NEW HAVEN, CONN.: Long Wharf Theatre has announced that its 2020-21 season will be entirely offstage. The company will observe its 55th season, the first for new artistic director Jacob G. Padrón, with a series of community partnerships, programming, and productions in open spaces throughout the town. This decision was made to prioritize the safety of the company’s staff and patrons.

“America’s living history is a complex and inspiring story of survival,” said Padrón in a statement. “New Haven deserves an institution that is dedicated to welcoming, investigating, and manifesting lived experiences that display the complexity of the world we live in.”

The programming will still include a 20th-anniversary reading of The Good Person of New Haven, as previously announced. In addition, the revamped season will include artistic partnerships with UNIVERSES, Collective Consciousness Theatre, and other local creators. The company will move ahead with its convening of its Artists Congress, a gathering of artistic leaders to discuss using art to rebuild our democracy, albeit virtually. The lineup will also include concert readings, and new works highlighting directors, playwrights, and performers of New Haven.

Padrón adds: “As an institution, we are devoted to living our guiding pillars of artistic innovation, radical inclusion, and kaleidoscopic partnerships. We can’t simply claim to be a space where everyone belongs. At Long Wharf Theatre, we are dedicated to our values being repeatable actions rather than static ideas. That is what this moment requires. To achieve that end, we are committed to observing and responding to the fundamental needs of our patrons.”

Long Wharf was founded in 1965 and is a Tony-winning theatre company that has transferred more than 30 productions to Broadway.