Photos: First Look at THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOR at Arena Stage

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is now presenting its 2026/27 Season opening production, The Fruits of Our Labor. The next installment of a multi-year partnership between the Tony Award-winning theater and the National Heritage Fellowship-awarded Dance Company Step Afrika!, The Fruits of Our Labor is a powerful meditation on patriotism, identity, and what it means to carry hope for a nation still in the making. Get a first look at production photos! 

Directed and choreographed in collaboration with Jakari Sherman, Conrad R. Kelly II, and Vusi Mdoyi, the percussive, visceral world premiere will run through November 1, 2026, on the Fichandler Stage. 

As America marks 250 years, The Fruits of Our Labor examines the endurance, labor, and beliefs that continue to shape the American story. Created in collaboration with artists Sherman and Kelly, inspired by Mdoyi’s standout work Isithukuthuku, and featuring striking visual imagery and poetry from revolutionary writers like Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Langston Hughes, the work blends stepping and song into a rhythmic composition of percussion and patriotism.

The piece is premiered by 14 Step Afrika! Company members, including Kwadjo Bediako, Nya Christian, Jerod Coleman, Ariel Dykes, Terrence Johnson, Conrad R. Kelly II, Jayden King, Jemeema S. Montrose, Keondre Pascal, Keanu Powell, Ericka Still, Joseph Vasquez, Pelham Warner Jr., and Robert Warnsley, plus guest artist Agyei Keita Edwards.

Photo credit: Teresa Castracane