Humans at the Heart: The Storyteller’s Guide to the 2026–27 Season

There’s a reason we’ve been telling stories since the beginning of human history: hearing another person’s experience, real or imagined, makes us feel at once more connected. If getting to witness a deeply human journey unfold before you is what draws you to the performing arts, this is the guide for you.

The 2026–27 Cal Performances season is full of performances that put people at their center, following histories, relationships, inner lives, and even small human moments that all make a story worth telling. Some of these narratives are centuries old, passed down through music and myth. Others are more recent, drawing on memories that deserve to be honored and preserved. And some are deeply personal, the kind that feel like the performer is sharing something they’ve carried for a long time. Whether you already know these stories or are coming to them for the first time, you’re guaranteed to encounter a character who transcends the boundaries of the stage—someone you’ll want to learn about, learn from, and root for.

MAR 6, 2027, ZELLERBACH HALL

If you’ve watched enough Broadway, film, or television over the past two decades, you almost certainly know Cheyenne Jackson’s name. He has built one of the most varied careers in American entertainment as an Emmy- and Grammy-nominated actor, singer, songwriter, and performer.

A solo concert is where all of this comes together, combining the glamour of cabaret with the intimacy of a musical memoir.

Through evocative songs and magnetic storytelling, Jackson shares how “a super-tall, super-queer, super-Christian kid from northern Idaho” found his way to Broadway, television, and a national solo tour, bridging the divide between performer and audience to let us in on the kind of storytelling that only happens when someone has lived enough of a life to have something profound to share.

APR 25, 2027, ZELLERBACH HALL

For all his world-conquering ambition, Alexander the Great evidently could not make up his mind about which princess he loved, and composer George Frideric Handel found that far more interesting than any of his battles. Alessandro is less a portrait of a military hero than of a man undone by his own ego and indecision, caught between two women who both adore him and a court that’s starting to lose patience.

It’s vain, romantic, a little ridiculous, and a dramatic musical delight—

especially considering the cast includes such superlative vocalists as French countertenor and Handel specialist Christophe Dumaux as Alessandro; American soprano Joélle Harvey as Lisaura, and Australian mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas as her competitor, Rossane. The English Concert itself has built a reputation as one of the finest Handel ensembles in the world, and now it is your turn to experience this captivating story from its most renowned tellers.

SEP 25–27, 2026, ZELLERBACH HALL

Inspired by the legacy and lore of one of literature’s most extraordinary minds, Christopher Wheeldon’s visionary choreography engages the superb dancers of The Australian Ballet to tell the story of Irish author Oscar Wilde. Known for his satirical prose, confident demeanor, and flamboyant fashion choices, Oscar Wilde is one of those figures whose life was almost as dramatic as anything he put on the page—a man of dazzling wit and triumph who also endured public heartbreak, and even imprisonment. What makes this ballet so special for anyone who loves a good story is that it incorporates Wilde’s life into the narrative, transcending a mere adaptation of his work. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon threads Wilde’s personal journey together with characters from his own writings, including The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Nightingale and the Rose, so the line between the man and his imagination begins to blur in the most fascinating way.

Of the production, The Australian Ballet Artistic Director, David Hallberg, said,

“Working on Oscar has been deeply meaningful because it speaks to how ballet can continue to evolve, not only in movement, but also in the narratives it embraces.”

“For much of its history, ballet has told heteronormative stories, so to collaborate with Christopher Wheeldon on a work that so boldly brings a different experience to the stage has felt especially significant.”

There’s something deeply moving about watching a storyteller become the subject of someone else’s story, and this season-opening performance seems to understand that completely. Hallberg shared that Wheeldon “has a gift for marrying emotional depth and choreography, and through his storytelling he has created a ballet that feels both intimate and expansive. I hope audiences leave with a sense of having experienced something beautiful, but also something deeply human. A story of love, identity and vulnerability that has not often been given this kind of space in dance.”

NOV 1, 2026, HERTZ HALL

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando is one of literature’s great character studies, following a protagonist who travels through centuries, changes gender, navigates complex relationships, and somehow remains entirely, stubbornly themself. Orlando as a character invites us to reflect on identity, about what makes us who we are across time and circumstance—and turns out to be a perfect point of inspiration for an evening of music.

Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and guitarist Sean Shibe have built a program that riffs on the character and energy of Woolf’s groundbreaking 1928 novel, with echoes of the medieval Chanson de Roland and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.

The music itself features Nikolovska’s powerful vocals alongside acoustic and electric guitar for eclectic repertoire by artists like John Dowland, Schubert, Bob Dylan, and Laurie Anderson, in addition to commissioned works written in the past and coming year by exciting voices from the US, UK, and Canada. Passages from the novel run through the entire performance, resulting in something that feels less like a traditional recital, and more like a story being told by many voices across many eras.

NOV 12–15, 2026, HENRY J. KAISER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, OAKLAND

Over one million Africans labored in WWI as soldiers, as porters, and as people caught in the middle of a war that was never really theirs—yet most of their names were never recorded. William Kentridge’s extraordinary theatrical work is built around this silence, and what it means when people try to speak into it. Featuring outstanding contributions from composer Philip Miller, choreographer Gregory Maqoma, and music director and co-composer Thuthuka Sibisi, the production utilizes projection, music, movement, and a libretto collaged from fragments of poetry, proverbs, and historical texts in multiple languages to create a portrait of people whose stories were deliberately left out of the historical record. Maqoma shared,

“Working on The Head & the Load profoundly reshaped my understanding of history, particularly the scale and weight of African participation in the First World War, a history that has largely remained invisible.”

“Entering William Kentridge’s world of excavation and reconstruction made me confront how much of what we think we know is structured by absence.”

Performed here in its West Coast premiere, this electrifying, fiercely beautiful, and utterly engrossing work focuses its energy not on a simple retelling of events, but, according to Maqoma, a “re-evaluation of history, one that shifts the lens away from dominant narratives toward those who carried its invisible weigh.” The production immerses audiences in the type of memory that is energetically felt more than it is cognizantly understood. Across a 180-foot-long stage (presented this season at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts Arena), The Head & the Load sees the contributions of 37 dancers, actors, vocalists, and musicians—and enlists the emotional power of music, dance, speech, shadow play, projection, and sculpture—to deliver a deep meditation on a story that has rarely been told … and never been told like this.

FEB 10, 2027, ZELLERBACH HALL

At its core, Dido and Aenas is a story about what happens when love and duty pull in opposite directions—and when someone gets left behind. Purcell wrote this epic opera in 1689, but the heartbreak at the center of it feels “[astoundingly] so modern, fresh and utterly captivating,” shared Joyce DiDonato. The plot follows Dido, Queen of Carthage, falling for the Trojan hero Aenas, who ultimately abandons her to fulfill his destiny; what follows is one of opera’s most devastating portraits of grief.

DiDonato, one of the most celebrated mezzo-sopranos of her generation, has spent years living with this role, and brings to it something beyond technical mastery.

Her hope with this program is that the audience leaves “deeply moved, knowing that to love is always worth it”—which, really, is the story of Dido in a single sentence. Drawing on the talents of period ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro and soloists including lyric tenor Nicholas Phan, this is a performance that treats a 45-minute opera (paired here with Carissimi’s deeply moving Jephte) with the full emotional weight it deserves.

NOV 21, 2026, ZELLERBACH HALL

Before he led his regiment through the trenches of World War I, James Reese Europe packed Carnegie Hall, built a union for Black musicians, and was widely considered the most important bandleader in America. And yet, within a decade of his untimely death at 39, his name had almost completely vanished from the history books.

The Absence of Ruin is jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran’s meditation on Europe’s life,

particularly remembering his role in WWI as a bandleader who landed alongside the all-Black Harlem Hellfighters unit that contributed to breaking the stalemate on the Western front, and led a military music ensemble that helped popularize the new spirit of jazz in France. The production features a full ensemble reimagining Europe’s original compositions alongside photographs and film footage that piece together a portrait of a man who knew, even as he marched into war, that his music meant something bigger than himself.

SEP 27, 2026, HERTZ HALL

A regal presence on stages the world over, dramatic baritone Lester Lynch combines his captivating voice with the talents of painist Korth to create emotional milieus that movingly depict love, loss, and mortality. Among the repertoire is Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach. Barber held onto a special affection for Matthew Arnold’s poem of the same name for his entire life, composing music inspired by the very textures he felt within the writing. Decades after creating his own Dover Beach, Barber still remarked on how contemporary the emotions felt, and it’s easy to hear why.

Arnold’s poem is about the loneliness of losing faith, and the desperate human appeal that follows: “Ah love, let us be true to one another.”

Barber’s setting takes that plea seriously, building from a quiet and atmospheric opening into something far more painful before hauntingly returning to where it began. Paired with additional works including Mahler’s Rückert Lieder—a piece about the private, almost sacred act of creation—it’s a program that sits with some of the most tender, yet exposed aspects of being human. Lynch is a baritone known for commanding the grandest roles in opera, but what makes this recital so compelling is the intimacy it demands. Stripped of staging and costuming, it’s just the voice and the story within the song.

This list is just a taste of the stories waiting for you during the 2026–27 Cal Performances season. We encourage you to explore the full season for yourself, and to discover our other season guides as well on Beyond the Stage.

Want to secure your seats early and save up to 25% on tickets? When you subscribe by bundling as few as four performances, you unlock the very best experience we have to offer! Explore our Subscriber benefits, and mark your calendars for when subscriptions go on sale at noon (PT) on May 5, 2026!

UC Berkeley students have access to exclusive student discounts, including a special bundle of 4 tickets called a Flex Pass. UCB Student tickets go on sale in August.

Explore the six guides to the season below to find the performances that were made for you.