Buffalo Theater: WNY’s stages light up beyond Main Street

(Image above: Adapted from fair use photograph by https://flickr.com/photos/sniegowski/)

With the Curtain Up! spotlight on the offerings by the bigger and brighter neon theater companies, the Buffalo dramatic arts scene has an “Off-Main Street” theater scene that provides diverse, lesser-known plays and works from local playwrights for those seeking something outside the box. 

Matthew Lachiusa, who is helping The Buffalo Hive shape its theater coverage, has provided a guide to some of those theaters and shows. (For transparency, it should be noted that Lachiusa is the founder and director of American Repertory Theater of WNY, one of the theaters featured.)

These companies also make access to theater with affordable ticket pricing that makes a date-night and dinner an option without having to take out a second mortgage. And although the adage of “you get what you pay for” is a reflex gag for some, these companies excel in theatrical quality and delivery on par with their bigger and brighter peers at half the cost. 

Here are a list of “Off-Main” theaters and their 2026-27 season:

Buffalo United Artists: BUA was started in 1992 by Javier Bustillos, the company’s executive producer. BUA’s first production was “A…My Name Is Alice,” which became the most performed (over 120 performances), widely attended and popular theatrical production in the history of Buffalo theater. Current artistic directors are Rick Lattimer and Mike Dobin. Location: The Compass Performing Arts Factory, 545 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo 14221. Website: https://buffalounitedartists.org/

• Sept. 11  through Sept. 28: “Gulp: The Gay Musical” – Book by John Glines & Stephan Greco; Music by Glines; Lyrics Glines & Robin Jones. Directed by Vinny Murphy. Music Direction by Lucas Colon and Nikki Fae Dahlen. Described as “A closeted lifeguard whose life is saved by five unabashedly eccentric characters have their drives, dreams, pasts and futures collide in a riot of coincidences, filled with music, romance and off-the-wall humor.” 

• April 2027 – Showdates TBA – “From Demark with Love” by John J. King. Directed by Drew McCabe. Described as “Shaken or Stirred … that is the question in this mash-up of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ and James Bond.”

American Repertory Theater of WNY: Founded in 2007 by Matthew LaChiusa, the company is dedicated to the artistic mission of producing classic and contemporary American and regional playwrights. Location: The Compass Performing Arts Factory, 545 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo 14221. Website: https://www.artofwny.org/

• Oct. 15 through Oct. 31: “Tobacco Road” by Jack Kirkland Directed by Matthew LaChiusa. Described as “Erskin Caldwall’s dark comedy novel finds life through Jack Kirkland’s stage adaptation of the self-inflicted trials and tribulations of the Lester family in 1930s rural Georgia. Levity and sensuality meets austerity and delusion in the struggles facing this family as the hopes and aspiration of a new world let go of an old one. This is an intense Americana story that joins the 21th-Century list of ‘The Fables of The Deconstruction.'” 

• April 8 to May 1, 2027: “Die Dreigroschen Rockoper” – Adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera.” Translation and direction by Matthew LaChiusa. Music Directed Billy Horn Altamirano. Described as “A tricked out completely revised production of Brecht’s “Three Penny Opera,” into a wild-ass revised story and a modern power-punk-pop musical. This is not your Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” swinging, feel good time version cleaned up for your Aunt Nancy and the Disneyites. This is a raw and timely production that is needed in times like these.” 

Bellissima Productions: Bellissima Productions was founded in 2018 and is led by Artistic Director Nicolette Navarro. The company is a home for passionate, collaborative artists and seeks to educate members towards self-exploration involving all diverse talents and abilities as well as engage and challenge audiences with unique, dynamic theatrical productions by bringing new voices to the forefront. Location: Katherine Cornell Theater, Buffalo State Campus. Website: https://bellissimaproductions.com/

• Jan. 8 to Jan. 24, 2027: “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” – By Dave Malloy. Described as an “electropop opera created by Dave Malloy that adapts a 70-page segment of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace.”

• May 7 through May 23, 2027: “Assassins” – By Stephan Sondheim.  Described as “Sondheim’s signature blend of intelligently stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic story of our nation’s culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it, embodied by America’s four successful and five would-be presidential assassins. Bold, original, disturbing and alarmingly funny, ‘Assassins’ is perhaps the most controversial musical ever written.” 

• July 9 to July 25, 2027: “Dear Evan Hansen” – Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Described as “seventeen-year-old Evan Hansen has felt invisible his entire life. But when a tragedy shocks his community and thrusts him into the center of a rapidly evolving controversy, Evan is given the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to be somebody else.” 

First Look Buffalo: Founded in 2020 by Bob Rusch and John Patrick Patti, the company is dedicated to the development and production of new plays, and the focus is to develop new plays from creation to execution via staged readings, workshops and mainstage productions. Location: Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center, 705 Renaissance Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221. Website: https://www.firstlookbuffalo.com/

• Oct. 3-Oct. 11: New Play Reading Festival – 11 plays in staged reading presentation by local and national playwrights. Two plays will be selected for the company’s 2027-2028 Season. 

• Jan. 22 to Feb. 3, 2027: “Squatch” by Geff Goode.  From the author of “Fursona Non Grata.” Goode writes of “A lifelong Bigfoot Hunter (who) seeks retribution against the urban legend who destroyed his childhood. An amateur genealogist and his adopted daughter clash over his obsession with finding her birth parents. If they weren’t all trapped a forest fire, it might almost be funny. But their fateful quests have led them to seek refuge at a remote, Sasquatch-themed roadside diner that may hold answers for none of them.  And death for them all. And, oh yeah … there’s also a 7-foot hairy fellow in a hoody and sweatpants, who’s a regular customer at the diner and who really loves their burgers…when he has enough change.”

• April 2 to April 18, 2027: “The Lazarus Club” by Donna Hoke. Described as “Charlotte has a lot of feelings about dying alone. Mostly, she’d like to not do it again. So, after a lightning strike sends her briefly to the other side—where, inexplicably, the soundtrack is Dolly Parton—she recruits a ragtag group of Near-Death Experiencers to compare notes. What follows is equal parts support group, existential crisis and doughnut intervention in this dark comedy about the one thing nobody survives — unless they do.”

Post-Industrial Productions: Founded in 2011 by Robert Van Valin to bring socially-relevant theatrical works to young and diverse audiences that had traditionally been underserved by the Buffalo theatre community. By forming strategic partnerships with other non-profit organizations, PIP raises awareness of important social issues and advocates for change using the universal language of theatre. Location: Area 54 at Cafe @ Amy’s: 3234 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214; Website: https://piptheatre.com/

• Nov. 17: First Draught – Play reading series: “Dear Students” by Anne Valentino 

Ujima Theatre Company: Founded in 1978 by Lorna C. Hill, who served as artistic director until her passing in 2020. Six seasons later, headed by Curtis Lovell, the company still excels in “seeking to broaden our scope and dig deeper into the constructs that make the Black American experience complicated and beautiful.” Location: 429 Plymouth Ave., Suite 2, Buffalo, NY, 14213 Website: cchttps://www.ujimacoinc.org/

• Sept. 17 to Sept. 27: “Juicy and Delicious” by Lucy Alibar. Directed by Curtis Lovell. Described as “an epic chronicle of one boy’s journey to self-discovery. Tender, funny, and heartbreaking, the play weaves a beautiful tale of loss, survival, and self-discovery.”
• Nov. 12 to Nov. 22: “Where We Stand” by Donnetta Lavinia Grays. Directed by Curtis Lovell. Described as “in a town running low on compassion, an exile seeks forgiveness, forcing the community to decide between mercy or justice. A storyteller spins a tale of a lonely soul tempted by the devil’s kindness on a fateful trip to the crossroads.”

• March 5 to March 14, 2027: “Unfinished Women Cry in No Man’s Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage” by Aishah Rahman. Directed by Tiago Simpson. Described as a work that “deals with the events in a home for unwed mothers on the last day of jazz musician Charlie Parker’s life, March 12, 1955. The play digs beyond statistics and sociological theories to find the unarticulated, half-understood longings of teenage mothers.”

• May 20 to May 30, 2027: “Hang Time” by Zora Howard. Directed by Annette Daniels Taylor. Described “as a searing tale about an exploration of intergenerational bonds among three brothers, and invites the viewer to envisage the living Black body triumphant over the legacy of violence that it holds, as they chew the fat under an old, wide tree.”

Unique Theatre Company: Co-founded in 2014 by Beth Geyer, the company specializes in providing opportunities and offers a platform for individuals of all abilities to engage in theater, fostering creativity and collaboration among actors, directors, and crew members. The organization emphasizes inclusivity and understanding, ensuring that everyone receives the necessary support to succeed in their theatrical endeavors. Location: The Compass Performing Arts Factory, Buffalo 14221; Website: https://www.uniquetheatre.org/

• Nov. 11 to Nov. 21: “Olivia the Bully” by Engelic Everett. Directed by Robert Insana. Described as the staged adaptation of the children’s book, a fun and silly look at the Bully, Olivia and her “usual antics on cell phone use in the classroom, detention time, and of course that famous flying meatball food fight.”

Jewish Repertory Theatre: The one theater we’re featuring outside of the City of Buffalo, Jewish Rep was founded by David Bunis and the late Saul Elkin in 2002 to “to present high-quality plays grounded in Jewish life, themes, and values.” Their plays are performed in the Maxine and Robert Seller Theatre in the Benderson Family Building, 2640 North Forest Road, Amherst, 14068. Website: https://www.jccbuffalo.org/jewish-repertory-theatre/

• Oct. 29-Nov. 22: “The Last Yiddish Speaker by Deborah Zoe Laufer. Directed by Kyle LoConti. The play is described as “a suspenseful and unexpectedly funny play about identity, resistance, and cultural survival.”
  
• Feb 4-Feb. 28, 2027: “The Soap Myth” by Jeff Cohen. Directed by David Lundy. Described as a “powerful and thought-provoking drama that examines the search for historical truth and the profound responsibility of preserving memory.”
  
• May 6-May 30, 2027,: “Church and State” by Jason Odell Williams. Directed by Steve Vaughn. Described as “a compelling and timely drama that explores the intersection of faith, politics, and personal conviction in the face of unimaginable tragedy.”