Lisa Howard, Patti Murin, Arnie Burton, Cecil Baldwin, Mitchell Sink, and more!

Poughkeepsie, NY (July 13, 2026)—Vassar College has announced additional casting for the highly anticipated 40th anniversary Powerhouse Theater Season, which continues through Sunday, July 26. Actors joining the annual summer play development festival include Lisa Howard, who is best known for her performance as Rona Lisa Peretti in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Drama Desk winner Arnie Burton (Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps); from the Frozen original Broadway company Patti Murin; direct from current off-Broadway smash Little Shop of Horrors Savannah Lee Birdsong, Matilda’s Mitchell Sink, and Powerhouse alum Harrison Bryan (Marcel on the Train) will join Broadway’s Cheri Steinkellner (Sister Act) and Will Roland (Dear Evan Hansen) in the new heartfelt musical Fanboy/Diva (July 17–19), with music and lyrics by theater legends David Zippel, Walter Afanasieff, Cy Coleman, Alan Menken, and Matthew Wilder.

The narrator of Welcome to Night Vale, Cecil Baldwin, joins Jennifer Van Dyck (Hedda Gabler), Jake Hart, Jocelyn Kuritsky, and Serenity Mariana to comprise the company of the raucously funny and thought-provoking serialized podcast, A Simple Herstory, created by Kuritsky (KPOP) and directed by Meghan Finn (Artistic Director–The Tank).

Ash(er) Lloyd Ehrenberg will direct a staged reading of Genevieve Simon’s Punch Back, a new play about trans students on college campuses in red states. Punch Back is the winner of this year’s Leah Award, a designated prize of the Leah Ryan Fund. Casting will be announced at a later date.

Members of the renowned Powerhouse Theater Training Company will present a slate of free theater throughout the season, including Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, adapted and directed by Elizabeth Dahmen, and Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna, adapted by Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy and directed by Jonathan Taikina Taylor. Both will be performed outside at The Preserve at Vassar. Max Reuben returns to direct the company in the innovative use of Soundpainting, a gestural language, in a completely devised project at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. And Erin C. Buckley and Aysan Celik explore life in a cult, from the spiritual to the mundane, in Ashram. 

Previous productions that have already been presented in the 40th Powerhouse Season include:

A one-performance-only presentation of Drew Droege’s (Stop That Train, Messy White Gays) new comedy show, Theater Idiot, with special appearances from Powerhouse Training Company alumni Theo Ciperski and Lulu Fairclough-Stewart.

A workshop presentation of Ocean Walk (July 2–5), Gianfranco Lentini’s examination of survival and surrender after a cataclysmic storm wipes out the LGBTQ enclave of Fire Island Pines, featuring the talents of Drama Desk winner Arnie Burton (Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps), Alyssa Marvin (Appropriate, Grey House)and Charlie Reid, with direction by Jonathon Loy.

Hal Cosentino and Ellenor Riley-Condit starring in a workshop presentation of Godfriend (July 10–12), a new play exploring the decision to have a child and the unexpected guidance that the couple receives from a 19th-century Quaker preacher, directed by Caley Chase and featuring music by singer-songwriter Hannah Read (aka Lomelda).

The Tank’s Legerdemain (June 19), written by Lynn Rosen, directed by Julie Kramer, and featuring Drama Desk winner Greg Cuellar (Initiative), Annie Henk, and Danielle Skraastad (All My Sons).

Rita Hayworth and the Orson Welles Variations (June 20), written by Isaac Byrne, directed by Jessi D. Hill, and featuring Adam Belvo, Carol Hardern, Giuditta Lattanzi, Florencia Lozano (“One Life to Live”), Brian McManamon (“Gotham”), and Liv Vordenberg.

pits (June 27), written by Abe Johnson, directed by Ryan Dobrin, and featuring Rohan Maletira, Hagan Oliveras (John Proctor is the Villain), and Tony® Award nominee Taylor Trensch (Floyd Collins, Camelot).

Marielitos (June 28), a new musical with book and lyrics by Peter Gil-Sheridan and Cristina Luzárraga, music and additional lyrics by Julián Mesri, directed by Rebecca Aparicio, and featuring Francisco Arcila, Rodrigo Calderón, Darilyn Castillo (Hamilton), Cristina P. Contreras, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes (“Family Guy,” “Transformers”), Carlos L. Encinias (How to Dance in Ohio, Mamma Mia!), Nadia Rosenchtejer, Sebastian Treviño, and Miguel Ángel Vásquez.

Theatre East’s The Power of Something Invisible (June 29), written by Pete McElligott, directed by Judson Jones, and featuring Elizabeth Jarrett, Christa Kimlicko Jones, Matthew Napoli, Oliver Palmer, Kelsey Sheppard, Evelyn Spahr, and Chrysi Sylaidi.

The Soundpainting Thinktank, a week-long gathering of artists from around the world, culminating in a one-night-only performance. Soundpainting is the universal live composing sign language created in Woodstock by composer Walter Thompson.

For tickets and additional information about the Powerhouse Season, visit www.vassar.edu/powerhouse/season.

Box Office Information

Workshop tickets: $30.00

Readings, An Evening of Soundpainting and Training Program Performances: Free

Box Office hours: Wednesday–Monday, 12:00–6:00 p.m.

Box Office: (845) 437-5599, phtboxoffice@vassar.edu

Background

Celebrating its 40th Season in 2026, Powerhouse Theater (Ed Cheetham and Michael Sheehan, Producing Directors) is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works. For six weeks every summer, the Powerhouse Theater Program comes to life on the Vassar College campus to provide a nurturing environment in which passionate theater lovers, from students to professional practitioners and audience members, learn from one another. The Powerhouse Theater Training Program provides aspiring theater professionals a chance to immerse themselves in acting, directing, and playwriting. The program’s Training Company also offers free performances throughout the season. Together with our adventurous partners, students, and dedicated audiences, we create a crucial community—one that gives time, space, and voice to artists of the American theater.

Recent projects that have premiered in New York City developed by Powerhouse include: Messy White Gays (Off-Broadway), Mexodus (Off-Broadway), A Trojan Woman (The Tank), The Notebook (Broadway), The Connector (MCC Theater), birthday birthday birthday (The Tank), annA (Stella Adler), Canaan Unremembered (Theatre East), Luna and the Starbodies (Lincoln Center), Sweet Chariot (The Public), Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop), Diana (Broadway), Head Over Heels (Broadway) The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic Theater Company), The Great Leap (Atlantic Theater Company), Alice by Heart (MCC Theater), A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse) and The Wolves (Lincoln Center Theater). Other projects developed at the Powerhouse include the Tony Award-winning Side Man and Tru; the multi-award-winning Doubt by John Patrick Shanley; the groundbreaking Broadway musical Hamilton; and Stephen Karam’s The Humans.

Vassar—located in New York’s scenic Hudson Valley—is an independent, coeducational, residential liberal arts college which fosters intellectual openness and lively exploration through its widely varied course offerings. Founded in 1861 to offer women a fully equivalent education to that of the best men’s colleges of the period, Vassar became the first women’s college in the nation to expand its mission to coeducation by opening its doors to men in 1969. Today’s students, who meet each other as equals, are encouraged to develop diverse perspectives through engaging in lively dialogues with faculty and fellow students, which enables them to achieve the insight and confidence needed to function most creatively in today’s complex world. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar continues to be renowned for pioneering achievements in education and for the beauty of its campus in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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