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Adapted and directed by James Couger Canfield
from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Presented in collaboration with Southwest Shakespeare Company
at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ from April 4- 13, 2025
Can the power of nature unlock the secrets of the human heart?
Mary Lennox is a spoiled brat. She’s loud, and too smart for her own good. In this new adaptation from the adapter and star of Southwest Shakespeare Company’s sold-out hit LADIES IN WAITING: THE JUDGMENT OF HENRY VIII from a few seasons back, this wonderfully creative new adaptation THE SECRET GARDEN tells the story of young Mary Lennox as she is sent to live in her estranged uncle’s spooky house where she discovers a hidden, magical garden. This transformative journey brings Mary from sorrow to joy, teaching her—and the audience—about the healing power of nature and the process of self-discovery inherent in helping others.
MISSION
Through process, performance, and exploration, Tier5 elevates the traditional theatrical experience and turns it on its head. By using moments in history, well-worn tropes, and classic tales, the company reflects those stories through a modern lens to reveal truths of the current world around us. We hope to encourage our performers, audiences, and creatives to take what has come before to build a better yet to come. After all, the past never felt so now.
VALUES
Tier5 believes any bit of our cultural, physical, and theatrical history is worth exploring, deconstructing, and rebuilding to include those who have been disenfranchised from the longstanding narrative. With a focus on bringing female, queer, and BIPOC storytelling to the forefront, we hope to enrich our theatrical landscape, moving the social standard forward.
As a company, Tier5 seeks to create an inclusive, safe, intersectional, and anti-racist space for artists to grow, devise, learn, and feel joy. We strive to build a strong sense of ensemble, produce thought-provoking works, and cultivate new skills, insights, and perspectives through stories past and present; all while bringing top-quality entertainment and educational experiences to our audiences.
Oh, and having a lot of fun doing it.
Catalogue of Shows
meg beth jo amy & louisa
Assigned with the super boring task of writing a novel for young girls, Louisa May Alcott finds herself in a state of writer’s block. That is until she turns to figures and stories from her own life. The lines between fact and fiction begin to blur, as her novel, Little Women, is played out upon the stage.
Julius: Harlem’s Caesar
A new reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s political tragedy
set in the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem of the 1930s was a place of hustle, bustle, and black magic at its finest. Once Henry Pompey, a local bootlegger, is murdered, Julius Baptiste is catapulted as his replacement. A year later, as he sets to open the first Black and queer supper club, all of Harlem is thrown into a frenzied civil war as many, who once followed Julius, question his ambitions, his sexuality, and what it means to be a Black man in a white man's world.
Ladies in Waiting:
The Judgement of Henry VIII
We find King Henry VIII in a purgatory-like situation, where one by one he must confront and face off with each of his wives. Through dark humour, devastating truths, sexy seductions, and powerful revelations, Henry comes face to face with what his legacy has become: one entirely defined by women.
The Christmas Carol: A Queer Fantasia
Ebenezer Scrooge is the literal worst. And it’s going to take some serious fabulosity to turn this ChristMESS into a ChristYAS. Can three otherworldly spectres show this humbug the true meaning of Christmas? The iconic Dickens Ghost Story of Christmas gets turned on its head in this inclusive, timely adaptation of the classic.
Legend of the Chalk Circle
A revolution has erupted in Grusinia, the governor has been beheaded, his wife, Natella, has fled, their newborn has been left behind. Vash, a servant boy, discovers the child, and begins an adventure across the Caucus Mountains to save the baby and his own life, all while guided by visions of variants from previous versions of his own story. Meanwhile, Azdak, a hapless peasant and the reincarnation of King Solomon, finds himself as the new judge of Grusinia. When the child's biological mother returns to claim the baby, Vash, Azdak, and Natella, come head to head in an ultimate showdown for custody of the child.