24-25 Season
Great Expectations and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Great Expectations
Adapted by Nikki Massoud
Directed by Devin Brain
The Acting Company reinvigorates Charles Dickens’ timeless novel with an effervescent stage adaptation brimming with unexpected hilarity and romantic heart. Great Expectations follows the harrowing journey of working-class orphan Pip as he navigates a challenging upbringing at the hands of his abusive sister, encounters an escaped prisoner, and meets the wealthy and eccentric Miss Havisham and her daughter Estella, a stunning, young heiress of ruthless intelligence. When Pip receives a sizable fortune from a mystery donor and enters the ranks of high-society London, his life is forever changed, learning hard truths about integrity, loyalty, and love. Akin to a bingeable dramedy carved with the beautiful prose that made Dickens popular, Nikki Massoud’s take on this uproarious, thrilling, and surprisingly relatable story will keep audiences of all ages on the edge of their seats.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Written by Williams Shakespeare
Directed by Risa Brainen
A rapturous, fresh take on one of William Shakespeare’s most popular and widely performed plays, The Acting Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a captivating, coming-of-age story that will surprise and delight! In this fast-paced, crowd-pleasing comedy, a pair of young lovers flee to an enchanted forest where a troupe of amateur actors rehearse a play. With the help of a mystical flower, the fairy king and queen’s mischievous servant Puck creates chaos for these unsuspecting humans, leading to mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and comical transformations. Bursting with mirth, music, magic, and mayhem, this uplifting tale of illusion and love comes to life with an electric cast of New York-based artists.
From the Artistic Director:
Kent Gash
The Acting Company is proud to announce the titles for our 2025-26 National Tour: NIKKI MASSOUD’S adaptation of Charles Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS (a World Premiere adaptation commissioned exclusively by and for The Acting Company) and William Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.
Nikki Massoud’s World Premiere adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is a swift, highly theatrical dramatization of Dickens’ epic tale of the orphan Pip, full to bursting with complex, rich characters from the convict Magwitch to the mercurial Estella, not-to-mention the unforgettable, mysterious, and possibly mad, Mrs. Haversham. With the fast-paced excitement of melodrama, complete with surprises and plot twists, and yet steeped in Dickens’ sharp observations of class distinctions - this is a story that has compelled readers for centuries! Great Expectations is a tale of human resilience and hope in the face of adversity, where humble virtue is elevated above snobbery and hate. It is a tale about a London of the past that is all too urgent, able to move and inspire us even today.
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the most popular “ROM-COM” of all time! This joyful high-spirited comedy is full of mischivious magic, mistaken identity, and uproarious hijinks, as four rebellious teenage lovers run away from home, only to end up having a wild and uproarious adventure entangling them with a Fairly King and Queen and a group of amateur actors preparing to perform for a Royal Wedding! Featuring Shakespeare’s glorious poetry and some of the most delightful romantic hilarity ever put on a stage, come be transported once again by this classic laugh filled romance about the timeless absurdity of love! LORD WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE!
Now more than ever, The Acting Company wants to lift hearts, spirits, and minds - delighting and engaging audiences all over the country. We can think of no better way to achieve this goal than with these two plays that revel in the absurd improbabilities of finding and sustaining love in a world both magical and cruel. These are stories that center Hope: kindness in the face of adversity and love defiant of all obstacles. Both GREAT EXPECTATIONS and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM are the Acting Company at its best! I hope you will all come and enjoy the show(s)!
See you at the theatre!
CREATIVE TEAM
Nikki Massoud (Playwright)
Great Expectations
Nikki is an Iranian-Canadian-American writer and performer based in New York City. Her work has been developed and produced through Bard at the Gate, The Lark, The Coop, CUNY, and a City Artist Corps Grant. She holds commissions from Atlantic Theater, The Acting Company, and Noor Theater. Her television work as a performer includes roles on Succession (HBO), Love Life (HBO Max), and Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon.) Her acting stage credits include Sanaz Toossi's WISH YOU WERE HERE at Playwrights Horizons and OTHELLO at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Sam Gold. Nikki has also acted regionally all over the country, including at The Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Berkeley Rep, and Huntington Theatre Company. Nikki is the Audie Award-winning narrator of over 50 audiobooks, currently available on Audible. She is a graduate of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Program, Georgetown University and BADA. “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
Devin Brain (Director)
Great Expectations
Devin is the Producing Director of The Acting Company, a national touring repertory company founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley. As a director, his work focuses on contemporary productions of classical texts, as well as original work. Select productions include: Othello, Julius Caesar, My Antonia (an adaptation of the Willa Cather novel), Macbeth, You / Emma (an adaptation of Madame Bovary), Exposure (an exploration of the life and work of Francesca Woodman), Bones in the Basket (an original adaptation of Russian Fairy Tales, Middletown by Will Eno, Breath of Kings (his adaptation of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V), Rose Mark’d (his adaptation of Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard III), Blacktop Sky by Christina Anderson, and The Droll {or, a play about the END of theatre} by Meg Miroshnik.
Risa Brainin (Director)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Risa Brainin is a freelance director and Founder/Artistic Director of the groundbreaking new play development program LAUNCH PAD at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Brainin served as Artistic Director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Associate Artistic Director for both Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre, and Resident Director at the Guthrie Theater. Other directorial credits include plays at American Players Theatre, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Clarence Brown Theatre, Commonweal Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Elements Theatre Collective, Ensemble Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, History Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Illusion Theatre, Kansas City Actors' Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Mixed Blood, New Harmony Project, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Playmakers Repertory Company, Portland Stage Company, Red Bull Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Skylight Theatre, Syracuse Stage and TheatreSquared. She directed the premiere of Bob Stromberg’s That Wonder Boy in Minneapolis and the United Solo Festival in NY (WINNER: United Solo Festival and Backstage Award, Best One Man Show and Best Direction - 2015) and Annie Torsiglieri's "A" Train also at the United Solo Festival in NY (WINNER: Best Production - 2017 and Best Encore - 2018).
TOUR RIDER
Coming Soon
Great Expectations Script
Coming Soon
EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
Coming Soon
MEET THE CAST
To be announced
TOUR STAFF
Now hiring, click Work with Us for details.
Tour Dates
To be announced
†Includes Student and School Group matinées
