![[image: The cast of "The Game's Afoot": actors in 1930s period costumes standing in front of a grandly lit two-story house at night]](https://cltc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/web_CityLights_TheGamesAfoot_cast_front_entry.jpg)
We started our streaming and video series The Next Stage in the dark days of April 2020, featuring performances and discussions with actors, musicians and other artists.
These days, with the theater reopened (thankfully!), The Next Stage has become a series of Zoom talkbacks that complement our mainstage shows.
We love hanging out with our directors, actors, designers and other artists online and getting the scoop on making theater!
Missed a Zoom talkback? Or want to watch the performances, discussions and classes we streamed during the Covid shutdown? No problem: we archive recordings of all our broadcasts. Watch each video via City Lights’ YouTube in the windows below.
Hang out with the “Dracula” team
October 23, 2025
Find out why this show truly has bite! We sat down with director Caitlin Papp and members of our cast and design team to chat about the hilarious “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. The show ran in September-October 2025 at City Lights Theater, and we will continue talking in a vampire accent until the end of time.
Go-Go behind the scenes at “Head Over Heels”
August 29, 2025
Step behind the scenes with director Jeffrey Bracco and members of the “Head Over Heels cast”—including Arin Joseph Coleman, Dylan Bagwell, Gwynnevere Cristobal—as they unpack this vibrant, gender-bending musical comedy set to the iconic hits of the Go-Go’s. From rehearsal discoveries to audience reactions, costume tales to Arcadian antics, we’re covering it all.
Sweet! A Zoom talkback with the team from “The Cake”
June 6, 2025
Led by director Lisa Mallette, the team behind our production of Bekah Brunstetter’s touching dramatic comedy The Cake have so enjoyed working together. Get a taste of their talent and camaraderie.
Case closed! A Zoom talkback about “The Mousetrap”
April 6, 2025
Go behind the scenes of one of City Lights’ biggest hits ever! Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap brought together a fantastic team of talent, and we had a blast swapping stories about the show.
Backstage at “Truce”: a Zoom talkback
January 24, 2025
The director, the playwrights and the cast all get together to talk about this anniversary production.
“An Inspector Zooms”… sort of
October 18, 2024
OK, so they didn’t have Zoom in 1912. But our “An Inspector Calls” team had a fascinating time talking about the show on Oct. 16, 2024.
“The Rocky Horror Zoom Show”: An online talkback with our team
August 30, 2024
Think a Zoom is boring? Not with these fabulous artists. During our summer 2024 run of “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show,” director Amber Smith and members of the cast and design team sat down for a backstage chat.
“Order up!” Hanging out with our “Clyde’s” artists
June 19, 2024
What’s your favorite sandwich? Director Aldo Billingslea and actors from our cast of “Clyde’s” joined us for a Zoom chat in June 2024.
