Central Square Theater is offering Student Matinee performances for the 2025-26 Season. 

Contact Education Programs Manager Kevin Williams at kdw@centralsquaretheater.org to coordinate your visit to see these performances:

Silent Sky
Dates: Thursday, September 25 and Friday, October 3
Themes: Trailblazing Female Scientists, Sisterhood, Astronomical Discoveries
Recommended Ages: 10+ 

1900. Cambridge. Enthralled by the night sky, Henrietta Leavitt joins the Harvard Computers, a sisterhood of scientists who chronicle the stars. Despite dismissal from her male supervisors, she records her own observations of Cepheid stars and changes the way we look at the universe forever. Sarah Shin (The Chinese Lady) returns to direct what the San Francisco Chronicle calls “sheer magic,” by the author of past favorites The Half-Life of Marie Curie and Emilie La Marquise du Chatalet Defends Her Life Tonight, Lauren Gunderson.

Summer 1976
Dates: Friday, November 14 and Thursday, November 20
Themes: Alternative Family Dynamics, Unlikely Allies, Independence, A Small Moment’s Significance 
Recommended Ages: 13+

1976. An Ohio college town. The second wave of feminism is cresting. Two very different women are thrown together through a faculty babysitting co-op and an unlikely friendship forms between Diana, a fiercely iconoclastic artist, and Alice, a free-spirited yet naive young housewife. Written by Pulitzer winner David Auburn (Proof) with Paula Plum making her CST directorial debut, Alice and Diana bring us directly into their memories and the small moments that change the course of their lives in this funny and poignant play The New York Times praises as “sharply observant…subtly, insistently feminist.”

Breaking the Code
Dates: Friday, April 10 and Thursday, April 16
Themes: World War II Scientists, Criminalization of Queerness, Legacies
Recommended Ages: 13+

Alan Turing was hailed by Winston Churchill as having made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany for breaking the Enigma code. By 1952 the eccentric British mathematician’s security clearance was revoked and he was barred from British intelligence work after being convicted for “gross indecency” – homosexual acts. Breaking the Code is Turing’s pioneering story of scientific achievement – the father of the computer and artificial intelligence. Eddie Shields (Angels in America) is Turing in a new production helmed by Elliot Norton winner Scott Edmiston (Constellations).

Youth Underground Festival 2026: Youth Mental Health
Dates: Friday, May 8
Recommended Ages: 13+

Central Square Theater’s resident youth ensemble, Youth Underground (YU), creates and performs original theater that explores social issues relevant to young people. Each year, the ensemble selects a specific social issue they are passionate about and devises original plays based on their personal experiences and community interviews. This upcoming May, YU will host a weekend-long event featuring performances, workshops, and community conversations centered around Youth Mental Health. Join us for the opening kick off matinee performance!

The Mystery of Irma Vep
Dates: Friday, June 5 and Thursday, June 11
Genre/Style: Two-Actor Show, Absurd, Gender Fluidity, Parody
Recommended Ages: 13+

An English estate is haunted by its former mistress who has recently passed… or, has she? Two actors wear a caboodle of wigs, perform umpteen lightning-speed costume changes, and create a fantastical cast of characters including a sympathetic werewolf, a vampire, and a mummy. Elliot Norton winning director David R. Gammons (Vanity Fair, Frankenstein) reunites with fellow award-winner Paul Melendy (Vanity Fair) in this camp spoof of Gothic melodramas. Written by Charles Ludlam, the creator of New York’s subversive and iconoclastic Ridiculous Theatrical Company, The New York Times praised The Mystery of Irma Vep as “Far and away the funniest two hours on a New York stage!”

 

All student matinee performances begin at 10 am. Pricing is $20 per student, with chaperones free (1 for every 10 students). If this cost would be a financial burden for your group, please let us know what might be feasible, and we can discuss it further.

Admission includes:

• FREE admission for chaperones. 1 chaperone for every 10 students requested.
• Digital PERFORMANCE GUIDE to help you prepare and reflect with your students
• Post-performance conversation with members of the cast
• Pre-show and post-show in-school workshops can be arranged for an additional fee

To make a ticket reservation contact:
Kevin Williams, Education Programs Manager
kdw@centralsquaretheater.org