An all-too-timely satire about vaccine skepticism and a new revival of a Samuel Beckett classic will be part of the Coal Mine Theatre’s 2025-26 season.
The four-show lineup, announced Wednesday by artistic director Ted Dykstra, marks the indie company’s 11th season. It will run from September 2025 to May 2026.
Dykstra, who co-founded the theatre in 2014, said the upcoming productions all revolve around the theme of helplessness. “This season is about living in a world in which you feel you don’t have control,” he said in a phone interview, ahead of the announcement. “Each show is about feeling frustrated and a bit lost. And I think that couldn’t be more apropos than the way people are feeling today.”
Dykstra will star in Coal Mine’s first show of the season, a revival of “Waiting for Godot,” Beckett’s absurdist and existential tragicomedy about two friends awaiting the arrival of the play’s mysterious title character. He will play Estragon opposite Alexander Thomas’s Vladimir. The cast will also include Shaw Festival alum Jim Mezon as Pozzo, Simon Bracken as Lucky and Kole Parks as The Boy.
Running from Sept. 14 to Oct. 5, the production will be directed by Kelli Fox, who previously helmed the Pulitzer-winning play “Between Riverside and Crazy” at Coal Mine. It will mark Dykstra’s first time on stage with his company in more than six years. “I’d be on the stage all the time if somebody asked me. But nobody asks me. So, I have to cast myself,” he said with a chuckle. “I love acting, but I don’t want to be seen as someone who takes all the good parts for himself. So, I’m choosy and careful about what I do.”
Later in the fall, Dykstra will turn his attention from acting to directing, as he leads the Canadian premiere of “Fulfillment Centre,” set to run from Nov. 16 to Dec. 7. Abe Koogler’s play, which premiered off-Broadway in 2017, follows four lonely people who are looking for purpose in an ever-disconnected world. The production’s cast will feature Dora-winning actor Kristen Thomson, alongside Evan Buliung, Emilio Vieira and Gita Miller.
Next up, running from Feb. 1 to 22, 2026, will be Jonathan Spector’s “Eureka Day,” a provocative comedy set in a school that’s grappling vaccine skepticism amid an outbreak of mumps. The play, which premiered in California in 2018, was recently on Broadway and won the 2025 Tony Award for best revival of a play. Mitchell Cushman will direct this new production at Coal Mine, which will star Kevin Bundy, Sophia Walker and Broadway veteran Jake Epstein.
Coal Mine’s 2025-26 season will conclude with “Dance Nation,” running from April 12 to May 3, 2026. Clare Barron’s coming-of-age play, a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, explores themes of ambition and friendship from the perspective of a group of preteen competitive dancers looking to fight their way onto the national stage. Coal Mine co-founder Diana Bentley, who stepped down as co-artistic director last year, will return to direct the show, which will feature Katherine Cullen, Amy Keating, Amy Lujan, Zorana Sadiq and Salvatore Antonio.
“It’s a fantastic script. It’s hilarious and moving, and it’s a showcase for everybody in it,” said Dykstra.
This Toronto professional premiere has been several years in the making. “Dance Nation” was originally programmed in Crow’s Theatre’s 2020-21 season, but was cancelled and never rescheduled due to the pandemic. Coal Mine’s presentation, co-produced by Outside the March, a company specializing in immersive shows, will be led by a different creative team, including contemporary choreographer Alyssa Martin. The upcoming production, said Dykstra, will play out across two floors of Coal Mine’s building.
