iama 2026-2027 season ANNNOUNCEMENT
SEASON 19: ALL IN
IAMA is going all in this season, betting big on the stories that scare us most. We're returning to three mainstage world premieres, teaming up on two major collaborations, and spreading out across Los Angeles like never before, from Atwater Village to the Geffen Playhouse and beyond. No safety nets, no hedged bets, just brand new plays that ask - with heart and humor - what we're willing to risk for the lives we're building.
We find ourselves in a moment of deep interrogation. What does it actually mean to build a life? What is our happiness worth, and what are we willing to wager to find out? Right now, the very blueprint of who we are, who we answer to, and what we own is shifting right beneath our feet. How do we preserve our identity when the digital unknown of AI looms over our careers, or when the weight of family legacy feels more like a mortgage we can't afford? How do we root ourselves when the neighborhood block is rewritten overnight by gentrification, and the housing market plays out like a tragic comedy? As storytellers, that chaotic entanglement is our playground. At IAMA, we believe the only honest way to face this collective existential crisis is to laugh right back at it. This season, we are meeting our deepest anxieties head-on through radical intimacy, razor-sharp wit, and the great American tradition of farce. Because when the world outside feels this absurd, sometimes a door-slamming, high-velocity comedy is the only mirror sharp enough to show us who we really are.
Welcome to IAMA Theatre Company’s 19th season. We've cleared the stage, unlocked the doors, and raised the stakes. Come place your bet with us.
SEPTEMBER 14 - 26, 2026
9th Annual New Works Festival
IAMA’s New Works Festival gives audiences an early look at future hits and allows playwrights to experience public reaction to their work for the first time. Since 2018, IAMA’s New Works Festival has emerged as IAMA’s leading development and community engagement program, providing the first step in curating new plays of artistic excellence to be considered for future productions. The Festival invites the local community into the creative process and welcomes social gatherings and discussions following each play presentation. Audiences are invited to spark important dialogue, connection, and creative exchange, both on and off the stage. New works developed during the Festival have gone on to full, world premiere productions not only at IAMA, but at theaters across the country.
OCTOBER 15 - NOVEMBER 22, 2026
Bobby Robotowitz
NNPN Rolling WorlD PREMIERE Production In ASSOCIATION WITH INHOUSE THEATRE
Written by Matt Schatz
Directed by Casey Stangl
Dina Katzman is struggling. As a novelist, as a mother, as a wife and as a person. But when she begins talking to an AI Chatbot named Bobby, she discovers an unlikely confidant who always listens, never judges, and somehow seems to understand her better than most people. And he’s Jewish too! What could go wrong?
A site-specific production performed in two secret locations in Los Angeles - one Eastside and one Westside - to be disclosed upon ticket purchase. Produced in association with InHouse Theatre. Part of a National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere with partner theaters Woolly Mammoth (DC), City Theatre (PA), Luna Stage (NJ), and PlayLab (FL).
FEbruary 5 - March 8, 2027
What We Leave Behind
World Premiere Production
Written by Gloria Calderón Kellett
Directed by Margaux Susi
On the night of their mother’s death, three siblings reunite under one roof and are forced to confront the versions of themselves they thought they’d left behind. As old wounds reopen and childhood dynamics resurface, the night spirals through hilarious memories, brutal honesty, long-buried secrets, and emotional revelations that change them forever. Both deeply funny and heartbreakingly raw, the play explores family, grief, identity, and the impossible tension between who we were and who we are.
MARCH 31 - May 2, 2027
CLOSING COSTS
WoRLd PREMIERE Production In ASSOCIATION WITH geffen Playhouse
Written by Grace McLeod
Directed by Hannah Wolf
Housing prices in LA are already criminal, but in this home, they may actually be fatal. A scrappy real estate agent and her Uber-driving boyfriend are secretly living in the “luxury” property she’s desperate to sell: a disastrously flipped fever dream where corners are cut and nothing works the way it should. When the home’s bro developer shows up, things go from unethical to unhinged. A newly successful gay couple and a pregnant lesbian couple spiral into a bidding war over the supposedly hot property as the agent and her boyfriend scramble to keep the sale alive—and the skeletons in the closet—in a perfectly escalating farce.
