NextGen

Where a new generation puts Irondale’s practice into play.

For more than four decades, Irondale has built theater through ensemble, experimentation, rigorous inquiry, collaboration, and play.

Now, that practice is in the hands of a new generation.

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Irondale NextGen is a space for emerging theater-makers to take the lead—to make work, test ideas, take risks, change course, and discover what happens when the tools of an established ensemble meet new voices, new instincts, and new questions.

There is no formula to follow.

“The work we’ve developed at Irondale over the years was never meant to be a formula. It is a way of working, questioning, and creating together.” — Jim Niesen, Artistic Director & Co-Founder

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NextGen artists draw from the philosophy and practices developed by Irondale’s founders and longtime ensemble, but the goal is not to reproduce what came before. It is to put those practices to work: to question them, play with them, push against them, and make them their own.

Theater is learned by making theater.

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“You can teach someone the tools, but at some point, you have to give them the space to use them.” — Terry Greiss, Executive Director & Co-Founder

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NextGen creates the space for artists to step into new creative roles and learn through doing—with the freedom to experiment, fail, rethink, and follow an idea somewhere unexpected.

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A shared practice. New voices. Work we haven’t seen yet.

This is Irondale NextGen.

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