The Play’s the Thing

What is the balm for a soul suffering the malaise of modern convenience? When our attention is so fragmented, our taste commandeered by algorithms on glowing screens; and while we’ve never been more connected, but we’ve never been more disconnected from one another?

The Oklahoma City Repertory Theater (OKC Rep) wants to provide you with the raw materials for snapping out of this trance.

“There’s something about the live theater that, to me, is so transformational,” says Emily Comisar, executive artistic director for OKC Rep. “The fact that you are participating in a story, that you are doing it with other live humans sitting around you, and that you are seeing a performance that will never be exactly replicated the way that you’re seeing it is so important. For me, number one in terms of feeling more connected to other humans and feeling less alone in the world.”

Bringing audiences a blend of crowd-pleasing and thought-provoking theatrical experiences—all of them high in quality—has been OKC Rep’s goal for the past 24 years. With a recently reworked mission statement, the community and audience are at the theater’s beating heart … and that’s where OKC Rep’s new play reading festival, RepFest, enters stage left.

“So what [RepFest] accomplishes for us is kind of two- or threefold. One is that it introduces our audiences to the play-reading format. And it does that using some plays that are really, truly excellent,” says Comisar about the inaugural festival, which took place Nov. 19 through 23 at the Te Ata Theater at Oklahoma Contemporary.

Playtime

In contrast to the full-scale performances OKC Rep typically produces, RepFest is intentionally stripped down. While actors have had 20 hours of rehearsal time for their plays, they will act from behind music stands, using their scripts, with no scenery or props.

Most play readings happen during the new play development process for playwrights, but the three plays that were performed at RepFest 2025 were well-received and have been performed across the country. The Comeuppance is written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who won the 2024 and 2025 Tony Awards for Best Play, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Primary Trust by Eboni Booth received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. John was written by Annie Baker, who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 

Comisar noted that in future years, RepFest will present newer works that are less polished than those performed at RepFest 2025. The goal of those is to give playwrights a chance to hear their written work performed in front of an audience and see how individuals react. Comisar hopes Oklahoma City will be an early stop on the lifespan of a play that the entire country eventually gets to enjoy.

“We’re gonna see what works well and what doesn’t work as well during this inaugural year,” says Comisar. “What I’m really hoping to do is make it feel like a festival, which is why I named it RepFest. I want people to want to be around the whole time, to want to see all three shows, to maybe spend a day where they come to two different shows, and they hang out in the lobby in between, and to feel like they’re part of a community.”

Playbill

But whether the plays are performed during RepFest or full-scale productions, the directors and cast always receive compensation for their time and talents. Compensating actors, directors and all crew members fairly is an important part of OKC Rep’s mission.

According to Comisar, OKC Rep’s average production costs between $120,000 and $150,000, with most of that money earmarked for cast and crew compensation. Cast members are on Actors’ Equity contracts, which guarantee them minimum salaries and other benefits; other crew members are under their specialty union contracts as well. In light of the National Endowment for the Arts budget cuts, Comisar is counting more than ever on patrons’ generosity to help the theater continue to flourish.

“Because we’re a nonprofit, because we have an accessible ticket pricing model, ticket sales account for less than a quarter of our total revenue. And so we really rely on the generosity of the community,” she says.

With excellent programming coming next year, which includes full productions like Life Sucks, which ran Oct. 9-19, and New York Times bestselling author Lindy West’s one-woman show Every Castle, Ranked premiering April 10, 2026, Comisar encourages the community to think about OKC Rep not just at end-of-year giving. In fact, on Dec. 2 (a.k.a Giving Tuesday for those in the nonprofit know), Comisar launched OKC Rep’s monthly giving program.

“If someone commits to a $10 gift or $10 a month, I think for most people, $10 a month is not a ton, but for us, it really adds up over time,” says Comisar. “And one of the things that I want to do is encourage monthly recurring giving because even if it’s a little bit every month, it starts to add up as the program grows, as the months go by, and it becomes revenue for us that is stable and sustainable, because we can expect it’s going to happen.”

What keeps the ghost light on in a non-profit theater is the generosity of patrons. The reason OKC Rep is putting on another season is the eager audiences who want to transform, explore, unhook from the algorithm or just be entertained for a little while. 

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Gosh, I feel like 10 years ago, I would have had to just go to New York to get this, but here I can drive down the street and get it,’” says Comisar. “And that’s exciting for me.”

To check out Oklahoma City Repertory Theater, visit okcrep.org or follow the organization at @okcreptheater on Instagram.