May 12, 2025 | Uncategorized,

A Look Back on Our 24/25 Season

As we prepare to announce our 25/26 Season during our live Season Preview Party on May 22, let’s take a look back at what our most recent season entailed! The 24/25 Season featured amazing performances from all over the world, including shows from Belgium, Puerto Rico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom and featuring everything from interactive debates, innovative puppetry, and even, messages from the future.

The season kicked-off in July with a special, 2-night performance of Rough Magic, brought to the Jackie Leibergott Black Box from creative phenom Christopher Rivas – who audiences will remember from his the 2023 hit The Real James Bond… Was Dominican (which got a special shout-out from Boston legend Big Papi). The limited-run was incredibly well-received by audiences, who resonated with the “but is it love” theme of the show.

The fall season began in September with Fight Night, from Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed. This clever, interactive show ran at the the Robert J. Orchard Stage and featured five candidates on stage who answered guided prompts and questions to convince audiences that they are the best candidate in the group. The show was full of twist and turns, alongside sharp political commentary, making audiences rethinking how – and why – they vote.

Just a few weeks after Fight Night closed, audiences were back at ArtsEmerson for In the Same Tongue, a full-length movement, sound, and language based-performance brought to life by legendary dancer and choreographer Dianne McIntyre. The show which ran at the Cutler Majestic Theater, explored various artistic legacies, like 1920s Harlem salons and the Black Arts Movement of the 60’s & 70’s, and completely wowed audiences.

2024 concluded with Papel Machete’s On the Eve of Abolition. Using puppets, video projection, and miniature sets, Papel Machete masterfully told the story of a future where abolition camps, formerly incarcerated people, families, and organizers are close to reaching the end of their journey in the fight to end all prisons. This bilingual, multimedia masterpiece perfectly created a vision of an abolitionist future.

The new year began with The Life & Times of Michael K, based on the the J.M Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name and brought to life by South Africa’s Baxter Theater and Handspring Puppet Company. The inventive, poignant adaptation of this story used intricate marionettes to follow Michael K on his journey through a war-torn South Africa to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. The sold-out show was a massive success, with rave reviews from The Boston Globe, who called it a “performance so seamless it almost seems real,” as well as WBUR, Boston Arts Diary, and Theater Mirror. The show also won the 2025 Elliot Norton Award for “Best Visiting Play!”

In March, ArtsEmerson partnered with Boston Lyric Opera to present The Seasons, an innovative recreation of Vivaldi arias, ensembles, and excerpts from The Four Seasons, all woven together with dance by choreographer Pam Tanowitz. Co-conceived by celebrated playwright Sarah Ruhl and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the piece used old music to find new ways we can draw connections between our emotions and the world’s changing weather.

Audiences were blown away in April by disability-led theatre company FlawBored’s It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, which had a sold-out run at the Emerson Paramount Center in April. This hilarious, poignant, and scathing satire was called “funny and thought-provoking” by WBUR and a “remarkable whirlwind of a show…conceptually audacious and bracingly original” by the Boston Globe. Audiences had a similar response as the critics and could not believe how funny yet impactful this Black Box show was.

The 2024/2025 season concluded at the Museum of Science Boston Planetarium with Theater Mitu’s Utopian Hotline. This one-of-a-kind production used real voicemails, experimental, original music, and spectacular visuals projected onto planetarium to reflect on humanity’s capacity for hope and humanity’s optimism towards the future.

Did you have a favorite show from the 24/25 Season? Let us know in the comments! If this past season excited you, be sure not to miss the reveal for what is in store for our next season — all are welcome to join us on May 22 at the Emerson Paramount Center for our Season Preview Party. This event is free and open to the public with an RSVP and is sure to be an exciting night where Executive Director and Director of Artistic Programming Ronee Penoi will unveil the upcoming season alongside some special guests and with performances from around the world. We can’t wait to see you there!