The Civilians has revealed its 25th anniversary season. In addition to the world premiere of Anne Washburn’s The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, in a co-production with The Vineyard Theatre, The Civilians will welcome the newest members of its R&D Group, as well as its third round of commissions for The Next Forever, a one of a kind partnership with Princeton University’s High Meadows Environmental Institute and Lewis Center for the Arts that creates new stories for a changing planet.
Now entering its 16th season, The R&D Group is comprised of playwrights, composers, and directors who work together as a writing group for nine months to develop new plays and musicals. The season culminates in Findings, a works-in-progress reading series, anticipated to take place in June 2026. The artists were selected from a competitive application process that included nearly 200 submissions.
The members of The Civilians’ 2025-26 R&D Group are Jason Aguirre, Andromache Chalfant, HyoJeong Choi, Nazareth Hassan, Jesse Jae Hoon, Jeanine Oleson, and Adam J. Rineer.
Saved, Part 2: Thanksgiving is the second play in a two-part drama about the South Korean adoption industry, from its Cold War origins to its transformation into a lucrative business empire built by systemic fraud and negligence. Three epic stories spanning six decades across Oregon, Washington DC, Vermont, Seoul, and Jeju Island, SAVED explores what happens when we kill the parents and raise the children. Saved, Part 1: The Girl and the Sky introduces the origins of industrialized adoption – Thanksgiving dives into the consequences.