Fall Arts Preview | The Play’s the Thing

The Play’s the Thing

The Theatrical Stages Offer a Wealth of
Treasures in Santa Barbara and Beyond

By Leslie Dinaberg | September 26, 2026

Read more of our 2024 Fall Arts Preview cover story here.

With fall in the air and Halloween on the horizon, Ensemble Theatre Company’s season opener couldn’t be more apt. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors pits a leather-clad Dracula up against tough-lady Jean Van Helsing in a comic adventure that runs October 10-27. Promising more than enough tongue-in-cheek mayhem to fill your cup of giggles, this off-Broadway comic hit was written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen and directed by Jamie Torcellini. 

Also on the ETC playbill is the Tony Award–nominated Million Dollar Quartet, a musical tale set on December 4, 1956, when an extraordinary twist of fate brought Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley together at Sun Records in Memphis for what would be one of the greatest jam sessions ever. On stage December 5-22, this show features beloved hit songs, such as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Walk the Line,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Hound Dog,” and more.

Look for a variety of musical genres to take the stage of SOhO on October 27, when Out of the Box Theatre Company presents Family Album, a collection of character songs described as an anthology of short stories set to music. 

The Theatre Group at SBCC takes us to New York October 9-26 with Neil Simon’s comedic memory play Lost in Yonkers, which many consider to be the playwright’s best work. Set in Yonkers in 1942, it’s the story of two brothers who are uprooted and forced to move in with their strict grandmother and an assortment of quirky and mysterious relatives. Also on the schedule, November 13-23, is the student showcase production of Mrs. Bob Crachit’s Wild Christmas Binge. A comedy with music by Tony Award winner Christopher Durang, this is a fresh and funny take on A Christmas Carol. 

Mark your calendars for October 17-20 at Center Stage Theater, when DramaDogs celebrates more than 30 years of bringing innovative and engaging theatrical performances to the Santa Barbara community with their just-announced production of HERE!: This Moment for Women. Congratulations are in order for Co-Artistic Directors E. Bonnie Lewis and Ken Gilbert, who have been bringing diverse, cutting-edge theatrical experiences to town for three decades. Stay tuned for more details on what they have planned. 

A Cowboy Lullaby kicks off the Rubicon Theatre’s 26th season December 4-22 in Ventura. This world premiere concert explores the truths, myths, lies, and legends of the American West, and the poetry of characters with dreams as vast as the open range.

PCPA’s fall offerings at the Marian Theatre in Santa Maria include the beloved Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, from November 7 to December 22. This family-friendly “tale as old as time” features matinees on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as evening performances. Blast Off, inspired by the life of the first Latina astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, produced in partnership with Children’s Creative Project, will be visiting a variety of schools in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and will also offer three public performances (Nov. 2-3) at the Severson Theatre in Santa Maria.

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Will we ever find out if it was Colonel Mustard in the library with the knife or Mrs. Peacock in the study with a wrench? Based on the classic Hasbro board game and the 1985 movie, Clue comes to the Broadway in Santa Barbara series at The Granada Theatre November 26-27. The ultimate whodunit physical comedy is a farce-meets-murder-mystery event tailor-made for the whole family to enjoy together. 

A fundraiser for the wonderful work of the nonprofit New Beginnings, The Boys Next Door, by Tom Griffin, delves into the lives of four men with developmental disabilities living together. Directed by Jenny Sullivan with Rod Lathim as dramaturg, this show, on November 2 at the New Vic, promises to be both moving and entertaining. 

Westmont opens its fall productions on September 28 with Ada and the Engine by Lauren Gunderson, which is part of a reading series curated and directed by Madeline Fanton. The brilliant Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first computer program, is the main character in this piece. Next up, with shows between October 25 and November 2, is The 39 Steps, a spy mystery directed by Mitchell Thomas. Then on November 23, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, they have The Thanksgiving Play, a wicked satire staged by ETC in fall of 2023, which follows a troupe of overly woke teaching artists as they scramble to conceive a pageant that celebrates both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.

The underground theater scene seems to be perking up a bit in town with the arrival of Shimmy Shimmy Productions. They present Spy for Spy September 21-22 and October 12-13. Kieron Barry’s play is a romantic comedy with a twist: Sarah (an uptight lawyer) and Molly (a free spirit) have a love story that’s performed like a playlist, with the scenes shuffled into a random sequence by the audience each night. Then there’s the performance art piece When the Lights Go Out, a combination of burlesque, aerial, multimedia and more, October 3-6.

The election season is a ripe time for Fight Night on October 15. UCSB Arts & Lectures brings the innovative Belgian theater company Ontroerend Goed to town for a fun and thought-provoking night of interactive theater, putting digital voting devices — and the fate of five fictional candidates — into the hands of the audience.

UCSB’s Naked Shakes production of Much Ado About Nothing is back on campus October 11-13, after a previous run at Elings Park. Also on the horizon is Amplify GO: Plays in a Day, a student-run 24 hours’ worth of new short plays written, directed, and acted by UCSB students, faculty, and staff on October 26. Also at UCSB, the fall One-Act productions, directed by senior directing students, are November 9-10, and The Threepenny Opera, directed by Indy Award winner Annie Torsiglieri, is November 15-23. 

For more information on all of these productions, see americantheatreguild.com/santabarbara, artsandlectures.ucsb.edu, dramadogs.org, etcsb.org, outoftheboxtheatre.org, pcpa.org, rubicontheatre.org, sbnbcc.org, shimmyshimmyproductions.com, theaterdance.ucsb.edu/news, theatregroupsbcc.com, and westmont.edu/watchtheater.