For Immediate Release
July 7, 2026
Press Contact: Michael Kyrioglou
michael.kyrioglou@gmail.com
Washington Stage Guild’s 2026-27 Season – “Season of Self-Delusion” – Begins with One-Person Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Associate Artistic Director Steven Carpenter Directs Solo Adaptation Featuring Stage Guild Alum Peter Boyer Starting September 24, 2026
Washington, DC–The Washington Stage Guild opens its 41st Season with a haunting and humorous adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a solo play by John Minigan from a story by Washington Irving. Associate Artistic Director and three-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Steven Carpenter directs actor Peter Boyer playing 20 different characters. Performances begin September 24 – 26 with four Pay-What-You-Can previews and run until October 18, 2026 at the Washington Stage Guild’s home, The Undercroft Theatre in the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Opening/Press performance is Sunday, September 27 at 2:30pm.
ABOUT THE PLAY:
Enter an abandoned (and possibly haunted) tavern in Sleepy Hollow for this haunting and humorous autumn treat. Rediscover the timeless legend of the headless horseman in author Washington Irving’s ghoulishly funny cautionary tale of overconfident schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his imminent encounter with the terrifying Headless Horseman – told by one actor. It’s a guaranteed visit of supernatural chills, laughs, and the power of storytelling that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
“A HIGH SPOOKINESS QUOTIENT [and] AN ABUNDANCE OF SILLINESS AND HUMOR FAST” – BroadwayWorld
“This SPELLBINDING theatrical experience combines humor, suspense, romance, and the supernatural. IT IS PERFECT FOR AUDIENCES OF ALL AGES!” – MetrMag
FROM DIRECTOR STEVEN CARPENTER
“With this exhilarating new adaptation by John Milligan, we’re honored to introduce the next generation to America’s oldest and most enduring ghost story. It’s a tale that so many of us remember as one of our earliest haunts, whether from the Disney animated version, the Johnny Depp/Christina Ricci movie, or the compact prose of Irving’s original. Continuing this tradition, John’s version brings a fright, striking like a ghost in the dark. I feel very fortunate to collaborate on this project with an old Stage Guild friend, Peter Boyer, an actor with consummate storytelling skills, generous with humor, energy, versatility, and creativity.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
John Minigan is a recent Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing. He has had new work commissioned by Concert Theatre Works, Gloucester Stage Company, The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Back Porch Theater, Funky Little Theatre Company, and The Plumbing Museum. His plays have been presented in New York by Circle Rep, Hey Jonté, Core Artist Ensemble, Greenhouse Ensemble, Up Theater, Playground Ensemble, CreateTheater, Urban Stages, ANDTheatre, Shelter West, and others, and produced around the US and UK by Gloucester Stage Company, Barrington Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Centastage, Dean Productions, Good Company, YASPLZ, Gather by the Ghostlight, and more. He has had new plays developed and workshopped at Portland Stage Company, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Great Plains Theatre Commons, The Madison New Works Lab, Moonbox Productions, New Repertory Theatre, The Green Mountain New Play Festival, Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Vermont, Dayton Playhouse, The Landing Theatre, Theatre Resources Unlimited, and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater; selected four times for the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival, for TRU Voices (NYC), Orange Tea Theatre (Amsterdam), The Lanford Wilson Festival, SoBe Arts, IMPACT 15 International Theatre Festival, BARE Essentials and Best of BARE Essentials (London), the Boston Theater Marathon, Short + Sweet (Dubai, Los Angeles, Sydney, Delhi, and Queensland), the Snowdance Comedy Festival, Seoul Players (South Korea), Boston Play Café, and with Gather by the Ghostlight and other podcasts.
His plays have won the 2025 Playwrights’ Revolution at Sacramento’s Capital Stage, the 2023 Broadway World Award for Best New Play in Boston, the 2022 Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting from The Kennedy Center/Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the 2022 Louise Wigglesworth Excellence in Playwriting Award from The Lab Theater of Florida. His work was also a 2020 winner of the New American Voices Festival, a 2019 Clauder Competition Gold Prize winner, a finalist for the 2018 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, a finalist for the 2014 Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and a nominee for the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script produced in Boston in 2023, 2019, and 2015. His short plays have also won numerous competitions and awards.
John’s work is published by Ghost Light Publications, Applause, Smith & Kraus, YouthPLAYS, Theatrefolk, and university presses. The Asylum Giant film Noir-Man, based on his play The Maltese Walter, is currently on the film festival circuit. John served as the Dramatists Guild Ambassador for the Boston Region from 2018 to 2025 and is currently affiliate faculty at Emerson College and has taught at Shakespeare & Company, the Huntington Theatre Company, and The Hanover Theatre Conservatory.
Washington Irving (Original story; 1783 – 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as the Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as the American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The cast of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow features Peter Boyer.
Peter Boyer previously appeared at Washington Stage Guild in Sofonisba, Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Discord. He has also been seen locally at Arena Stage (Holiday), Ford’s Theatre (1776, Parade, Shenandoah), Shakespeare Theatre Company (Way of the World), Olney Theatre (1776, The Sound of Music), Rep Stage (The Fantasticks), MetroStage (Broadway Christmas Carol, Uprising), Infinity Theatre (The Fantasticks), Imagination Stage (Heidi, Sleeping Beauty), Adventure Theatre (Tinkerbell, How I Became a Pirate), Baltimore Shakespeare Festival (Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Scapin!) and the Alliance for New Music Theatre (Vanek Unleashed). He has performed in theatres across the country, in shows such as Unnecessary Farce at the Tent Theatre in Springfield MO, My Fair Lady at the Ozark Actors Theatre in Rolla MO, Groucho: A Life in Revue at Wayside Theatre in Middletown VA, Twelfth Night at the Cumberland Theatre in Cumberland MD, as well as several shows in Colorado, Ohio, and much of the mid-West. His plays Captain Hook: My Story, or How I Clawed My Way to the Top and Tofana Bobana have received multiple productions in the Washington-Baltimore area.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is directed by WSG Associate Artistic Director Steven Carpenter. Steven’s WSG directing credits include last season’s The One Good Thing – or “Are ya’ Patrick Swayze?”, as well as Faithless, An Unbuilt Life, Major Barbara, Sam & Dede, Resolving Hedda, Red Herring, Opus, and The Underpants, among others. Other area productions include God of Carnage at Compass Rose, The Cripple of Inishmaan at 1st Stage, The Price, and ART at Bay Theatre, Barrymore, Hysteria, and Trumbo for Rep Stage, and The Chosen at Theater J. He received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for his production of Thief River at Theatre Alliance and was a recipient of the Mary Goldwater Award for Directing. Steven has appeared on stage at WSG in Accused!, Escape from the Asylum and The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective, as well as Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, Bloomsday, Hard Times, Pygmalion, and The Philanderer(Helen Hayes nomination) along with numerous others. A third Helen Hayes nomination came for providing the onstage sound effects for the Guild’s It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.
The production team includes Brandon Roak (Scenic Design), Marianne Meadows (Lighting Design), Cody von Ruden (Costume Design), Thom J. Woodward (Sound Design), David Elias (Production Stage Manager), and Luca Maggs(Assistant Stage Manager).
DATES & TICKETS
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Minigan, from a story by Washington Irving, runs September 24 to October 18, 2026 with performances Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2:30pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 2:30pm. The run begins with four Pay-What-You-Can performances Thursday, September 24 at 7:30pm, Friday, September 25 at 8pm, and Saturday, September 26 at 2:30pm & 8pm (Pay What You Can tickets can be purchased for any cash price at the door beginning one hour prior to curtain). Opening/Press performance is Sunday, September 27 at 2:30pm.
All tickets are General Admission and are $60. Student Admission is half-price with a valid Student ID. Senior Citizens 65 years and up get $10 OFF General Admission Prices. Groups of 10 or more get half-price tickets.
NEW:
Special “Sweet 16” Discounted Tickets – Stage Guild is offering a limited amount of 16 tickets at discounted price of $16 for each performance from Sun, September 27 thru Sun, October 18. Use the code SWEET16 (Pay-What-You-Can previews excluded as they are already discounted). Purchase at stageguild.org/buy-tickets.
ABOUT THE THEATRE
Founded in 1986 by a professional company of theatre artists dedicated to producing literate, challenging works in a collegial and supportive atmosphere, the Washington Stage Guild quickly established itself as an indispensable component of the D.C. area theatre scene; recognized as early as the end of the first season (1987) by The Washington Post. The ensemble theatre company’s acclaimed repertoire of neglected classics, unfamiliar works by familiar playwrights, and stimulating new plays from around the world is presented in a style that is the Guild’s own—direct and clear, with a strong commitment to adhering to the author’s intent.
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