News

The new season features six productions of bold new plays: 

The Big Meal by Dan LeFranck

Zombie Town by Tim Baur

Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon,

You Got Older by Claire Baron

Race by David Mamet

The Money Shot by Neil Labute

Santa Rosa, CA (April 21, 2016)  Left Edge Theatre’s Artistic Director Argo Thompson announces the theatre’s 2016-2017 season. 

The Big Meal

A comedy by Dan LeFranck

September 9 – 25, 2016

Directed by Argo Thompson

"Packed with humanity and humor, The Big Meal dishes up laughs and tears." —NY Daily News

THE STORY: Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. Sparks fly. And so begins an expansive tale that traverses five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to final goodbye. A stunning, big-hearted play that spans nearly eighty years in roughly ninety minutes, The Big Meal tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary family.

Zombie Town

A comedic mockumentary by Tim Bauer

October 14 – 30, 2016

Directed by Nick Sholley

Big Easy Awards 2010 Best Comedy nominee!

THE STORY: A theatre collective from San Francisco goes to Harwood, Texas to interview the surviving citizens of a recent zombie attack. This documentary play is the result of those interviews. Waiting For Guffman has nothing on this hilarious and hellacious satire of overly earnest theatre troupes, documentary plays and zombie madness.

Bad Jews

A comedy by Joshua Harmon

November 18 – December 4, 2016

"The best comedy of the season!" —NY Times

THE STORY: The night after their grandfather's funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal (and sometimes physical) battle. In one corner is Daphna Feygenbam, a "Real Jew" who is volatile, self-assure and unbending. In the other is her equally stubborn cousin Liam, a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiska girlfriend, Melody, in tow. Stuck in the middle is Liam's brother, Jonah, who tries to stay out of the fray. When Liam stakes claim to their grandfather's Chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl over family, faith and legacy ensues.

You Got Older

A comedy by Claire Baron

February 3 – 19, 2017

Winner 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting and Performance

THE STORY: Mae returns home to help take care of Dad and—maybe (a little) —herself. You Got Older is a tender and darkly comic new play about family, illness, and cowboys—and how to remain standing when everything you know comes crashing down around you.

Race  

A drama by David Mamet

March 10 – 26, 2017

Directed by Carl Jordan

THE STORY: Multiple award-winning playwright/director David Mamet tackles America's most controversial topic in a provocative new tale of sex, guilt and bold accusations. Two lawyers find themselves defending a wealthy white executive charged with raping a black woman. When a new legal assistant gets involved in the case, the opinions that boil beneath explode to the surface. When David Mamet turns the spotlight on what we think but can't say, dangerous truths are revealed, and no punches are spared.

The Money Shot

A comedy by Neil Labute

May 19 – June 4, 2017

Directed by Sandra Ish and Kimberly Kalember

Winner 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting and Performance

THE STORY: Karen and Steve are glamorous movie stars with one thing in common: desperation. It’s been years since either one’s had a hit, but a hot-shot European director could change that with his latest movie. The night before filming a big scene that will undoubtedly bring them back onto the pop culture radar, Karen and her partner, Bev, meet with Steve and his aspiring actress wife, Missy, in order to make an important decision. How far will they let themselves go to keep from slipping further down the Hollywood food chain? The Money Shot is a hilarious and insightful comedy about ambition, art, status, and sex in an era—and an industry—where very little is sacred and almost nothing is taboo.

TICKETS

Subscriptions: $162 for 6 shows (includes great perks and free upgrade to Reserved Premium Seats) For subscription information, visit https://www.leftedgetheatre.com/tickets/season-subscriptions

Single Tickets: $30 (General Admission),  $40 (Reserved Premium Seats)

For single ticket information, visit https://www.leftedgetheatre.com/tickets/single-tickets

MEMBERSHIPS

Membership pledges start at $25. Members are considered Special VIPs.

For membership pledge information, visit https://www.leftedgetheatre.com/tickets/memberships

ABOUT LET

Our Mission

We endeavor to thrill, challenge, and engage audiences with ideas that make us think more, laugh more, and feel more. With the highest artistic standards and the region's most talented theatre artists, we produce a professional season of ambitious performances in search of what is best in ourselves and in the human spirit.

The New Actors’ Theatre

In 1984, a group of local actors joined together to take a risk: produce a contemporary play never seen in the county before. Presented in an empty storefront in downtown Santa Rosa, the play was an astonishing critical and popular success. It became obvious there was an audience in Sonoma County that desired a contemporary point of view, an audience hungry for new work, the kind of cutting-edge, smart audience you wanted to have over for dinner.

For 20 years, Actors’ Theatre of Sonoma County delivered bold plays for contemporary audiences. Winning countless awards and accolades (including Best Theatre Company by the NB Bohemian readers poll 1998-2004), its audiences grew until merging with the Santa Rosa Players to form the 6th Street Playhouse.

Continuing the tradition of Actors’ Theatre, Left Edge Theatre endeavors to produce daring plays imaginatively staged for adventurous audiences.

When I first read the play Seminar, I was too young to play the teacher and too old to play any of the students. So I didn't have any aspirations for any of the roles, I just loved the play and humor. Years later, now tackling the the role of the teacher Leonard, I've discovered more parallels to my own experience as an artist than I care to openly admit. Leonard is a writer that has been through the "writing machine" and been spit out the other end. Older and wiser, he is searching for a way to validate his own life—make it all finally count for something—by passing on that experience to someone who can benefit from it. The problem is finding that person, but he may just have found it in his new crop of students.  

The process of rehearsing a play is often a mixed bag. There's the pressure of opening night always coming faster than you expect balanced with the thrill of exploring a new character and discovering new things about him/her (oftentimes discovering things about yourself in the process). You are thrust into a situation with a group of other theatre professionals, likely all of whom you've never even met before. So there's also a process of human discovery in parallel as actors, director, and crew get to know one another. Everyone is united in accomplishing the impossible or unlikely. To quote Shakespeare in Love, "Allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster."

Seminar has had an amazingly short rehearsal period (just three weeks!) and without the amazing cast coming together and making the magic and laughs happen, we wouldn't have been successful. Break a leg and see you at the theatre!

I love theatre and the power it has to unite us. It can illuminate our better nature and push the boundaries of convention. To me, there are only a few more honorable professions. But, I’m not good at any of those. ;)

I love Northern California, specifically Sonoma County. Many of you know I am a fourth-generation native. The awe inspiring natural beauty that surrounds us paired with the open-minded, truth-seeking, creative individuals who live here make it an unparalleled place to live.

"Stage Left" was a short movie made about theatre in the Bay Area outlining the history of progressive theatre in Northern California from the early 60s to now, and the impact it had on our nation.

Two of the interviews from the movie influenced me while crafting our new theatre venture. First, Tony Taccone said, “You can’t go any farther left than here. It breeds different things. It breeds the human imagination.” And Robin Williams said, “We have unusual people. Really on the edge. Because we live on the edge. Not only the ocean. But on a fault line.”

I have arrived at a time and place in life where I am compelled to do the things I love, say the things I believe are true, with the people I care about. To experience as much meaning and enjoyment from this existence as possible is what I call “Living on the Left Edge.”