The predominant story in Bay Area theater in the past year continues to be company closures and the regular announcement of emergency fund raisers to stave off further closures.
No theater company is immune to the financial pressures created by the combination of the increase in costs of doing business and the reduction of income that comes with smaller audiences.
Other than the closure of Sebastopol’s Main Stage West in 2023, North Bay theater companies have managed to survive and even occasionally thrive in this difficult time for the performing arts. Companies have announced their plans for the 2024/25 season, with one company even announcing plans for an ambitious new venue.
That company, Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater, has vacated their home of over 50 years and will be taking their shows on the road while they raise the funds to construct a new theater in the Petaluma Village Outlet Mall. For the foreseeable future, Cinnabar has relocated to Sonoma State University’s Warren Auditorium in Ives Hall on the SSU campus in Rohnert Park. The auditorium was the university’s original performing space before being supplanted by Person Theatre and the Green Music Center.
Cinnabar will open their season there on Sept. 13 with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Director Zachary Hasbany hopes audiences “Cain’t Say No” to this classic musical.
Just a stone’s throw from SSU, the Spreckels Theatre Company opens their season on Aug. 30 with You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Elly Lichenstein directs a bunch of adults as a bunch of kids and, of course, a certain dog in a series of musical vignettes based on… well, you know.
Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse opens their season with Four Guys Named José… And Una Mujer Named María. Director and choreographer Erin Rose Solorio says that it’s “a heartfelt musical full of silly fun. It celebrates Latin culture and pride, creates nostalgia for the homeland through songs telling family stories and unifies everyone with its beautiful universal message. Love, family, music and dance connect us all.” The show opens in the GK Hardt Theater on Aug. 30.
Left Edge Theatre veers right with their season opener, Heroes of the Fourth Turning. The play, about a group of graduates from an ultraconservative/religious college having a reunion of sorts, was a favorite of conservative and religious media as well as a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist. It opens Sept. 5 at The California in Santa Rosa.
Young Frankenstein will be stumbling around Sonoma starting Sep. 6. Larry Williams directs the Sonoma Arts Live season opener that’s based on Mel Brooks’ beloved 1974 film. The film wasn’t a musical (but for one classic scene), but Brooks turned it into one after the enormous success of The Producers.
Healdsburg’s Raven Players open their season on Sept. 5 with a premiere production of a work by a local playwright. Steven David Martin directs Francine Schwartz’s The German Upstairs. It’s a fictional love story inspired by true events and set in Paris during its occupation by the Nazis.
Monte Rio’s Curtain Call Theatre unleashes the God of Carnage on Sept. 6.
Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions hopes audiences won’t object to Legally Blonde The Musical. Elle Woods and Bruiser begin traipsing around Napa on Sept. 13.
From musical comedies to thought-provoking dramas, North Bay theater companies seem to be offering something for everyone seeking to support live theater in our community. Go see something.
