Arts & Entertainment

Shakespeare 2026 Season

The Long Beach Shakespeare Company and Artistic Director Holly Leveque announced LBSC’s 2026 season, The Stuff of Legends. The season will include five fully staged dramatic productions, five old-style radio shows, and two special series – all celebrating legends of history and drama and characters and creators that are, says Leveque, “too big to fade and too iconic to be forgotten.”

“Legends aren’t just remembered,” she adds, “at the Long Beach Shakespeare Company they are relived. They’ve stood the tests of time, now to speak to us in the present, offering future expectations born from their storied pasts.”

LBSC’s first two productions of the season could not be more iconic. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is the essence of legend: a story of ambition, betrayal, and loyalty that echoes throughout the ages. Caesar’s name is synonymous with power itself. Equally indelible, Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra depict a larger-than-life love affair, “a relationship so intoxicating, so reckless that it defies politics, duty, and empire, to become the stuff of legend” explains Leveque.

For summertime fun, LBSC brings to the stage the wittier side of legend, beginning with a fully staged production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde’s sparkling comedy of manners earns its immortality through dazzling language and laughter that never fades.

Next up is Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, a sweeping tale of wit, valor, and unrequited love. Cyrano reminds us, says Leveque, “that the truest measure of a legend lies not in outward appearance, but in the impact of words and the nobility (or ignobility) of the soul.”

LBSC’s final fully staged production of 2026 will be a special holiday adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. Join us as we awaken the magic of the season, where winter’s slumber gives way to enchanted wonders – the kiss of hope, the gift of love, the joy of the holidays. What seems like an ending might also be a fabled beginning.

The coming season’s five old-time radio-style productions will reanimate time-honored treasures with live actors, sound effects, and original music. Charlotte’s Web, based on the beloved novel by E.B. White will show in April. Charlotte and Wilbur remind us that the ordinary can become extraordinary with simple acts of courage, compassion, and creativity.

October will be spooky season, of course, with iconic works from the darker side of the dial: Edgar Allan Poe, Frankenstein, and War of the Worlds. Finally, the year will wrap with A Christmas Carol, a classical delight for the whole family.

LBSC’s expanded New Works Festival will run one weekend each in May, June and September. This is your chance to witness the birth of future legends of the theatre. What’s more, says Leveque, “by championing new work, we honor the legacy of theatre arts: a living, evolving form where today’s creations become tomorrow’s unforgettable stories.”

The first weekend in October, the 2026 Poetry Series will offer more first-look opportunities – and a variety of activities – as LBSC honors the delights of verse, the Bard, and its poetry-loving founder, Helen Borgers.

Founded in 1990, LBSC is the only full-time classical theater company in Long Beach. Its mission is both pro-literacy and pro-community. “Join us in 2026,” says Leveque, “as we bring legends of theater, history, prose, and poetry to our stage, honoring the unforgettable stories and voices that shape and inform our lives and communities now and in the future.”

A Christmas Carol – Radio

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the world’s most beloved works of literature. This timeless fable of greed, redemption, and the true spirit of the holiday season chronicling Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey from cold-hearted miser to compassionate benefactor.

Guided by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, this story has touched audiences for nearly two centuries. Enjoy the only radio show A Christmas Carol in town with your family and friends!

Directed by Joe Montanari and produced by Holly Leveque, performances run at the Helen Borgers Theatre, 4250 Atlantic Avenue, on Friday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.lbshakespeare.org.