With the end of the school years, comes the end of the season for many performing arts organizations, large and small.

Among the major arts organizations, the Seattle Symphony is closing the first season under the artistic leadership of Xian Zhang, and the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Union Arts Center are opening their last shows of the 2025-26 season this week.

For a more intimate show but now less important, Lowbrow Opera Collective closes their season with Sally Ride, a new opera about the first American woman and first known LGBTQIA+ astronaut in space. The world premiere opera runs through Saturday at The Theater Off Jackson.

Ashley Biehl and Jenny Green alternate as Sally Ride. Sarah Fletcher and Myah Rose Paden alternate as Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride’s partner for 27 years until Ride’s death in 2012. O’Shaughnessy, who consulted on the opera, will be at Friday’s show for a talk-back after the performance.

“It is such an incredible honor to play Tam, (an honor) I don’t take lightly,” Fletcher said. “Tam is a powerhouse both in women’s sports and science.

“She has taken Sally’s legacy to incredible lengths with Sally Ride Science. We asked her if it would be hard to watch the story of her and Sally on the stage; she said she believes in the truth, and it is important for their story to be known. I hope to embody her strength, brilliance, and perseverance, as well as highlight the many years-long relationship between her and Sally that started when they were 12 years old.”

The opera was composed by Dana Kaufman, who is also Associate Professor in Music Composition at the University of California, Riverside. The libretto was written by Aiden K. Feltkamp.

“Their story of friendship turning romantic and navigating the public dynamic of their queer relationship is both heartwarming, tragic, and transcendent,” Fletcher said. “I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. O’Shaughnessy on this incredibly moving and important telling of Sally’s story as the first American woman in space.”

Kaufman said the arts, and a show like Sally Ride in particular, are essential today.

“To me, opera has the potential to be a powerful vehicle for storytelling, freedom of speech, and civil liberties,” Kaufman said. “Sally Ride explores the life of the first American woman and first known LGBTQ+ person to go to space, bringing pressing societal issues to the forefront. In a political climate that continuously challenges women's and LGBTQ+ rights, upholds barriers for folks from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM fields and the arts, and actively discourages creation of art about these very subjects, librettist Aiden Feltkamp and I believe Sally Ride to be a timely part of a hopeful call to action.”

In the meantime, the symphony is performing Mahler’s 7th this week, including a Saturday evening performance. They close the season next week with Beethoven’s 9th featuring a row of all-star soloists, Friday-Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Beethoven’s centuries-old opus will be set against Steven Mackey’s contemporary composition, RIOT with Mackey on electric guitar. It will be a reunion for Xian and Mackey, who have collaborated going back to Xian’s days in New Jersey.

The Seattle Rep closes the season with the campy comedy The Play That Goes Wrong. Costumes by two-time Gregory Award-winner Melanie Taylor Burgess are exquisite. The play is directed by Seattle Rep artistic director Dámaso Rodríguez. The show opens Friday and runs through June 28.

The visual arts and performing arts collide in Union Arts Center’s production of Frida … A Self-Portrait. Playwright Vanessa Severo performs in the one-woman show about the iconic Mexican painter known for her bright self-portraits. Joanie Schultz directs. The show opened on Thursday and runs through June 28.