FDR'S VERY HAPPY HOUR
FDR’s Very Happy Hour Announces
National Tour for the 2026-27 Season
Following October 2025 Premiere at
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Conceived by Regan Linton & M. Graham Smith
Written & Performed by Regan Linton
Directed by M. Graham Smith
October 15-26 at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Industry Presentations in NYC, January 2026
High Hard Heat (Producer Dominick Balletta) has announced that they will present a national tour of FDR’s Very Happy Hour (featured in the New York Times as one of the top Plays to See in the U.S. This Fall), an immersive civics experiment conceived by Regan Linton and M. Graham Smith, written and performed by Regan Linton and directed by M. Graham Smith.
The 2026/27 tour will follow the show’s World Premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Artistic Director Amelia Acosta Powell, Managing Director Emily Tarquin), October 15-26, 2025.
There will be by invitation only industry presentations of the show held in NYC in January 2026. For more information or for industry seats to the Actors Theatre of Louisville production, please contact
Tour Booking Manager Megan E Carter at Carter Creative Services
718.564.4055
For National Tour press information, please contact
Emily Owens PR
emily@emilyowenspr.com
917-208-6385
Production Shots
From the World Premiere Production at
Actors of Theatre of Louisville
Photo Credit: Audrey Cecil
OUR STORY
Franklin Delano Roosevelt hosted a cocktail hour nearly every day at the White House, welcoming folks from different backgrounds to sip martinis, laugh, and connect. Inspired by FDR’s love of stirring up drinks and lively conversation to unwind in challenging times, this immersive new play mixes humor and history to build on this tradition for our era, asking how the 32nd President’s triumphs and failures might illuminate our own civic health. As FDR invites us to ponder life, a complicated legacy, and the pursuit of community, strangers become friends—and perhaps, together, we can find ways to talk with our neighbors again.
At each performance FDR will turn the spotlight over to a different local ‘change maker’ - someone who is making a difference in their community and/or the world at large. These are the vital underseen and underrecognized heroes of civil society. Examples of change makers include social workers, journalists, teachers, community volunteers, non profit organizers, activists and historians.
FDR’s Very Happy Hour was originally commissioned by PAC NYC.
The play has previously received developmental workshops at Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, American Conservatory Theater,
Washington Center for Performing Arts, and Actors Theatre of Louisville.
OUR CREATIVE TEAM
REGAN LINTON
Regan Linton (Writer/Performer/Co-Creator) (she/her) is a multi-genre creator, writer, actor, director, and internationally-recognized leader in the arts, specializing in disability aesthetics and accessible design. Her eclectic creative and leadership experience includes co-directing the award-winning documentary imperfect about professional actors with disabilities (30+ film festivals, now streaming) and writer/director of the short film Jack and the Beanstalk with Warner Bros/Discovery Access’ Reframed: Next Gen Narratives. Featured original plays include FDR”s Very Happy Hour; The Menagerist, and Squishy But Firm: Sexcapades of a Crip Girl, and TYA shows for DC's National Theatre. Regan spent five years as Artistic Director of the preeminent disability affirmative Phamaly Theatre Company in Denver, and has led comprehensive accessibility curation of countless creative projects, including David Byrne's immersive experience Theatre of the Mind; Regional acting includes Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mixed Blood, Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-Center, Phamaly, The Apothetae, and voiceover for Audible audiobooks and virtual gaming. Regan is a featured columnist for New Mobility Magazine covering topics such as body image, sexuality, and self-actualization; and guest lectures at countless academic, government, business, and nonprofit institutions across the world. MFA in Acting UC San Diego, Master of Social Work University of Denver, BA from USC. Regan hails from Denver, CO and lives with a T-4 complete spinal cord injury. www.reganlinton.com
M. GRAHAM SMITH
M. Graham Smith (Director/Co-Creator) (he/him) is a freelance Director, Educator, and Producer. Recent directing credits: World Premieres of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon (Magic Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe), The Mortification of Fovea Munson (The Kennedy Center); Father/Daughter (Aurora); West Coast premieres of White Chip (B Street), Pickleball (B Street), You for Me for You (Crowded Fire), and White (Shotgun). He teaches at A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep. He’s a graduate of Wesleyan University where he directed the first workshop of In The Heights.