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River Stage and the Theatre & Dance Arts Department

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Theatre is for everyone.

Our Department of Theatre & Dance Arts and our producing arm, River Stage, are dedicated to training and empowering our students and our community. Our evolving program is focused on showcasing the collaboration, artistic daring, and diversity that makes theatre such a singular and unique art form. Whether you want to be in the spotlight or you want to run the spotlight, there’s a place for you on our stage.

Our theatre is for everyone.

With our Pay What You Can model, we welcome all members of our campus and local community to our Black Box Theatre located next to the Recital Hall and Art Gallery. Pay what you can. Come as you are. Theatre is for you.

Performances take place at the Black Box Theatre, located in the Visual and Performing Arts Center on CRC's main campus at 8401 Center Parkway, Sacramento, 95823. See CRC Parking and Maps.

See What We're Up To

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Follow the CRC Theatre Arts Instagram account: @seeaplayatCRC.

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Visit the CRC Theatre Arts Facebook page.

For ticket and performance questions, please call the Box Office at (916) 691-7050.

Reserve Tickets for Upcoming Performances

See a Play at CRC!

The Time Is Now: Our 2024-25 Season at River Stage

From musicals to dramas, from an Elizabethan classic to contemporary narratives, our 2024-25 season is our most ambitious ever! The Time Is Now for revolution, for epic lives, for healing old wounds, and for some hilarious antics. Our new season has stories for everyone, for all time, for our time. Our tickets are always Pay What You Can, so don’t wait: The Time Is Now.

Reading Series: Play It Straight

A colorful blue and purple background with a student desk and the words Play It Straight, October 15 to 19, 2024, By Richard Winters, Gary Wright and Kerri Yund

October 15 to 19, 2024 at the Black Box Theatre

By Richard Winters, Gary Wright and Kerri Yund

The culture wars derail a high school theater class’s Romeo & Juliet when a sarcastic remark leads to reckoning over queer students' rights.

Play It Straight is a new work by local playwrights and will be a Sacramento premiere!

Play It Straight  Dates and Details


Urinetown The Musical

A colorful yellow background with a hand holding a toilet plunger and the words Urinetown the Musical, November 8 to 24, 2024, Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann, Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis

November 8 to 24, 2024 at the Black Box Theatre

Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis

The Tony Award-winning musical comedy about a drought-stricken place where greed and corruption flow, privilege is peeing in private, and revolution is in the air.

Urinetown  Dates and Details


Reading Series: Student One Act Playfest

A colorful orange background with a typewriter and the words Student One Act Playfest, December 6 to 7, 2024

December 6 and 7, 2024 at 7:00 pm at the Black Box Theatre

Original one act works by the students of our playwriting course get their first public performances!

Playfest  Dates and Details


Orlando

A colorful teal background with a two faces of classical statues and the words Orlando, March 7 to 15, 2025, By Virginia Woolf, Adapted from the novel by Sarah Ruhl

March 7 to 15, 2025 at the Black Box Theatre

By Virginia Woolf
Adapted by Sarah Ruhl

Orlando’s epic life spans five centuries and crosses class, continents, and gender identity in two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Ruhl’s adaptation of Woolf’s classic novel.

Orlando Dates and Details (TBD)


Water by the Spoonful

A colorful background with and open mouth and the words Water by the Spoonful, April 25 to May 4, 2025, By Quiara Alegría Hudes

April 25 to May 4, 2025 at the Black Box Theatre

By Quiara Alegría Hudes

In the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama, the past is always present for a young veteran who comes home to the ghosts of war and his mother’s addiction.

Water by the Spoonful Dates and Details (TBD)


Twelfth Night

A colorful lime green background with a comical face and the words Twelfth Night, July 18 to August 3, 2025, By William Shakespeare

July 18 to August 3, 2025 at Laguna Town Hall Amphitheatre

By William Shakespeare

A shipwreck, a love triangle, mistaken identity, a Fool (and a whole lot of foolishness) collide in one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies and most beloved works.

Twelfth Night is presented in community with the Cosumnes Community Services District under the stars at Laguna Town Hall.

Twelfth Night Dates and Details (TBD)


Past Performances

COVID-19 Updates

For the latest on-campus safety protocols please see COVID-19 Updates.