theatre

It’s the season of love, and joyful, giddy, hilarious love is the central emotion of “K-I-S-S-I-N-G” by local playwright and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lenelle Moïse.

On Feb. 17, Speakeasy Stage opens the Boston premiere of “Fairview,” a probing comedy by playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury. Running through March 11, the show uses unexpected twists to investigate both the theater experience and its larger societal reflection.

Actors’ Shakespeare Project (ASP) returns to Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall this month with a stirring rendition of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars.”

Black History Month has arrived, and Boston is ready to celebrate. Engage with history, literature, art and music celebrating the Black experience at these events happening around the city.

When “Hamilton” first came on the scene, Nikisha Williams was teaching choir at a high school in Memphis, Tennessee. Her students went wild for the musical, and at their urging, Williams listened to the score and fell in love with it.

For 52 years, Langston Hughes’ stirring telling of the nativity story has rung in the holiday season in Boston with gospel music, African drumming and a moving dance illustrating the birth of Jesus.

Anthony Williams’ “Urban Nutcracker,” a holiday tradition sparkling with city pride, returns to the stage Dec. 17–23 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre.

Boston’s Black theater company, the Front Porch Arts Collective, launches its first self-produced performance this month. The regional premiere of Douglas Lyons’ comedy “Chicken & Biscuits” runs Dec. 9 - Jan. 8 at Suffolk University’s Modern Theater.

Cirque du Soleil gets into the festive spirit this year with “’Twas the Night Before… ,” the company’s first-ever holiday show, playing at the Boch Center Wang Theatre through Dec. 11.

Henry VIII’s six wives are tired of his nonsense. A beheading can really drain a girl’s energy. In “Six,” headed to the Emerson Colonial Theatre Nov. 9–Dec. 31, the wives take the stage as diva performers in a show that’s part concert, part history lesson and part Bravo TV special.

On Oct. 13, Company One Theatre debuts a digital event, “Reproductive Liberty and Body Justice for All,” featuring new short plays by four playwrights of color created in response to the dismantling of Roe v. Wade protections.

The Huntington has a long history with playwright August Wilson, so it’s fitting that after a two-and-a-half-year closure and restoration, the company’s newly renovated historic theater on Huntington Avenue reopens  Oct. 14 with Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” running through Nov. 13.