Welcome to City Lights!
Since 1982, we’ve been inspiring, challenging and connecting with audiences through live theater. Starting in September: Our exciting new season of plays and musicals! Buy your season pass now to experience our full vision for 2023-24, and get the best savings on ticket prices.
See below for more about shows and tickets. We can’t wait to welcome you to the theater.
-Lisa Mallette, executive artistic director

Running After Shadows
Runs Jan 22 - Feb 8, 2026
Written by:Vincent Terrell Durham
Directed by:Aldo Billingslea
Supported by:Producers Nancy B. Coleman & Paul M. Resch, Elaine Baskin & Ken Krechmer, Nan Ho & Gary Miner, and Sandra Moll
World premiere!
Winner of Theatre Bay Area's Rella Lossy Award!
Morgan Collins used to buy his cookware at the 99-cent store, and is now a budding gourmet and an America’s Test Kitchen devotee. But today, as he unboxes his new garlic press live on Instagram, he also opens something completely unexpected. This box brings him face to face with childhood memories and the pain left by his absentee father.
Dial M For Murder
Runs Mar 12 - Apr 12, 2026
Adapted by:Jeffrey Hatcher
From the original by:Frederick Knott
Directed by:Mark Anderson Phillips
Supported by:Producers Connie & Paul Boulay, and Producers Karen S. Leonard & Cheryl Lander
Jeffrey Hatcher brings us a new version of a famed mystery that inspired Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Tony believes his wife Margot has been cheating on him with Maxine. In his jealousy, he spins a web of deception that will ensnare them in danger, recrimination and murder.
anthropology
Runs May 14 - Jun 7, 2026
Written by:Lauren Gunderson
Directed by:Lisa Mallette
Assistant director:Chloë Angst
Supported by:Executive Producers Feroze Taraporevala & Anita Kapadia, Producer Sandra Moll, Producers Jonathan Karpf & Kathie Zaretsky, and producers who wish to remain anonymous
Regional premiere!
In her pristine Silicon Valley home office, coder and AI expert Merril relies on patterns and systems. But when her sister Angie vanishes and the police give up, Merril uses digital clues to build an AI version of her. Virtual Angie offers comfort — until it starts revealing unsettling truths about the real Angie's disappearance.
Ride the Cyclone
Runs Jul 16 - Aug 23, 2026
Book, music and lyrics by:Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell
Directed by:Kimberly Ridgeway
Supported by:Producers Christy Martin & Cindy Melter, and Producer Charlie McCollum
When a roller-coaster accident claims the lives of a choir group, the teens end up in a truly bizarre purgatory. A mechanical fortune teller says that only one of them can be brought back to life. To win the prize, they must prove who deserves it the most…by telling their story through song. Full of edgy comedy and music ranging from dance pop to vaudeville, this Off-Broadway musical has also gone viral on TikTok.
![[image: Cardboard mailing box marked "Fragile," sitting in shadows on a light hardwood floor]](https://cltc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CityLights_RunningAfterShadow_color-adjusted.jpg)
![[image: A black 1950s rotary phone against a patterned Formica-style countertop. The whole image is sepia-toned and slightly eerie.]](https://cltc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CityLights_DialMForMurder_telephone-1.jpg)
![[image: A woman's face in profile and gray hues, with binary-code numbers in pale blues and whites and grays extending back from her face and into her hair, all set against a pink background with dots and lines]](https://cltc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anthropology_CanvaPro_image_pink.jpg)
![[image: People riding a roller coaster at a dramatic downward-sloping angle, against an artificially purple sky]](https://cltc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CityLights_RideTheCyclone.jpg)

