If you like your theater thought-provoking, this is your season.
Local companies are serving up classic tales of life, love and death; comedies with a decidedly dark streak; and shows with small casts that ask big, even existential questions. Of course, it wouldn’t be fall without mystery, magic, murder and mayhem—just right for those long, dark nights.
Here’s a sampling of this fall’s theater offerings.
RENO
Ageless Repertory Theatre
Now in its 11th year as a partner of Reno Little Theater, ART, Reno’s premier readers’ theater troupe, dives into October with a classic that two different companies are taking on this season: Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace, which Frank Capra turned into a film starring Cary Grant in 1944. A murder mystery with laughs, it’s the story of a writer with a famously negative view of marriage who’s now engaged to a woman whose elderly aunts are serial killers. It appears twice, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, and Friday, Oct. 17, for free (donations encouraged).
Then comes Sam Bobrick’s Baggage, one of the many introspective shows with small casts this season. Running Tuesday, Nov. 18, and Friday, Nov. 21, it’s the story of a man and a woman, disillusioned with love, who get their luggage mixed up at the airport and forge an unlikely bond.
Then comes Bo Wilson’s The Charitable Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular, about a group of church ladies trying to put on a Christmas show despite a criminal stealing their baby Jesus. It runs Thursday, Dec. 16, and Friday, Dec. 19.
www.renolittletheater.org/art-at-rlt
Brüka Theatre
This is Brüka’s 33rd season, dubbed the Wild Card season—and no wonder. It includes two original shows, a Shakespeare play, an ode to the Constitution and a weekend that puts community members onstage. It starts with Club Inferno, an original piece by Reno’s Kell Kittell (you might remember him as the Minister of Loneliness in Brüka’s spring offering, Brukalton) and songwriter Peter Fogel, Oct. 10-Nov. 1. Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, this one follows rock-diva Dante, who dies in a freak accident and wakes up in hell’s hottest nightclub.
November marks the return of Take Five, which Brüka first presented in 2020. Conceived by Elizabeth Tenney, the idea is that artists and creative people from all over the community step onstage and share how they make or do their work—and they only get five minutes each. Keep an eye out for a list of presenters, but some may really surprise you. It happens over three days, Nov. 14-16, with every show featuring a different cast.
Head into the holidays with one of Reno’s best-known and most-loved original creations, Buttcracker. Brüka’s own brand of absurdity is directed at Tchaichovsky’s famous ballet, following a different theme each year. Dec. 5-21, catch Buttcracker Neverland, whisking audiences off to a land where no one grows up—and fairy dust is a commodity.
www.bruka.org
Firebird Light Opera
Reno’s upstart, energetic little opera company will present Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, on Thursday, Oct. 30, and Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2, at the National Automobile Museum. This one-act comedic opera runs a short-but-sweet 40 minutes, and tickets will include admission to the museum and a reception afterward that features snacks, carnival games and more.
Good Luck Macbeth
Probably the biggest news coming out of the local theater scene is the recent merger between GLM and Reno Little Theater. The two companies forged an unlikely alliance in 2020, in response to the pandemic’s theater shutdowns.
While few changes will be visible this fall, the upshot of the merger is that GLM’s administrative work and scheduling will eventually fall to RLT, with the two companies forming a new mother company, The New Reno Little Theater. Both theater spaces will continue to operate under their existing names, and each will host its own thoughtfully curated lineup of shows each year, planned to suit its location and scheduled strategically to avoid competing, providing more options for audiences.
Some things will remain the same, including GLM’s habit of staging Halloween-themed parodies. This year’s Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, running Oct. 3-Nov. 1, is a fast-paced, gender-bending, hilarious sendup of the original monster story about the blood-sucking count of Transylvania.
Then comes My Big Gay Italian Christmas, Nov. 28-Dec. 20. Inspired by the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this comedy is one in a series about a big, nosy, over-the-top Italian family. In this one, a bisexual love triangle and a massive snowstorm bring chaos to the holidays.
GLM’s schedule wraps at the end of 2025; it will then schedule a short 2026 season to enable a switch from a calendar-year season to a school-year season, to align with RLT.
Reno Little Theater
It’s the big 9-0—not just for Reno Little Theater, Reno’s oldest theater company, but also for the central character in Birthday Candles, the company’s mainstage offering from Oct. 10-26. Throughout the show’s 90 minutes, our protagonist chronicles her own 90 birthdays and what her time on Earth has taught her about big dreams and a fulfilling life.
RLT’s holiday offering is Sam Kebede’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, an intimate version that features just three actors. It runs Nov. 14-Dec. 14
Finally, the Broadway Our Way youth program will present The Grunch, a children’s musical based on Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, Dec. 6-14 with daytime public performances.
Sierra School of Performing Arts
This one isn’t happening in fall, but when the holiday dust settles, you’ll have this to look forward to: SSPA’s Grease, an abridged 90-minute version designed for kids ages 9-18, runs Jan. 9-11.
www.sierraschoolofperformingarts.org
TheatreWorks of Northern Nevada
Saturday, Oct. 18, marks the return of TWNN’s annual Fall Festival, a fundraiser featuring carnival games, a haunted house, a car-based trunk-or-treat, a Halloween-inspired art project and plenty of food and treats.
TWNN’s mainstage show revisits The Miracle Worker, from Nov. 7-16, nine years after staging the show in its former location, the University of Nevada, Reno’s Laxalt building. For this play about Helen Keller and her loyal teacher Annie Sullivan, TWNN has partnered with the Washoe County School District’s American Sign Language interpreters, to not only gain awareness about the challenges of disability, but to learn ASL and explore effective nonverbal communication.
Truckee Meadows Community College Performing Arts
First, the exciting news: TMCC is finally—after many years on the emotional rollercoaster of exciting plans and dashed hopes—building its long-awaited theater. Construction begins in October, and, according to Shea King, who heads up the school’s theater program, the plan is to finish the 230-seat proscenium theater in 18 months, then return to the large-scale productions it’s been missing since vacating The Theatre on Keystone Avenue more than five years ago.
In the meantime, King’s students will present The Christmas Tree Farm from Nov. 13-22 in the Performance Lab in TMCC’s Red Mountain Building. Set on a New England tree farm, it’s a holiday-themed romantic comedy.
www.tmcc.edu/visual-performing-arts/performance-schedule
University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Theatre and Dance
Shakespeare’s tragic tale of young love comes to the Redfield Proscenium Theatre, from Oct. 10-19. Director Rosie Brownlow-Calkin brings us a reimagined Romeo and Juliet, set in a modern fundamentalist enclave, emphasizing Verona’s autocratic leadership and repressive social structures.
SPARKS
Restless Artists Theatre
RAT’s small black-box theater makes it ideal for shows with minimal sets, small casts and big issues. This fall’s lineup is no different. First is James McLindon’s Dead and Buried, from Nov. 7-17. Set in a cemetery in New England, it’s about three emotionally damaged people who help each other bury their past traumas.
Then comes Jen Silverman’s The Roommate, Dec. 5-15, about an empty nester who takes on a roommate with questionable morals, forming an unlikely friendship.
CARSON CITY/CARSON VALLEY
Carson Valley Community Theatre
The CVIC Hall in Minden will double as a honky-tonk when CVCT’s country music cabaret, A Little Country Time, takes the stage, from Oct. 24-Nov. 2, featuring a variety of country music and a talented group of musical collaborators.
At press time, the December schedule was still in the works, but plans included a radio version of It’s a Wonderful Life. And if the acting bug has bitten, give improv a try; CVCT’s new improv troupe now meets two Wednesdays each month at its annex in the Copeland Building.
www.carsonvalleycommunitytheatre.org
Proscenium Players, Inc.
It’s PPI’s 60th anniversary season, and in honor of the occasion, the company is revisiting popular shows from previous seasons—including Arsenic and Old Lace. (I told you it was appearing twice.) Running from Oct. 10-19 at the Brewery Arts Center’s Maizie Black Box Theater, it’s directed by Amelia Gotham, who staged the play with PPI 20 years ago.
www.prosceniumplayersinc.com
Western Nevada Musical Theatre Company
Carson’s premier musical-theater troupe brings another knockout production to the Carson City Community Center from Nov. 7-23: the Tony Award-winning Fiddler on the Roof. It’s the story of Tevye, a poor Jewish dairyman; his wife, Golde; and their three daughters as they struggle to embrace family and traditions in the face of a changing world. WNMTC also recently announced its purchase of the Auri Listen system for the hearing impaired; audience members can request it at the sound booth before the show.
Wild Horse Children’s Theater
If jingle bells and Christmas trees aren’t your cup of tea, Wild Horse has the cure: Beetlejuice, Jr. takes the stage at the Brewery Arts Center’s Performance Hall, from Dec. 5-12. A double cast totaling 90 young actors, ages 12 to 18, performs this show, which closely mirrors the Broadway musical but is slightly shorter. Oh, and there’s a real sandworm!
TRUCKEE
Truckee Community Theater
The soon-to-be-named Truckee-Tahoe Theatre Company wraps up its 2025 season with Roald Dahl’s Matilda, The Musical, from Nov. 7-16. It’s a magical tale about a precocious, troublesome little girl with telekinetic powers whom no one but her kind teacher understands.
www.truckeecommunitytheater.com