Ridgedale Players’ 2025–2026 Season: Community Theatre with Audacity and Heart
Some seasons settle for predictions. Ridgedale Players’ 2025–2026 lineup instead challenges expectations—inviting audiences into a dynamic blend of grit, joy, and uncompromising honesty. It’s not just a season; it’s a manifesto: community theatre refusing to be quaint.
Spring Awakening
Dates: August 1-17
Ridgedale launches with a visceral jolt: Spring Awakening. Winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, it’s been called “the most gorgeous Broadway score this decade” by Entertainment Weekly. Set in 1891 Germany, it explores adolescence through aching beauty, sexual awakening, and tragic missteps. Think youthful longing colliding with oppressive structures—and a community stage daring to hold both the ache and the intensity. This is theatre that refuses to soften puberty’s chaos. This is theatre that dares.
Beetlejuice Jr.
Dates: October 17-26
From raw adolescence to wild, macabre satire— Beetlejuice Jr. pulls us into the delightful dread of the Netherworld, reimagining the cult classic as high-spirited musical mayhem. Staged by Ridgedale’s Junior Actors, it’s a tribute to the bizarre, the emotional, and the downright hilarious. When a ghost with the most invades a grieving family’s new home, chaos and teenage rebel energy reign supreme. This isn’t just nostalgia—it’s embracing that weird, wonderful urgency of adolescence, onstage.
It’s a Wonderful Life (Radio Play)
Dates: December 5-21
Just in time for winter, Ridgedale reclaims a holiday staple—but not as you know it. As a vintage 1940s-style radio broadcast, this adaptation features a nimble ensemble that juggles dozens of characters live. In this version, George Bailey’s despair meets hope in real time, performed as if through crackling airwaves. It’s nostalgia with intention—nostalgia that remembers humanity’s fragility, and how life’s worth can feel precariously deferred.
Anatomy of a Murder
Dates: January 16- February 1, 2026
Sharpened wit meets courtroom tension in this edgy mid-season pivot. A disgraced district attorney turned defense lawyer navigates a sensational trial—it’s his moment to rise again, defending a lieutenant accused of murdering his wife’s alleged rapist. This is community theatre taking on moral complexity: legal sleight-of-hand, ethical quagmires, and a society still searching for justice. No sugar coating—just sharp human dilemmas playing out under stage lights.
Finding Nemo Jr.
Dates: March 23-22, 2026
Shifting tone again—this time toward tender adventure—with Ridgedale’s Junior Actors breathing life into Pixar’s beloved tale. This underwater quest remains more than a childhood memory: Marlin’s overprotectiveness, Nemo’s rebellion, and Dory’s boundless optimism earn renewed resonance. With songs like “Just Keep Swimming,” this production pivots from tension to heart, reminding us that community theatre can be both an emotional ballast and a joyous release.
Drinking Habits
Dates: April 17- May 3, 2026
Modern melodrama collides with convent chaos in this saucy farce. Two nuns secretly brew wine to keep the convent alive—but their clandestine operation spirals when two undercover journalists (and ex-fiancés) enter disguised. Mistaken identities, romance rekindled, and spilling secrets—this is nimble, playful theatre that bubbles with laughter and unexpected tenderness. It’s Ridgedale reminding us that comedy’s sharpness can bleed into sincerity.
Head Over Heels (School Edition)
Dates: June 11-14, 2026
The finale arrives electrified—a high-energy, teen-driven musical set to the Go-Go’s iconic 1980s hits. Ridgedale’s Teen Actors tackle Head Over Heels, a bold, inclusive romp about royal disaster and queer joy. Laced with “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” and “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” this production surges with the promise that identity, love, and theatrical joy can—and should—be defiant, joyful, and loud.
Smart, community-centered access at Ridgedale Players
Ridgedale is smart about access: adult tickets are $22 for musicals, $20 for non-musicals (senior pricing available). Season packages—covering five shows—offer community-savvy pricing: $74 for adults, $66 for seniors/students. In other words: discounted, diverse, and designed to invite you in.
Final thoughts on Ridgedale’s 2025-2026 season
Ridgedale Players’ 2025–2026 season isn’t content to coast on charm. It’s kinetic, courageous, and crafted for viewers who want to feel—laugh, ache, question, and celebrate. From anguished youth to courtroom fraught with moral knots, from high seas to convents to pop-rock rebellion, this is local theatre daring to be profound, playful, and powerful.
If you’re ready to ditch the spectator seat and commit to a season that challenges as much as it entertains—grab those tickets. Community theatre here isn’t just staging shows—it’s staging a statement about what we need theatre to be.
Check out Ridgedale Players for more information about their season and to grab those season and individual tickets! Let us know @BoxSeatBabes on all social media platforms which show from this theater’s season you’re looking forward to the most!
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