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Our Mainstage Season
Trenton Premieres
TrentonPREMIERES showcases mainstage performances, including new works and classic tales, never before seen in our city that speak directly to the heartbeat of the people of Trenton and the surrounding area.
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Season 41: Not Afraid marks a bold declaration of identity, resilience, and artistic ambition for Passage Theatre Company. In a time when the world feels adrift and institutions everywhere face uncertainty, Passage stands firm—not waiting to be rescued, but forging its own way forward. Season 41 draws its title and spirit from the song "Not Afraid” by The Suffers, echoing a defiant refusal to be silenced or sidelined. From the brink of closure just two years ago to a period of renewed growth and artistic vitality, Passage has emerged stronger than ever—expanding its community partnerships, rebranding its core programs, and deepening its commitment to Trenton’s most underrepresented voices. As always, Passage strives to make professional theatre accessible and relevant to the disenfranchised populations of Trenton and greater Mercer County, centering the stories, struggles, and triumphs of communities too often left out of the American stage.
Set on a subway car and later in a home under siege, Dutchman and The Slave are fused here into one searing journey — a single story of a man and a woman bound by history, desire, and rage. In Passage Theatre’s bold reimagining, Clay becomes Walker, and Lula becomes Grace — two faces of the same haunted relationship, spiraling from seduction to revolution.
In Dutchman, the train hurtles beneath New York City like a modern Flying Dutchman — a ghost vessel looping through America’s buried racial desires. In The Slave, that same energy explodes above ground, where love and ideology clash in the ruins of a burning nation. Written at the height of the Civil Rights era, these plays capture a mind and a country in transformation.
This production sees Baraka’s work not as two separate acts, but as one mythic voyage — through race, power, and identity — mirroring the artist’s own passage from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka. Dutchman / The Slave is not just an encounter; it is a reckoning — a descent and an awakening — into the undercurrents of American life.
In Muleheaded, or Zora and Langston Write a Play by David Robson, literary legends Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes team up to write a Broadway play—but artistic dreams give way to betrayal, ego, and heartbreak. Set during the Harlem Renaissance and inspired by true events, this sharp, soulful drama explores the fragility of friendship, the weight of ambition, and what happens when the dream is deferred.
Passage Theatre's Season 41 production of Muleheaded will mark the play's world premiere!
Subscriptions
We are now offering season subscriptions to our Trenton Premieres series that will grant you admission to both shows in our mainstage series and additional programming through the year.