Will Oldham — Bonnie “Prince” Billy — and traditional music legend and Antioch alumna Alice Gerrard are among the performers who will take the stage at the Foundry as part of its upcoming 2026–27 season. As has become Foundry practice, the theater’s fourth season will feature traditional and experimental cultural forms — sometimes together — via music and theater, and the return of the Yellow Springs Speaker Series. (Submitted photos)
Foundry Theater at Antioch College readies fourth season
- Published: September 4, 2026
The Foundry Theater at Antioch College is preparing to kick off its fourth season of programming next month, with a lineup that — as has been the theater’s bread and butter the last three years — spans a range of cultural traditions and artistic forms.
The fourth season begins Thursday, Sept. 17, with a double bill featuring The Gibson Brothers and Missy Raines with Allegheny. The Gibson Brothers — brothers Eric and Leigh Gibson — pair close-harmony singing and songwriting with bluegrass and country traditions, and Raines fronts Allegheny on bass alongside guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin.
Foundry Director Chris Westhoff told the News this month that the pairing came together after Raines, with whom he’s worked before, inquired about the same date on which he’d already booked The Gibson Brothers.
“I thought, well, there’s a cool sign,” Westhoff said. “Let’s have a two-bill act and really open [the season] up strong.”
The season opener reflects a curatorial approach Westhoff said has become more intuitive since the Foundry relaunched in 2023: He follows conversations and opportunities as they develop. Building seasons that way, Westhoff said, has produced “a pretty diverse mix of traditional musics that are inherently progressive, pushing the limits.”
“I want it to be rooted. I want it to be progressive. I want it to be exploratory. I want it to be interesting, but I don’t want it to ever not be fun,” he said.
The first month of programming will also bring the return of the Yellow Springs Speaker Series, which opens Sept. 25 with “An Evening with Holly Near,” co-produced with the World House Choir. Near has spent decades as a folk singer and activist.
The Yellow Springs Film Festival returns Oct. 1–4, followed by folk duo Viv and Riley on Oct. 10. Westhoff said the pair are part of the younger edge of this season’s lineup and recently released the album “Kissing Other People.” Based in Durham, North Carolina, the duo blends old-time and classic country roots with indie-folk flavor.
On Oct. 16, Cape Verdean singer Lucibela will perform traditional music from the island nation, including morna. Born on the island of São Nicolau, Lucibela built her repertoire performing songs associated with Cape Verdean such singers as the late Cesária Évora, dubbed the “Queen of Morna.”
Lucibela’s performance is one of two this season supported by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts, which Westhoff said helps make international bookings more accessible, particularly for small venues; the second is Spanish flamenco saxophonist and singer Antonio Lizana, slated for March 3. Hailing from San Fernando in Cádiz, Lizana blends flamenco singing with contemporary jazz.
The Foundry will turn toward theater later in October with “Are We American? The Tipperary Coal Miners Musical,” running Oct. 22–25. The production is a full-length, original musical written by local resident Maggie Heston, composed and orchestrated by Caryn Diamond and co-directed by Melissa Heston and Magnolia Cooper. News readers may remember that two scenes from an earlier draft of the musical were performed at the Senior Center in the fall of 2024.
The World House Choir follows Nov. 13–15 with its fall production, “Study War No More.” The choir will join James Johnston and the YS Community Chorus and Orchestra to perform Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 40-minute cantata “Dona Nobis Pacem,” composed on the eve of World War II and drawing on texts by Walt Whitman, the Old Testament and the Latin Mass.
On Nov. 21, musician Alice Gerrard will perform with Reed Stutz and Tatiana Hargreaves. Gerrard, 92, is a 1958 Antioch College alumna, and went on to form a duo with Hazel Dickens that Westhoff said helped center women in country music. Gerrard’s biography is long and storied, and was punctuated by her induction, along with Dickens, into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame, in 2017, around the same time she began collaborating with Stutz and Hargreaves.
Westhoff noted that Gerrard and Stutz and Hargreaves are separated by several decades in age, which he said will bring a rare dynamic to the Foundry stage.
“We get to find out what [that dynamic] is by having them together, and they talk about that,” he said.
On Dec. 5, John Doyle, Cathie Ryan and Mick McAuley will bring “An Irish Christmas” to the Foundry as part of a U.S. tour, pairing traditional tunes, carols and stories with newer seasonal songs. The program draws in part from Doyle and McAuley’s 2024 holiday album, “This Christmas Time.”
Singer-songwriter Will Oldham — who performs as Bonnie “Prince” Billy — follows Dec. 17 with “We Are Together Again,” titled for his new album, a work centered on friendship, community and persistence. Oldham’s sound is known to combine elements of Americana, folk, roots, country, punk and indie rock; Westhoff said his solo Foundry performance will be “very purposeful, quiet, holding the space.”
The new year brings another Speaker Series event Jan. 14, when Hasan Jeffries will present “Defending Democracy: Public Libraries, Public Schools, and Public History.” Jeffries, an Ohio State University historian, specializes in African American history and public history.
Estonian duo Puuluup follows on Jan. 30. Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson will perform on talharpas, traditional bowed lyres, feeding the instruments through effects and loops to create what Westhoff described as “progressive, funky, distorted” sounds.
March also includes an International Women’s Day celebration with the World House Choir on March 8. The following month, Efrim Manuel Menuck and Tashi Dorji will present “BLOOM AND RUIN” on April 4; Godspeed You! Black Emperor co-founder Menuck and Bhutanese-born experimental guitarist Dorji combine free improvisation, experimental rock and drone music.
Mad River Theater Works follows April 9–11 with a production of Young Jean Lee’s “We’re Gonna Die,” a work combining stories and songs about mortality, loneliness and the ways people keep themselves going. The regional production will be directed by Justin Simons and choreographed by Valerie Blackwell-Truitt, with music performed by NOVENA.
The Antioch School’s spring musical closes the currently announced lineup April 30 and May 1.
Westhoff said more performances are still in the works and may be added to the lineup; for now, he added, this is “a really good taste of what’s to come.”
For schedule and ticket information, and to stay up-to-date with additions to the upcoming season, go to http://www.antiochcollege.edu/foundry-theater
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