Serving Santa Cruz County since 1985, Actors’ Theatre supports, champions, and provides an outlet and venue for the performing arts.

With a long history of contributing to the area’s cultural life by representing contemporary playwrights and producing new and exciting theater works for Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay audiences, Actors’ Theatre is greatly loved, not only by the theater-going public, but also by the theater community for the opportunities it provides to develop their skills and practice their craft. Our intimate 88-seat theater space is located inside the Santa Cruz Art Center at 1001 Center Street in downtown Santa Cruz, where we have also been able to provide a venue for many other theater companies to showcase their work.

The company produces the acclaimed 8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival each year, which supports emerging and established playwrights from around the globe with full productions of their winning plays. Over the years 8 Tens @ 8 has represented thousands of talented theater artists and writers and is internationally recognized. Santa Cruz County has a large, flourishing community of gifted writers, artists, performers and scholars whom we strive to represent and serve. We have continually produced work representing hundreds of playwrights, designers, directors, and actors – as well as provided practical work experience for technical theater artists including lighting designers, set designers and builders, scenic artists, sound engineers, and costume designers.

We'd love to see you at the show!