Lunch Time Theater

Dear Lunch Time Theater Patrons,

We are thrilled to welcome you to the 2026–2027 season of Lunch Time Theater at the Herberger Theater Center. This season brings a rich collection of new works, inventive storytelling, and unforgettable performances created in partnership with dynamic local theater companies and visionary artists. From joyous musical celebrations and deep historical reflections to surreal personal journeys and mesmerizing physical theater, our lineup offers something truly special for every theater lover during your midday escape.

Here is what we have in store for you this upcoming season:

• Season’s Greetings is a very merry tribute to the most wonderful time of the year.
• Unforgettable: The Nat King Cole Story is an intimate musical journey through the life, legacy,  and enduring influence of legendary performer Nat King Cole.
• Yellow follows a woman confined to a yellow bedroom, where her inner world slowly overtakes the one around her.
• The Last Holdouts is a one-act drama set in 1968 about a Hollywood movie filmed on the Gila River Indian Reservation.
• After the Dog is a darkly tender and surreal meditation on grief, human connection, and what remains when the companion we love most is gone.
• A Juneteenth Jubilee is the latest iteration of New Carpa Theater Co’s Word-Music performance platform.

Enjoy the show!
Cescily Washington-Wiener M.Ed.
Director of HTC Community Engagement

Season’s Greetings | November 30 – December 17, 2026

Act Two Productions | T.A. Burrows

Genre: Holiday Musical Revue

Summary
The holiday season is a time of reflection, a time to share with family and friends, and a time filled with great music and memories. Season’s Greetings captures the spirit of that season. This celebration stars award-winning entertainer T.A. Burrows, who performs holiday favorites that will have you singing along. Between songs, T.A. keeps things lively with humorous anecdotes. With memorable songs and lots of laughs, Season’s Greetings is a very merry tribute to the most wonderful time of the year!

Ticket link available soon.

Unforgettable: The Nat King Cole Story | February 15 – February 25, 2027

Order Chaos Theater Company | Directed by Maybe Stewart

Genre: Biographical Musical

Summary
Unforgettable: The Nat King Cole Story is an intimate musical journey through the life, legacy, and enduring influence of legendary performer Nat King Cole. Fictionally told through the perspective of someone whose life was deeply connected to his, the story explores his humble beginnings, rise to stardom, and perseverance through the barriers of his time. Featuring timeless songs and deeply personal reflection, this moving celebration of music, love, resilience, and remembrance reveals a legacy that continues to inspire– and a voice that remains truly unforgettable.

Ticket link available soon.

Yellow | March 1 – March 11, 2027

Movement Chaos | Directed and choreographed by Nicole Olson

Genre: Immersive Theater Adaptation

Summary
Step inside a world where reality begins to fray. Inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, this immersive dance and physical theatre performance follows a woman confined to a yellow bedroom, where her inner world slowly overtakes the one around her. As the walls close in, a powerful struggle emerges between freedom, identity, desire, and the expectations society imposes upon us. Come experience the unraveling and discover what happens when the mind refuses to remain confined.

Ticket link available soon.

The Last Holdouts | May 3 – March 13, 2027

Mile 213 Productions | Directed by Claude Jackson Jr.

Genre: Historical Drama

Summary
The Last Holdouts is a one-act drama set in 1968, when a hard-driving Hollywood director recruits a Native actor and his family to star in his latest Western, filmed on the Gila River Indian Reservation. As decades-old tensions resurface on set, the play explores authenticity, representation, and generational change in the film industry, seen through the eyes of a father determined to preserve his people’s dignity and a daughter determined to tell her own story.

Ticket link available soon.

After the Dog | May 17 – May 27, 2027

Ronin Theatre Collaborative | Directed by Cody Goulder (Artistic Director) and John Perovich (Playwright in Residence)

Genre: Family Drama – Magical Realism

Summary
Every day, Dan sits alone in a park with a box containing the ashes of his beloved dog. Every day, Carol eats lunch in the same park. As she watches Dan carry his grief with him, she begins to wonder about his sadness– and why she seems unable to feel much of anything at all.

When their lives unexpectedly intersect, Dan and Carol are forced to confront the complicated relationship between grief and love, emotional connection and numbness, and he things we carry with us after loss.

After the Dog is a darkly tender and surreal meditation on grief, human connection, and what remains when the person, or companion, we love most is gone.

Ticket link available soon.

A Juneteenth Jubilee | June 14 – June 24, 2027

Summary
A Juneteenth Jubilee is the latest iteration of New Carpa Theater Co.’s Word-Music performance platform, featuring live multimedia stage presentations in a blend of music poetry, spoken word, comedy, song, dance, and theater. In this production, we deliver a range of creative perspectives on the history and legacy of Juneteenth from around the state and across the nation. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announced to enslaved “Negros” that President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier that declared they were all free.

Ticket link available soon.