2025–26 Prior Presents Season
Bestselling authors. Genre-bending chamber ensembles. Rising stars of contemporary dance.
The internationally acclaimed artists of the 2025–26 Prior Presents Season embody our vision for artist residencies at The Prior Performing Arts Center. Defined by exceptional artistic quality, interdisciplinary impulses, and the potential to spark both wonder and reflection, this annual series celebrates artistic risk-taking and the exchange of ideas and perspectives from around the globe.
Tickets on sale this summer. Read below for a short preview of each confirmed presentation.
Be Inspired This Season
September 16, 2025 | Luth Concert Hall
MacArthur Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), was a New York Times Bestseller and longlisted for the National Book Award in nonfiction. His 2021 book, A Little Devil In America: Notes on Black Performance, placed as a finalist for the National Book Award.
September 25, 2025 | Boroughs Theatre
A new program from the Papermoon Puppet Theatre Company of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, PUNO: Letters To The Sky tells the story of Tala, a young girl coping with her father’s passing, through a poignant performance with enigmatic, modernist puppets.
November 14, 2025 | Luth Concert Hall
A potent symbol of unity in diversity, the American Patchwork Quartet draws influences from American folk, jazz and country as well as West African and East Asian styles to blend tradition and innovation in a celebration of America’s cultural mosaic. A co-production with historic local arts presenter Music Worcester.
November 21, 2025 | Luth Concert Hall
Rooted in the rhythms of Senegal and Mali, Djapo combines traditional West African dance with contemporary African club culture, Afrobeats, and live percussion shaped through the intergenerational collaboration of celebrated dance artists and mother/son duo Marie Basse-Wiles and Omar Wiles.
February 20, 2026 | Luth Concert Hall
Acclaimed choreographer Caleb Teicher brings the best of the swing dance world to The Prior, with live music by the Eyal Vilner Big Band. Conceived by Caleb Teicher alongside collaborators Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, Nathan Bugh, Macy Sullivan, and Eyal Vilner, SW!NG OUT features exciting Lindy Hop choreography and improvisation. Each performance concludes with an on-stage jam session, inviting audiences to join in the fun!
March 12, 2026 | Luth Concert Hall
Composer, drummer and dhol player Sunny Jain celebrates cultural diaspora and the interconnectedness of global styles with his band in Wild Wild East, a raucous, powerful, and jubilant recognition of a truly American spirit.
