Ensemble Theatre Company shines the spotlight on the golden state next season, with the theme “California Here and Now” exploring stories about our state with a lineup they describe as “a season that celebrates, interrogates, and lovingly skewers the state we call home.”
First up is Jonathan Tolins’s Buyer & Cellar (October 7–25), a one-man show about an out-of-work actor who lands the strangest gig of his life: working in the private shopping mall that Barbra Streisand built in the basement of her Malibu estate. What begins as a surreal job becomes an unexpected friendship as he navigates the absurd reality of playing shopkeeper to one of the world’s biggest stars.
The 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking musical Rent, with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, is up next (December 2–20). An ode to La Bohème, with a rock-driven score and the story of a group of young artists navigating love, friendship, and the challenges of life — the timeless message of love and loss and grabbing every minute of happiness you can out of life still resonates today.
The new year brings the world premiere musical The Last Used Car Lot in America (February 3–21, 2027), a poignant, contemporary musical that explores the lives of people working at a family-owned used car dealership facing an uncertain future in a rapidly changing world.
Then we’re off to the mean streets of San Francisco with The Maltese Falcon — adapted from the novel by Dashiell Hammett (April 7–25, 2027). This adaptation of the iconic noir crime novel puts six performers in the shadows, shapeshifting between roles to bring the 1920s underworld to smoldering life. At the center of it all is Sam Spade — cynical, magnetic, and always one step ahead.
Capping off the season is another American classic, True West — written by Sam Shepard (June 6–20 2027). It’s the Pulitzer Prize–winning story of two brothers: a clean-cut screenwriter, who is house-sitting in suburban Southern California and his older brother Lee, a drifting petty thief from the desert, who shows up uninvited. As the brothers clash over their wildly different lives and compete for their mother’s approval and Hollywood success, their sibling rivalry escalates into a savage battle that blurs the line between civilization and chaos.
“This season, we’re telling stories that are deeply, proudly Californian: the hustle and the heartbreak, the celebrity and the everyman, the old myths and the new realities. These are plays and musicals that ask what it means to live here, right now — and why it still matters,” said ETC’s Executive Artistic Director Scott DeVine in a statement announcing the upcoming season.
“This season is a reminder of why California stories matter. From Barbra Streisand’s basement to the streets of San Francisco, from a used car lot facing an uncertain future to two brothers tearing each other apart in a suburban kitchen — these are stories about who we are, where we come from, and what we’re still fighting to become. Theater is where we hold those questions together, in the dark, side by side.”
In addition to the season subscription packages, there are some add-ons available: Love Notes, written and performed by Hershey Felder (February 25–March 7, 2027) and the ongoing collaboration with the National Theatre of Great Britain, bringing a three productions (the titles and dates have yet to be announced) to the big screen at the New Vic during the 2026–2027 season.
Season subscription renewals begin April 22 and new subscriptions go on sale June 15, with single tickets are available to the general public beginning August 1. See etcsb.org for details.
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