by Harry Duke *

With summer drawing to close, local theatre companies are prepping their houses for a robust 2026/27 season. Live theatre productions in Northern Sonoma County will include the usual mixture of the tried and true along with a sprinkling of newer works to keep things interesting for the frequent theatre-goer.

Healdsburg’s Raven Players open their season with macbitches, a sort of Mean Girls meets Shakespeare mash-up. Jeanette Seisdedos directs the dark comedy that follows a group of high school girls vying for the role of Lady Macbeth in their scholastic Shakespeare production. Treachery abounds at the Raven Performing Arts Theater starting Sept. 11.  

They’ll follow that in October with Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Steven David Martin directs the tale of lost love, revenge, and original recipes. The slicing, dicing, and baking opens on Oct. 23 

Sonoma County is the setting for The Strongest Man in Town: A Vintage Tale. Local playwright Tony Sciulla spins a tale about vintners looking to open a new, high-end Wine Country resort to the consternation of their neighbors. Inspired by Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, the classic conflict between people and profits takes the stage on Jan. 22.

Hurricane Diane lands in Healdsburg in February ‘27. Athena Gundlach directs Madeleine George’s comic reimagining of the classic Greek tragedy The Bacchae. 

Harry Potter gets parodied in Puffs: or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic by Matt Cox. The play looks at a group of young wizards not named Harry, Hermione, or Ron who are not destined to save the world. It will have a three-week run in May.

The Raven Players circle back in June for more high school hijinks with their season-closing production of Mean Girls. It’s the musical adaptation of Tina Fey’s popular 2004 movie about an outsider taking on a high school clique. (raventheater.org)

The 222 has an extended season of small-scale theatrical offerings for local audiences beginning with Red, John Logan’s Tony-winning play that explores the intense, tumultuous relationship between abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko and his fictional assistant, Ken, in the late 1950s. It will be unveiled at the Paul Mahder Gallery on Sep. 11.

The Aldo Billingsley-programmed season continues in October with True West, Sam Shepard’s classic drama about battling brothers, while December brings a weekend run of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Shakespeare’s tale of tyranny and assassination is a popular choice of North Bay theatre companies this season. 

The New Year will bring productions of Lauren Gunderson’s I and You, Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor, and Harold Pinter’s The Betrayal to downtown Healdsburg. (the222.org)

The Cloverdale Performing Arts Center has scheduled four productions for their 26/27 season beginning with The Business of Murder by British playwright Richard Harris (not the actor). Christopher Johnston directs the murder mystery which enjoyed a long eight-year run in Britain’s West End beginning in 1981. It opens Nov. 13.  

Comedian Steve Martin has written a few plays over the years, including Meteor Shower. Two couples gather at an Ojai home to watch the title event and all hell breaks loose. You can join them in the Shower in February.

Things go a little darker with their May presentation of The Girl on the Train. Based on the international bestselling psychological thriller and movie, Train is scheduled to depart in May.

CPAC ends their season on a somewhat lighter note with Christopher Durangs’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Three middle-aged siblings and a Hollywood him-bo deal with several Chekhov-ian situations in this popular comedy. (cloverdaleperformingarts.com)

Season tickets are available from all these companies and I know they’d appreciate your considering purchasing them for yourself or as a gift for others. It’s one of the best ways to support local theatre.

This preview originally appeared in The Healdsburg Tribune.