\n
![\"Cygnet](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-STAGEJOAN-09-12.jpg\")
Cygnet Theatre co-founders Sean Murray, left, Bill Schmidt and Lisa Johnson, the president and CEO of Arts District Liberty Station, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nThe scorecard for San Diego\u2019s theater scene in 2025 was marked by some losses but mostly wins.<\/p>\n
On the downside, many companies reduced the size of their seasons to cope with rising production expenses and a decline in federal grants along with state arts budget cuts. But individual San Diego donors and organizations like the San Diego\u2019s Conrad Prebys Foundation stepped up this year to help fill the gap.<\/p>\n
On the upside, local theaters and San Diego Opera managed to collectively produce nearly 150 productions countywide this year, including numerous world premiere plays and musicals. A glorious new theater complex opened in the Point Loma area and a beloved local theater leader took his final bow before heading to New York.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at the year in San Diego theater.<\/p>\n
The Joan opens its doors
\nCygnet Theatre co-founders Sean Murray, left, Bill Schmidt and Lisa Johnson, the president and CEO of Arts District Liberty Station, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
On Sept. 5, the $43.5 million Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center opened<\/a> at Arts District Liberty Station. Nicknamed \u201cThe Joan\u201d \u2014 in honor of the late San Diego philanthropist, who with her husband, Irwin, donated $10 million toward the project \u2014 the 42,166-square-foot, two-theater complex was built inside a historic 1942-era U.S. Navy recreation building. Eight years in the planning stages, The Joan is owned by Arts District Liberty Station and managed by anchor tenant Cygnet Theatre, which will provide performance space to other performing arts groups whenever it\u2019s not in production. Meanwhile, Cygnet\u2019s former home, the city-owned Old Town Theatre, is now being booked through 2026 by local youth and adult companies who do not have a space to call their own. Speaking of theaters, Oceanside Theatre Company broke ground Tuesday on a major renovation of its 90-year-old city-owned home, the Sunshine Brooks Theater.<\/p>\n Christopher Ashley says farewell After 18 years at the helm of La Jolla Playhouse, artistic director Christopher Ashley steps down<\/a> at the end of this month to move on to his new position as artistic director of the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City, one of the largest and most prestigious nonprofit theaters in America. During his tenure, the affable and soft-spoken Ashley sent 20 shows to Broadway, including the Tony-winning musicals \u201cMemphis\u201d and \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d and the globally acclaimed \u201cCome From Away,\u201d which earned Ashley a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Ashley also created numerous institutional programs at the Playhouse, including the WOW Festival, DNA New Work Series, Resident Theater Program and more. Replacing Ashley will be two-time Tony Award-nominated stage director Jessica Stone, who will be the Playhouse\u2019s first woman artistic director<\/a>. She\u2019ll arrive early next year.<\/p>\n Another big name in San Diego regional theater, Tim Shields<\/a>, announced this year that he\u2019ll be retiring from his position as managing director of The Old Globe in 2026. A search is underway for his replacement. Shields guided the Globe through the challenging times of the COVID-19 lockdown and has been praised by artistic director Barry Edelstein for his leadership. \u201cTim is the dean of theater managers in the United States, Edelstein said in October. \u201cHe\u2019s clearly exemplary and has transformed the place in ways the audience will never see in the internal systems he created, the hires he\u2019s made and the changes in how we do business. The community of San Diego owes Tim Shields a great debt of gratitude and he\u2019ll be tough to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n Curtain rises for OnWord Theatre Last spring, a new theater company launched in San Diego. OnWord Theatre<\/a> was founded by three African American female artists: actor\/director Marti Gobel, the company\u2019s producing artistic director; Jamaelya Hines, its managing director and resident artist; and Danielle Bunch, OnWord\u2019s marketing director and production manager. Their first season included three well-staged, thought-provoking plays in three different venues. OnWord\u2019s just-announced second season<\/a> is even more ambitious, with four challenging issue-oriented plays and a staged reading.<\/p>\n CCAE Theatricals transforms From 2021 to 2023, the fledgling CCAE Theatricals<\/a> produced some of San Diego County\u2019s most-awarded adult-cast musicals, including two world premieres. But when Escondido\u2019s city-owned arts center reduced its budget to eliminate CCAE Theatricals as its in-house live theater producer, the theater company trimmed its budget to program only youth plays and drama camps, play-reading events and live concerts. On Dec. 2, the company re-emerged as the newly rebranded Mosaic Theatricals. Mosaic will focus on grant-funded theater for young audiences productions, a theater workforce development internship program with Cal State San Marcos and the continuation of its spring and summer youth theater workshops and live concerts. It still hopes to produce one big musical each year, as the budget allows.<\/p>\n Five new musicals Five new musicals made their world premieres in 2025 at La Jolla Playhouse and The Old Globe, making San Diego one of the nation\u2019s largest producers of new American musicals. At the Playhouse, three new works \u2014 all directed by Christopher Ashley \u2014 were \u201c3 Summers of Lincoln,\u201d \u201cThe Heart\u201d and \u201cWorking Girl.\u201d At the Old Globe, \u201cRegency Girls\u201d and \u201cHuzzah!\u201d made their debuts.<\/p>\n Diverse new plays There were also numerous world premiere plays in San Diego in 2025, many by Latinx, Asian, LBGTQ and women playwrights. Among these new works were Eliana Theologides Rodriguez\u2019s \u201cIndian Princesses,\u201d<\/a> Steven Dietz\u2019s \u201cPeril in the Alps,\u201d<\/a> Carla Navarro\u2019s \u201cFragment\/o\/s of Air\/e,\u201d<\/a> Deepak Kumar\u2019s \u201cHouse of India,\u201d<\/a> Anna Ziegler\u2019s \u201cThe Janeiad,\u201d<\/a> Mabelle Reynoso\u2019s \u201cLa Llorona on the Blue Line\u201d<\/a> and \u201cYoung Audiences,<\/a>\u201d Noah Diaz\u2019s \u201cAll the Men Who\u2019ve Frightened Me,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0Francis Gercke\u2019s \u201cThe Dark Heart of Dooley Stevens,\u201d<\/a> Paul Slade Smith\u2019s \u201cBeside Myself,\u201d<\/a> Keiko Green\u2019s \u201cEmpty Ride\u201d<\/a> and Anna Sandor\u2019s \u201cKnock Loudly.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Goodbyes<\/p>\n San Diego\u2019s theater community lost two major donors as well as two creative artists who contributed to the local arts scene in years past. Philanthropists Donald L. Cohn<\/a>, who twice served as president of the board for The Old Globe, passed May 2. Philanthropist Doug Diamond<\/a>, who with his wife, Alice, championed San Diego\u2019s small theaters, passed in July. Former San Diegan David Lee Cuthbert, a prolific lighting, scenic and projection designer, passed Feb. 11. And famed South African playwright Athol Fugard, who spent several years in San Diego as a theater faculty member at UC San Diego and writing plays for La Jolla Playhouse, died March 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scorecard for San Diego\u2019s theater scene in 2025 was marked by some losses but mostly wins. On…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":462465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,171,1370,3549,3550,7264,1148,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,1572],"class_list":{"0":"post-462464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-theater","17":"tag-things-to-do","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-year-in-review"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115758355524054477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-CHRISTOPHER-ASHLEY005.jpg\")
Christopher Ashley, who has served as artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse for 18 years, is stepping down, shown here at the Mandell Weiss Theatre on December 1, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sut-l-stage-onword-theatre-02.jpg\")
The co-founders of OnWord Theatre, from left, are marketing director Danielle Bunch, producing artistic director Marti Gobel and managing director Jamaelya Hines. (Michael Hari \/ Fade Out Media)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sut-l-stage-mosaic.jpg\")
Members of Mosaic Theatricals creative and management team. Back row, left to right, artistic apprentice DeAndre Simmons, technical design apprentice Patricia Lutz, Executive Director Julianna Crespo and Interim Artistic Director Tom Abruzzo. Front row, left to right, box office associate Holly Lapp, senior marketing and commuity relations apprentice Jayden Smith, education program specialist Valeria Vazquez, marketing and community relations specialist Mariana Perezchica and senior philanthropy apprentice Brenda Vazquez. (Stephen Daniels)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Krystina](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sut-l-stage-regency-girls-03.jpg\")
Krystina Alabado as Dabney, left, Kate Rockwell as Jane, Isabelle McCalla as Elinor and Ryann Redmond as Petunia in the Old Globe\u2019s world premiere musical \u201cRegency Girls,\u201d (Jim Cox)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Keren](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sut-l-stage-allthemen1_79c48d.jpg\")
Keren Lugo as Carrie, left, and Hennessy Winkler as Ty in La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s world-premiere production of Noah Diaz\u2019s play \u201cAll the Men Who\u2019ve Frightened Me.\u201d (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\n