2027 Season, The Alchemy Theatre, Austin
The Alchemy Theatre today announces its 2026-2027 season: a holiday staged reading of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory; A Man of No Importance, the musical by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens and Terrence McNally, the Tony Award–winning team behind Ragtime; and Shelagh Delaney's landmark play A Taste of Honey.
The season follows a banner year for the company. At the 2026 Austin Theatre Critics Awards, The Alchemy Theatre received 10 nominations and four wins: Best Director for Michael Cooper (Grand Hotel), Best Choreography for Noah Wood (Grand Hotel), and Best Actor for both Sarah-Marie Curry and Johanna Whitmore ('night, Mother).
“This season is bold yet intimate storytelling built on one belief: no one’s story is too small to matter,” said Michael Cooper, artistic director of The Alchemy Theatre. “A Man of No Importance and A Taste of Honey draw on raw, working-class realities to challenge mid-20th-century assumptions about marriage, motherhood, sexual identity and acceptance, while Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, drawn from Capote’s own childhood, celebrates simple human affection and a rare, deep friendship over materialism.”
A CHRISTMAS MEMORY
by Truman Capote Sunday, December 13, 2026, 2:00 PM · KMFA's Draylen Mason Studio
The Alchemy Theatre's holiday tradition returns with a staged reading of Capote's 1956 story about a young boy and his elderly cousin baking fruitcakes and making their own joy in Depression-era rural Alabama. The reading features Carol Hickey and Cameron LaBrie. A reception with carolers, hot chocolate and holiday cookies follows. Admission is free. Seating is limited. Ticket information at www.thealchemytheatre.org.
Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" with permission from The Truman Capote Literary Trust. Copyright 1956 Truman Capote Literary Trust.
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
Music by Stephen Flaherty · Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens · Book by Terrence McNally
Based on the film A Man of No Importance. Directed by Michael Cooper
May 28 – June 13, 2027 · The Whisenhunt at Zach Theater, 1510 Toomey Road
The creators of Ragtime reunite for this intimate, big-hearted musical. Composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens won Tony Awards for Ragtime's score, and book writer Terrence McNally, a four-time Tony winner, won for its book. In 1964 Dublin, bus conductor Alfie Byrne recites poetry to his passengers and directs an amateur theatre troupe in a church hall. When he resolves to stage Oscar Wilde's Salomé, opposition from the church forces Alfie to confront the love he has hidden all his life. The musical premiered in 2002 at Lincoln Center Theater and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Ticket information at www.thealchemytheatre.org.
A TASTE OF HONEY
by Shelagh Delaney
Fall 2027
Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she wrote A Taste of Honey, which premiered in 1958 with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in London and went on to the West End, Broadway and an award-winning 1961 film. In working-class Salford, teenage Jo is left to fend for herself by her mother, Helen. After a romance with a Black sailor leaves her pregnant, Jo forms an unlikely family with Geof, a gentle art student. Funny, frank and tender, the play gave a groundbreaking voice to young, working-class women on the British stage. Dates and venue will be announced in 2027. Ticket information at www.thealchemytheatre.org.
ABOUT THE ALCHEMY THEATRE
Founded in 2018, The Alchemy Theatre is an Austin-based professional theatre company creating intimate, artistically ambitious plays and musicals, from contemporary drama to rarely produced musical theatre. Recent productions include Grand Hotel, The Musical (2025), 'night, Mother (2025) and The Robber Bridegroom (2026). Learn more at www.thealchemytheatre.org.
