner (Patron Experiences & Marketing Associate).
Serving on PURE Theatre’s board of directors are Stephanie Hunt (President), Brad Erickson (Vice Chair), James M. Ward, CPA (Treasurer), Michael Culler, Amy Gaffney, David Smalls, Liza Elsner, Bea Wray, and Josh Wilhoit.
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