Raven Players 2026-2027 Season Character Breakdowns
The Raven Players’ new season summaries and character breakdowns.
General auditions for the Raven Players’ exciting 2026-2027 season, featuring four plays and two fabulous musicals, are scheduled for May 9-11th at the Raven. Scroll down for play summaries and character breakdowns. Reserve your audition slot here.
The Raven Players’ 2026-2027 season:
macbitches
September 4 – 20
By Sophie McIntosh
Director: Jeanette Seisdedos
macbitches takes a darkly funny look at the toxic, high-stakes world of university theater, centering on a freshman who unexpectedly lands the role of Lady Macbeth. The play centers on freshman acting major Hailey, who unexpectedly scores the coveted role of Lady Macbeth. Her upperclassmen rivals immediately invite her over to “celebrate.” As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the young women interrogate their own ambitions as well as the power structures that have shaped their education—and when the night spirals into violent and shocking acts of betrayal, they come to learn that what’s done cannot be undone.
SweeneyTodd
October 23-November 8
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Steven David Martin
Sweeney Todd is of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpieces. With it, he aimed to create a musical that could “scare the hell out of everyone,” and yet, somehow, be funny. The story centers around Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber who returns to London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett’s luck shifts when Todd’s thirst for blood inspires an ingredient into her meat pies…and the carnage has only just begun!
The Strongest Man in Town: A Vintage Tale
January 22-31
By Tony Sciullo
Directed by Jenna Vera Dolcini
Dom Costello and his family winery are Sonoma County legends, well loved and respected for decades. That status is threatened when Dom raises environmental and health concerns about a new resort, certain to bring an influx of people, publicity and money to his beloved town. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s classic, An Enemy of the People, the play takes a hard look at the profits and perils of over-tourism. A Raven premiere from our new works program, ScripTease.
Hurricane Diane
February 12-28
By Madeleine George
Directed by Althena Gundlach
Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—and she’s returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? In this Obie-winning comedy with a twist, Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.
Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic
May 7-23
By Matt Cox
Directed by Steven David Martin
This clever and inventive play “never goes more than a minute without a laugh” (Nerdist) giving you a new look at a familiar adventure from the perspective of three potential heroes just trying to make it through a magic school that proves to be very dangerous for children. Alongside them are the Puffs, a group of well-meaning, loyal outsiders with a thing for badgers “who are so lovable and relatable, you’ll leave the theater wishing they were in the stories all along” (Hollywood Life). Their “hilariously heartfelt!” (Metro) and epic journey takes the classic story to new places and reimagines what a boy wizard hero can be.
Mean Girls
June 25-July 10
Book by Tina Fey
Music by Jeff Richmond
Lyrics by Neil Benjamin
Director: Katie Watts-Whitaker
Music Director: Les Pfutzenreuter
Choreographer: Katie Watts-Whitaker
Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: suburban Illinois. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady and her friends devise a “Revenge Party” to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a queen bee without getting stung.