Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), the resident theater company of Chautauqua Institution, announces plans for the world premiere of Tell Me You’re Dying, a CTC-commissioned work by Brooklyn-based playwright C.A. Johnson.  

This year marks CTC’s third consecutive year producing a world premiere, underscoring the company’s commitment to supporting fresh voices in American theater. C.A. Johnson, an emerging powerhouse known for her poignant, complex explorations of human relationships, offers audiences an unconventional tale of love and survival against an apocalyptic backdrop.  

The world premiere of Tell Me You’re Dying is an opportunity to experience a daring and genre-blending production — a post-apocalyptic lesbian love story that pushes the boundaries of contemporary drama while exploring themes central to our shared humanity. Facing illness, mortality, and the shared urgency of dwindling time, the darkly funny and wildly magnetic Millicent and her chosen family of misfits forge connections with both heart and wit. Through their collective journey, Johnson creates a story rich with vulnerability, brutal honesty, exacting humor, and an unmistakable yearning for human connection in a reality that threatens to tear them apart. 

The production will be directed by CTC’s Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll and will premiere in August 2025 during the final two weeks of Chautauqua Institution’s nine-week Summer Assembly.

“With this play, C.A. is sharing her true power as a playwright, inviting us to delve into what it means to be alive,” said Carroll. “She is expanding upon her remarkable talent for navigating effortlessly between realism and the surreal. I cannot wait to share this compelling world premiere as part of Chautauqua Theater Company’s 2025 season.” 

Of her collaboration with CTC, Johnson said, “Since my original commission in 2022, Jade and her team have supported every iteration of Tell Me You’re Dying. To say I’m excited is an understatement! More than anything, though, I am grateful for what this production represents. Every playwright wants to know a company is committed to their voice, but at Chautauqua, I feel an even deeper commitment to lifelong artistic curiosity. I can’t imagine a better first home for this play and look forward to the work ahead.” 

CTC will continue to support this project with an industry reading in New York City in January 2025. With its world premiere this summer, CTC reaffirms its dedication to championing innovative, diverse voices that challenge and inspire audiences. Looking ahead to August 2025, Chautauqua invites theatergoers to witness an engrossing production that blends laughter, heartache, and a fierce sense of humanity in a way that only live theater can.  

This commission is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

CTC’s additional programming will be announced in the coming weeks and tickets will go on sale in February 2025.   

ABOUT PLAYWRIGHT C.A. JOHNSON 
C.A. Johnson is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from Metairie, Louisiana. Her plays include All The Natalie Portmans (MCC Theater), Thirst (2017 Kilroys List, CATF), The Climb (Cherry Lane Mentor Project, InterAct Theatre Company), An American Feast (NYU Playwrights Horizons Theater School), I Know I Know I Know, Somebody’s Body, and Tell Me You’re Dying. Most recently she was named a resident playwright with New Dramatists. She was previously the Tow Playwright in Residence at MCC Theater, the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow, The Lark’s 2016–17 Van Lier Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, a member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a Core Writer at The Playwrights Center, and a 2018 Sundance Theatre Lab Fellow among other accolades. Her work has been commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Rep, Page 73, and Chautauqua Theater Company. C.A. also has an active career in film and television, with several projects in development, including at ABC Signature and Searchlight Pictures. She has written for several television series, including projects helmed by Drew Goddard, Marielle Heller, and Jon Robin Baitz. BA: Smith College MFA: NYU 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA THEATER COMPANY    
Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) produces high-quality, live theater in a vibrant nine-week summer season. We are committed to the development of new work, the next generation of theater artists, producing galvanizing world premieres as well as exceptional modern and contemporary plays, and infusing fresh insight into the classical canon.     

CTC is dedicated to becoming a national home for exciting new plays: commissioning, developing and producing new and established American playwrights. We are where the finest artists of tomorrow bridge the gap between their training and the professional world. CTC is actively building the future of the American theater.   

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION     
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State where approximately 7,500 people are in residence on any day during a nine-week summer season. More than 100,000 attend scheduled public events each year and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts since 1874. 

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