THE STAGE LAUNCHES 2026/27 SEASON WITH BESS WOHL’S BARCELONA
BAY AREA PREMIERE STARRING ADRIA SWAN AND JOHNNY MORENO
WRITTEN BY TONY AWARD– AND PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING PLAYWRIGHT BESS WOHL
DIRECTED BY RANDALL KING
PREVIEWS BEGIN SEPTEMBER 23 – PRESS OPENING SEPTEMBER 26
SAN JOSÉ, CA (September 1, 2026) – San Jose Stage Company (The Stage) launches its 2026/27 season with the Bay Area premiere of Barcelona by Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Bess Wohl. Directed by Artistic Director Randall King. The production features Adria Swan as Irene and Johnny Moreno as Manuel, and runs September 23 through October 18, 2026, with press opening Saturday, September 26.
After midnight in Barcelona, American tourist Irene meets a magnetic Spanish stranger named Manuel. What begins as a very good bad idea, curdles into a game of cat and mouse where the two swing between mutual destruction and awkward, unexpected moments of grace.
Funny, sensual and full of sharp turns, Barcelona is a charged encounter between two people looking for an escape who find themselves drawn into something deeper and harder to walk away from.
“Barcelona exposes our assumptions, what we project onto strangers, and how much of that reflects our own desires and fears,” says director Randall King. “Irene and Manuel retreat into a world of their own until that fantasy begins to unravel. With only two people onstage, there’s nowhere to hide. Every glance, hesitation and shift in power matters. It’s provocative, witty and surprising.”
The creative team includes Randall King (Director), Bridgette Loriaux (Movement Director), Iliana Karbowski (Resident Stage Manager), Robert Pickering (Scenic Design), Abra Berman(Costume Design), Maurice Vercoutere (Lighting Design), Steve Schoenbeck (Sound Design), Erik Scanlon (Video Design), and Leyla Carleo (Props Coordinator).
The Stage is no stranger to Bess Wohl’s work, previously presenting the regional premiere of Wohl’s Grand Horizons in 2023, and earning the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Excellence in Theatre Award for Entire Production – South Peninsula. The company returns to Wohl following a landmark year for the playwright, with Liberation receiving both the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2026 Tony Award for Best Play.
“The playwright stays one step ahead of theatergoers—not to trick them, but to hold out for deeper truth.” — Los Angeles Times
BARCELONA
Written by Bess Wohl
Directed by Randall King
Bay Area Premiere
Previews: September 23–25, 2026
Press Opening: September 26, 2026
Closing: October 18, 2026
CAST
Adria Swan as Irene
Johnny Moreno as Manuel
CREATIVE TEAM
Director Randall King, Movement Director Bridgette Loriaux, Resident Stage Manager Iliana Karbowski, Scenic Designer Robert Pickering, Costume Designer Abra Berman, Lighting Designer Maurice Vercoutere, Sound Designer Steve Schoenbeck, Video Designer Erik Scanlon, Props Coordinator Leyla Carleo.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Wednesday & Thursday — 7:00 p.m.
Friday — 8:00 p.m.
Saturday — 2:00 & 8:00 p.m.
Sunday — 2:00 p.m.
LOCATION
San Jose Stage Company
490 S. 1st Street
Downtown San José
TICKET INFORMATION
Subscriptions and single tickets are available online at thestage.org.
Contact the Box Office at (408) 283-7142 or boxoffice@thestage.org.
PRESS PHOTOS
Production images, headshots and photo credits are available upon request.
Please contact press@thestage.org for access.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BESS WOHL (Playwright) is a Tony Award– and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and filmmaker whose work has been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Her play Liberation received the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2026 Tony Award for Best Play. Her plays include Grand Horizons, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play; Small Mouth Sounds; Camp Siegfried; Make Believe; Continuity; American Hero; Barcelona; Touched; In; Cats Talk Back; and the musical Pretty Filthy. Wohl made her feature-film writing and directing debut with Baby Ruby, starring Noémie Merlant and Kit Harington, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Her television credits include the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations.
RANDALL KING (Director) is the Artistic Director and co-founder of San José Stage Company. Select directing credits include Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal (West Coast Premiere), Million Dollar Quartet, Chicago, Hand to God, RFK, Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile (three-month extended run), Cumberland Blues (World Premiere), featuring the music and lyrics of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter and later transferring to San Francisco. Select acting credits:An Enemy of the People, August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Death of a Salesman, Red, The Pillowman, Fool for Love, True West, Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, Race, and Glengarry Glen Ross. Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Eureka Theatre Company, San José Repertory Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, Alaska Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage Company, and Capital Stage. Select film credits: The Rainmaker (dir. Francis Ford Coppola), Mumford (dir. Lawrence Kasdan) and The Rock (dir. Michael Bay). King’s work with The Stage has also included the development of new plays, world premieres and international commissions.
BRIDGETTE LORIAUX (Movement Director) is a director, choreographer, movement director and performer whose credits include movement direction for Dracula and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at San Francisco Playhouse and direction and choreography for M. Butterfly, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She spent four seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and performed Off-Broadway and on the international tour of De La Guarda, as well as with Fuerza Bruta. Her original work, 2 ½ BREATHS, which she wrote, directed and choreographed, premiered Off-Broadway in 2022.
ADRIA SWAN (Irene) returns to San José Stage Company, where she previously appeared in Sweet Charity. Her Bay Area credits include productions with San Francisco Playhouse, Panto in the Presidio, Presidio Theatre, Jewel Theatre Company and Center REP. Recent credits include the New York run of the San Francisco-based queer cabaret Sex, Camp, Rock n Roll and performing at Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Choral Society.
JOHNNY MORENO* (Manuel) is Associate Artistic Director of San José Stage Company and a longtime member of The Stage artistic community. His credits with The Stage include The Lehman Trilogy, Ayad Akhtar’s McNeal, Thomas Ostermierer’s An Enemy of the People, Othello and The Threepenny Opera (TBA Award, Best Actor in a Musical),, among numerous others. Recent Bay Area credits include Julius Caesar with Marin Shakespeare Company and Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really with San Francisco Playhouse. Film and television credits include Betas, Callback (Chicago Indie Fest, Best Film), Upside Out with Olympia Dukakis and I’m Still Here with Joaquin Phoenix.
ABOUT SAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY
San Jose Stage Company (The Stage) is an award-winning professional theatre and Silicon Valley’s premier Off-Broadway theatre, known for bold, ambitious programming and artistic risk-taking that illuminates the human experience. For more than four decades, The Stage has produced more than 200 productions, including world premieres, new works and international commissions, in its intimate downtown San José theatre. Now in its 44th season, led by co-founder and Artistic Director Randall and Executive Director Cathleen King, the company welcomes more than 20,000 patrons annually and employs more than 150 local artists each year. The Stage’s contributions to Bay Area theatre have been recognized with numerous honors, including the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle’s Paine Knickerbocker Award for Continuing Contribution to Bay Area Theatre and the City of San José’s Cornerstone of the Arts Award, presented to co-founders Cathleen King and Randall King in recognition of their enduring leadership and contributions to San José’s cultural and artistic landscape. Critics have recognized The Stage as a “vital and daring force in Bay Area theatre” and “as setting the standard for creating theatre in Silicon Valley and beyond.” With a reputation for artistic excellence, creative vision and fearless storytelling, The Stage continues to produce powerful, provocative and profound theatre for Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area.
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