(New York, NY – October 8, 2025) The Brooklyn-based, internationally-renowned ensemble The TEAM (Rachel Chavkin, Artistic Director; Emma Orme, Producing Director) has announced the premiere of its major new work Reconstructing with multiple engagements across the country in the first half of 2026. The show will debut at the Under the Radar Theater Festival in New York City from January 9-11, 2026; followed by a one-night-only performance at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, presented by Carolina Performing Arts, on February 21, 2026; continuing with two performances at the newly-renovated Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College in early April. Additional engagements for 2026 and 2027 are planned and will be announced at a later date.
Co-directed by Rachel Chavkin & Zhailon Levingston, Reconstructing is The TEAM’s biggest work to date, co-written by 21 artists ranging in age from 29 to 99: Brenda Abbandandolo, Denée Benton, Eric Berryman, Vinie Burrows, Rachel Chavkin, Eisa Davis, Josiah Davis, André De Shields, JJJJJerome Ellis, Kate Freer, Jill Frutkin, Amber Gray, Jeremy O. Harris, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Marika Kent, Libby King, Ian Lassiter, Zhailon Levingston, Jake Margolin, James Harrison Monaco, Nick Vaughan, and Jillian Walker. Original Music is composed by James Harrison Monaco, Maya Sharpe, and Jillian Walker with Eric Berryman and choreography is by nicHi douglas.
Onstage is a two-story house. From one angle, it’s mucked out after a flood. From another, it’s a new development wrapped in Tyvek. And from another, it’s “Tara” from Gone with the Wind transformed into an Airbnb. The piano can’t be tuned. Someone is quilting in the corner. Come in.
First presented as work-in-progress showings in BAM Next Wave 2024, Reconstructing wrestles with how, in the aftermath of slavery, we might move through history together. Propelled by a quilt-like score, this “complex and combustible project” (Sara Holdren, New York Magazine) slips between fact and fiction and performance and ritual to tell a story of historical figures and fictional characters seeking and fleeing intimacy—and us as makers doing the same.
The cast of Reconstructing will include Eric Berryman (Primary Trust), Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown), Modesto Flako Jimenez (Taxilandia), Zhailon Levingston (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), James Harrison Monaco (Travels), Maya Sharpe (Animal Wisdom), and Jillian Walker (SKiNFOLK).
Reconstructing will feature scenic design by Lawrence E. Moten III (Chicken and Biscuits) adapted from original scenic design by Nick Vaughan (7 Deadly Sins), costume & quilt design by Marla (Brenda Abbandandolo, Marika Kent, and Kristen Sieh) lighting design by Alan C. Edwards (XX), sound design by Mikhail Fiksel (Dana H.), video & projection design by Katherine Freer (Bulrusher), associate direction by Josiah Davis (Mary Gets Hers) and props design by Patricia Marjorie (A Guide for the Homesick).
Reconstructing will play the following engagements in the 2025/26 season:
Under The Radar Theater Festival
Friday, January 9, 2026 at 7:30pm
Saturday, January 10, 2026 at 2:30pm & 7:30pm
Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 12pm & 5pm
Presented by The TEAM and The Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College for Under The Radar 2026
In the Don Buchwald Theater at the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College (2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210)
Ticket on-sale beginning Wednesday October 8, 2025
For over two decades, the Under the Radar Theater Festival has brought bold, risk-taking work to New York City, celebrating groundbreaking theater and performance from around the world and just down the street. Produced in collaboration with venues across the city, the festival showcases innovative multidisciplinary artists whose work speaks powerfully to the present moment. Under the Radar returns in January 2026 with a signature slate of more than 25 new productions staged throughout the city.
Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill
Saturday February 21, 2026 at 8PM
At Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (140 E. Cameron Avenue, Chapel Hill, NC 27514)
Reconstructing was commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts’ Southern Futures initiative, which “invites and supports artists in exploring the South’s past, present, and future through bold, research-based, interdisciplinary performances.” Tickets and more information are available at carolinaperformingarts.org/events/the-team/.
The Hop at Dartmouth College
Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 7:30PM
Friday April 3, 2026, at 7:30PM
The Moore Theater at Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College (Hopkins Center, 4 East Wheelock Street, Hanover, NH 03755)
Reconstructing was commissioned and developed during the TEAM’s 2020 residency at the Hop, a longstanding partnership rooted in bold experimentation. The Hop remains a proud supporter of this powerful work and its evolution. Tickets and more information are available at hop.dartmouth.edu/events/team.
Part of Dartmouth’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. Funded in part by the Donna Bascom 1973 & Paul Biddelman Fund, the Howard W. 1932 and Dorothy G. Pierpont Fund, David J. O’Connor and the Blye Fund for Artists’ Residencies at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Founded in 2004, the TEAM is a Brooklyn-based experimental theatre collective, spirited by some of the wildest and deepest artists working today. Once described by The Guardian as “theatrical excavators of American culture, American dreams, and the American psyche,” the TEAM collaboratively creates new works about the experience of living in the United States today to generate dialogue about our nation’s past, present, and future through production and touring.
To date, The TEAM has created and toured 12 works, including Mission Drift and RoosevElvis, and their work has been seen at venues such as National Theatre of London, The Public, PS122, The Bushwick Starr, ArtsEmerson, A.R.T., Walker Art Center, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, Almeida Theatre, the Salzburg Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and more.