KING LEAR's Off-Broadway Run At LA MAMA in 2026 is a Triumph!

​

Following a successful world premiere at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and a sold-out four-performance limited run in New York City summer of 2024, Compagnia de’ Colombari’s fresh, vital and urgent KING LEAR returned for an Off-Broadway run at La MaMa ETC at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003) for 16 performances, January 23-February 8, 2026. The production was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike.

​

"A Stunning ‘King Lear’ That Reveals, Finally, a King in Full"

--NY Times Critic's Pick, Helen Shaw, The New York Times

"Riveting...unmissable...stripped-down, beautifully envisioned production..."

--"Best Things To Do," Sara Holdren, New York Magazine

"Exhilarating" --Tony Marinelli, TheaterScene

"Provocative" --Dan Rubins, Theatermania

"Striking" --Beate Hein Bennett, New York Theatre Wire

Many Headed Lear: American Theatre Magazine Interview with Karin Coonrod

Compagnia de’ Colombari’s KING LEAR is a primal, physical, and potent  “paper crown” Lear that strips the Shakespearean classic to its essence. Coonrod utilizes her signature “multiplicity” to shift and deepen audiences’ connection with the characters. Ten diverse actors, ranging in age and gender, embody King Lear at the beginning and conduct a radical takeover of the text and space. Their unity fractures as they tear off their paper crowns and assume other roles, competing for influence and diminishing the legion of Lears. Through a vigorous exploration of the characters’ egos, motivations, and power dynamics, the actors delve deeply into the internal and external journey of a stubborn, fractured soul who must lose everything to find himself. Transformation takes place in the apocalypse. Coonrod’s immersive production commands us to, as Kent demands of King Lear, “See better.”

ADDITIONAL PRESS & REVIEWS:

“The play is a buffet for the senses...If all the world’s a stage, then the play itself becomes reality.“

"Compagnia de’ Colombari show(s) the audience a deep look into their own psyches, and a few hard truths about how to trust people and why. Most important, though, they show them an all-around good time.” 

--Eleanor Pollack, The New Haven Independent

“Karin Coonrod’s Compagnia de’ Colombari is staging the most innovative version of Shakespeare’s great tragedy of monarchy that I’ve seen in a long time. See better, Lear, the play commands. But what if everywhere we look we see many things? ...the opening scene in King Lear is the best scene in all of English drama – and I don’t think I’ve seen a more exciting performance of that scene than this one.”

“The production’s brilliant and generative coup de theatre – ten Kings in ten paper crowns all playing the title role – mounted to a takeover of the entire space of the theater… we watched that royal “we,” the King as community, voicing itself into disorderly being. It made thrilling theater.” 

--Steve Mentz, Shakespeare scholar and Professor of English at St. John’s University

Culture Mental: King Lear Review

Scena.ro (Romanian performing arts magazine): Corul regilor în epoca No Kings. King Lear la La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club

Broadway World: KING LEAR debuts at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas

Hartford Courant: There is Much Ado About Shakespeare This Summer

New Haven Independent: At A&I, Multitudes Contain Lear

Steve Mentz (Shakespeare Scholar & English Professor at St. John's University): Colombari’s King Lear at #artsideas2024

Development and Production History:

Compagnia de’ Colombari’s KING LEAR has been in development since 2020. Previous development includes a read-through in August 2020, followed by 2-day development workshops in September and November 2020, explorative workshops in July 2021 and April 2023, and two immersive salon-style presentations in 2023 at Torn Page in New York City on September 12th and December 1st in New Haven, Connecticut. Colombari hosted a KING LEAR "share-out" presentation and 20th Anniversary celebration in Brooklyn on May 23, 2024, at Saint Paul's Roman Catholic Church. 

The world premiere of Compagnia de’ Colombari’s KING LEAR was June 14-16, 2024 at the Yale University Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut for the 29th International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Colombari's KING LEAR debuted on Off-Broadway in New York City for a limited run of four performances, July 12-14, 2024 at La MaMa ETC (66 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003). The official Off-Broadway three week run of 16 performances is from January 23 through February 8, 2026 at La MaMa ETC's Ellen Stewart Theatre.

Company of Actors (2026):

Abigail Killeen (KING LEAR/Goneril)

Julian Elijah Martinez (KING LEAR/Edmund)

Jo Mei (KING LEAR/Regan)

Tom Nelis and David Barlow (KING LEAR/France)

Abigail C. Onwunali and Nomè SiDone (KING LEAR/Edgar)

Lukas Papenfusscline (KING LEAR/Fool)

Michael Potts and KenYatta Rogers (KING LEAR/Gloucester)

Paul Pryce (KING LEAR/Kent)

Celeste Sena (KING LEAR/Cordelia)

Tony Torn (KING LEAR/Oswald)

Paul Wellington (Black Angel)

Peter Gomez (Black Angel) 

Sasha Aronson (Black Angel)

Whitney Andrews (Understudy)

Creative & Production Team (2026):

Adaptor and Director: Karin Coonrod

Associate Director: Jacob Basri

Composer: Frank London

Costume Designer: Oana Botez

Paper Crowns: Tine Kindermann

Lighting Designer: Krista Smith

Sound Design: Tye Hunt Fitzgerald

Dramaturg: Gabrielle Hoyt

Fight Director: Michael Rossmy

Director of Production: Kino Alvarez

Stage Manager: Adam Taylor Foster

Assistant Stage Managers: Hope Binfeng Ding

Assistant Costume Design: Arthur Wilson

Costume Construction: Talla Dia & Caleb Krieg

Costume Painting: Jennifer Stanjeski

Wardrobe Supervisor: Caroline Tyson

Assistant Lighting Designer: Ethan Feil

Lighting Programmer and Board Op: Talia Bowe

Haze Permit Consultant: Dakota Silvey

Rehearsal Space: St. Paul’s Church, Brooklyn, NY

Rehearsal Hosts: Fathers Paul Anel, Alex Morard

Compagnia de’ Colombari:

Artistic Director: Karin Coonrod

General Manager: Jennifer Harrison Newman

Development Manager: Natalie King

Associate Artistic Director: Alexis Kulani Woodard

Touring, Public Relations, Marketing & Communications Manager: Cindy Sibilsky