Katie Holmes Stars in The Old Globe's 2026 Season Opener, 'Hedda Gabler'

Artistic Director Barry Edelstein directs this new version by Erin Cressida Wilson

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, August 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Old Globe is pleased to announce film, television, and stage star Katie Holmes will kick off the theatre’s 2026 season as she leads a new production of Henrik Ibsen’s "Hedda Gabler." The Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, who directed Holmes in the acclaimed Off Broadway production of "The Wanderers" in 2023, is set to direct this fresh and emotionally charged take on the Ibsen classic. The Globe-commissioned, vivid new version of the play is by Erin Cressida Wilson ("Secretary," "The Girl on the Train"). "Hedda Gabler" will play on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage at the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way). Performances run February 7 – March 8, 2026, with the official press opening Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m. Tickets are currently available by subscription only online at TheOldGlobe.org. The Old Globe will announce its full 2026 Season at a later date.

Holmes brings to life an iconic role in one of the defining masterpieces of modern theatre. Hedda and Tesman have just returned from their honeymoon—and the cracks in their marriage are already showing. Bored and restless, Hedda tries to control those around her. But as her schemes tighten, her own world begins to unravel.

“'Hedda Gabler' is one of the landmark works of world drama and I’m truly thrilled to bring a bracing new take on it to the Globe,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “Like all of Ibsen’s plays, this one is obsessed by how the choices we make in our pasts come back around to shape our present. That’s why it’s so fun that it reunites me with two artists I’ve had significant collaborations with over the years. One is playwright and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson, who renews this classic through her frank and dynamic voice, with incendiary results. The other is a major figure in American film, TV, and theatre, the wonderful Katie Holmes. Hedda, like Hamlet, rises or falls with the actor in the title role. She’s everything: victim, tyrant, femme fatale; funny, scathing, tragic. Only an actor with immense imagination and charisma can take on "Hedda Gabler," and in Katie’s radiant and powerful performance, Globe audiences are going to witness something rare and special. She’s an artist at the height of her powers and we’re lucky to have her in San Diego. This is going to be a memorable moment at The Old Globe, and I can’t wait to share it.”

Additional information on additional casting and the creative team for "Hedda Gabler" will be announced at a later date.

This new version of Henrik Ibsen’s "Hedda Gabler" will play on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage at the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way). Performances run February 7 – March 8, 2026, with the official press opening Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m. Tickets are currently available by subscription only online at TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623), and in person at the Globe’s Box Office in Balboa Park. The single ticket on sale will be announced at a later date.

"Hedda Gabler" is supported by Lead Production Sponsor The Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund. Additional financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego. The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Additional financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego. The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Bios and photos of all participants can be found at TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional nonprofit regional theatres. Now in its 90th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community by creating theatre that lives beyond the stage. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages. The company’s Summer Shakespeare Festival is internationally renowned, and in 2024 the Globe completed the Shakespeare canon with Edelstein’s landmark production "Henry 6," which received the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle's 2024 Craig Noel Award for "Outstanding New Play.” More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical "A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder," "Bright Star," "The Full Monty," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," and "Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

Patty Onagan
The Old Globe
+1 818-600-8092
patty@pattyonagan.com
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