Stray Cat Theatre Schedules Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself in Tempe, Arizona, February 2026 Run
Production dates and venue
Stray Cat Theatre has scheduled performances of How to Defend Yourself by playwright Liliana Padilla for February 13–28, 2026. The production is set to run at the Tempe Center for the Arts, Studio Theatre, located at 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway in Tempe, Arizona.
The staging is directed by Elizabeth Broeder. The dates place the play within Stray Cat Theatre’s 2025–2026 season, with all season productions listed to take place at the Tempe Center for the Arts Studio Theatre.
What the play is about
How to Defend Yourself centers on seven college students who convene for a do-it-yourself self-defense workshop after a sexual assault on their campus. Within that framework, the play depicts how self-defense training becomes a conduit for anger, fear, trauma, and desire, while also confronting questions of power, agency, consent, and the social conditions that shape campus life.
Marketing materials for the production describe a tone that combines humor with frank discussion of violence and sexual assault, indicating that the material is designed for adult audiences and includes explicit language.
Context: the play’s production history
The script has a performance history that includes a premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville in March 2019, followed by a production at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago in January 2020. It later received an off-Broadway staging at New York Theatre Workshop that opened in February 2023. Licensing information lists the work as a full-length play running approximately 105 minutes.
Audience information and content advisory
Available production notices for the Tempe engagement include a content advisory stating that the play addresses sexual violence and contains frank discussion of sex and sexual assault, with depictions of physical violence and explicit language. The advisory also notes that strobe lighting and simulated smoking devices are used during the performance.
Production: How to Defend Yourself, by Liliana Padilla
Director: Elizabeth Broeder
Run: February 13–28, 2026
Venue: Tempe Center for the Arts, Studio Theatre (Tempe, Arizona)
The production’s published advisory highlights themes of sexual violence, explicit language, and the use of strobe lighting and simulated smoking devices.
Stray Cat Theatre’s season listing identifies the Tempe Center for the Arts Studio Theatre as the venue for its 2025–2026 productions, situating How to Defend Yourself within a broader lineup presented at the same location.