Spectrum Theater Calendar 2025-26
Fall 2025 Productions
Coney Island Christmas by Donald Margulies
December 4-14, 2025
Presented by Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids
Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies weaves together nostalgia, music and merriment in this new seasonal classic. A holiday show for people of all ages and all faiths, CONEY ISLAND CHRISTMAS introduces us to Shirley Abramowitz, a young Jewish girl who (much to her immigrant parents’ exasperation) is cast as Jesus in the school’s Christmas pageant. As Shirley, now much older, recounts the memorable story to her great-granddaughter, the play captures a timeless and universal tale of what it means to be an American during the holidays.
Winter 2026 Productions
Orion by Matthew McLachlan
January 22-24, 2026
Presented by GRCC Players
When Sam and Gwen's relationship comes to an abrupt end, Sam is guided through the wreckage with the help of his friends Scott and Abby to find his place in Gwen's life, while a part of Gwen may not be ready to let go of Sam either. Orion tells a story of love’s complexity at the start of our adult lives and those love relationships that end, but never really leave us. This play about relationships, far beyond an ordinary breakup drama, uses honesty, charm, and humour to dig deeply into the reasons why we love and make the sacrifices we do. The first full-length play of a rising star in the playwriting world, Matthew McLachlan provides a knockout debut in which fans of great contemporary plays are sure to love.
Please note: This production is presented in Spectrum Theater’s Lab Theater, an intimate black box performance space with limited seating availability.
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk by Daniel Jamieson
February 5-15, 2026
Presented by Jewish Theater of Grand Rapids
Marc Chagall and his poet wife Bella were partners in life and in art. Their romance is immortalized in a feast of music, dance, and paintings brought-to-life, capturing the essence of a marriage that soared above the upheaval through which it endured. From their first meeting in Vitebsk, and through the Russian revolution, pogroms, and two world wars, their joy manifests in moments as vibrant and whimsical as the treasured artist’s best-known works. With a klezmer-inspired score, wistful songs, and inventive staging, Flying Lovers celebrates the inspiring life and love of an extraordinary couple.
Dance Nation by Clare Barron
March 5-14, 2026
Presented by Actors' Theater - *Michigan Premiere*
If you aren’t ready to bleed, break a few bones, or trample your best friend, then you aren’t ready for this after school dance group. When a pre-teen dance team sets its sights on national glory, the stage becomes a battlefield of bodies, dreams, and identity, where the stakes are as high as the pirouettes are sharp. Will the team be able to band together or will the hunger for dominance turn them into monsters? Dance Nation is a fiercely funny, deeply poignant explosion of ambition, adolescence, and the raw power of girlhood.
CONTINUITY by Bess Wohl
April 9-11, 2026
Presented by GRCC Players
It’s magic hour in the New Mexico desert as an exhausted film crew races against the setting sun to shoot their blockbuster (but artsy) action movie, which takes place on an arctic (Styrofoam) ice floe, and features an ecoterrorist plotting a bombing mission to save all of humankind (supposedly). As the clock ticks and the desert sun beats down on the not-so-frozen landscape, personalities clash, artistic vision meets Hollywood demands, and the gap between fiction and science grows wider than ever. A dark but hilarious “play in six takes,” CONTINUITY interrogates the role of storytelling in a world on the brink of actual environmental crisis.
Summer 2026 Productions
cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
May 7-16, 2026
Presented by Actors' Theatre - *Michigan Premiere*
Winner of 6 prestigious awards including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
It’s been 936 days since Flint has had clean water. Marion, a third generation General Motors employee, is consumed by layoffs at the engine plant. When her sister, Ainee, seeks justice and restitution for lead poisoning, her actions reveal the toxic entanglements between the city and its most powerful industry, forcing their family to confront the cost of survival. As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth? cullud wattah is a haunting, lyrical, and unflinching portrait of the strength, resilience, and generational power of Black women in the face of environmental and systemic injustice..
Games by Henry Naylor
June 11-21, 2026
Presented by Jewish Theatre
Games follows two Jewish German athletes, fencer Helene Mayer and high jumper Gretel Bergmann, as they pursue their Olympic dreams in 1930s Berlin. Inspired by true events, the play explores identity, ambition, and moral choice as both women face growing barriers to competition and belonging.
Spectrum Theater Information
Address
Spectrum Theater
160 Fountain St NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
*Located on the Main Campus of Grand Rapids Community College, Downtown Grand Rapids
Box Office Phone Number
Box Office Hours
Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Curtain for all productions
Evening Performances - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday Matinees - 3 p.m.
Ticket Prices
Vary - prices can be found on each theater company's Ludus page.
If any additional questions or rental inquiries regarding Spectrum Theater, please contact Jonathan Wheeler, Theater Manager, at (616) 234-3387 or send an email to jonathanwheeler@grcc.edu.