Santa Paula Theater Center

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Santa Paula Theater Center The SPTC has been providing a first class local theater experience to Ventura County since 1985.

Meet the women behind The Feminine Gaze! 🎭Our 2027 Mainstage season is all women playwrights and all women directors, an...
10/22/2026

Meet the women behind The Feminine Gaze! 🎭

Our 2027 Mainstage season is all women playwrights and all women directors, and we couldn't be more excited to introduce the artists bringing these stories to life:

✨ Rosie Gordon directs Poor Clare

We'll be introducing each of them over the coming days, so stay tuned.

Santa Paula Theater Center has been telling stories for 40 years, and we want to keep the lights on for 40 more. Our $40 for 40 Years fundraiser helps make seasons like this one possible. Give $40 today:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

10/21/2026

A new trailer is out for the short film, Hit the Seat! This was filmed on Santa Paula Center’s backstage with our theater community! ♥️

10/21/2026

Our ghosts don't last forever! The final weekend for GhostWalk '26 is now! Many tours sell out. Get your tickets at ghostwalk.com before they dematerialize (the ghosts and the tickets, we mean!).

Why the hell do I think I can follow these three? That’s impossible, but I am sure as hell going to try to make them pro...
10/21/2026

Why the hell do I think I can follow these three? That’s impossible, but I am sure as hell going to try to make them proud.

Dana Elcar and Bill Lucking started this theater in a church basement. David Ralphe gave it about 25 years, and directed me in Constellations here, a play about every possible version of one story.

In my version, this theater is still standing in another 40 years. That's the universe I'm working on, and you can help me pick it: $40 for 40 years. A dollar a year, the Ebell Club's rate, for the Building Legacy Fund.

(In the other universes, the repair bills win. Let's not live there.)

Dana, Bill, David: thank you for the head start. I intend to use it.

https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

— Jessi May

David Ralphe, our Artistic Director Emeritus, gave this theater about 25 years. He directed, he acted and he led as arti...
10/20/2026

David Ralphe, our Artistic Director Emeritus, gave this theater about 25 years. He directed, he acted and he led as artistic director. He also spent 23 years as founding general manager of the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, so he knows what it takes to keep a theater's lights on. Simi Valley named him a 2019 Pillar of the Arts honoree. We'd like it on record that he's ours too.

On a personal note, I feel like every actor I know has a story about how David Ralphe elevated their craft and unequivocally influenced their lives. At the Simi Valley Cultural Art Center’s celebration of the 23 years of his exquisite leadership, I watched dozens of people fervidly speak to this experience and hundreds in the audience tear up while listening in solidarity. Having him as a friend and artistic mentor has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. “There is no where to be but here, and nothing to do but this.” ❤️

Help us keep his stage standing: $40 for 40 years. A dollar a year, the Ebell Club's rate, for the Building Legacy Fund.

Thank you, David.
https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

🎂 Dana Elcar was born Oct 10, 1927. He would have turned 99.The world knew him as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss. Santa ...
10/19/2026

🎂 Dana Elcar was born Oct 10, 1927. He would have turned 99.

The world knew him as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss. Santa Paula knew him as the man who decided this town needed live theater and started one.

He started it with what was on hand: a church basement, a few friends and an Albee play (The Zoo Story). He brought actors and directors up from Los Angeles. He introduced Spanish-language theater to Santa Paula. And when glaucoma took his sight in the early '90s, he kept going.

That church-basement troupe is now a 109-year-old landmark, and it needs more than a paper clip. Help us keep Dana's stage standing: $40 for 40 years. A dollar a year, the Ebell Club's rate, for the Building Legacy Fund.

https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

🕯️ Five years ago on Oct 18, we lost Bill Lucking.On TV, he played the colonel who spent a season failing to catch the A...
10/18/2026

🕯️ Five years ago on Oct 18, we lost Bill Lucking.

On TV, he played the colonel who spent a season failing to catch the A-Team, and later rode with the Sons of Anarchy as Piney.

In Santa Paula, he caught something better. He co-founded this theater with Dana Elcar, co-led it as artistic director, produced The Zoo Story, The Hothouse, Major Barbara, Camino Real and All the King's Men, and co-taught our free acting workshop, known for a minimalist approach.

His workshop was free. Keeping this building standing isn't. Help us honor him: $40 for 40 years. A dollar a year, the Ebell Club's rate, for the Building Legacy Fund.

https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

SPTC has been haunting our way through GhostWalk since 1993.Swipe through the ghosts, killers and hounds this stage has ...
10/17/2026

SPTC has been haunting our way through GhostWalk since 1993.

Swipe through the ghosts, killers and hounds this stage has already survived:

GhostWalk is Oct 16–18 and Oct 23–25. Fri & Sat 6:30–9 p.m., Sun 6:30–8:30 p.m. $15 adults, $10 under 12: ghostwalk.com

Our ghosts pay no rent. The Ebell Club paid $1 a year, so we're asking $40 for 40 years for the Building Legacy Fund, to keep this 109-year-old landmark standing.

👻 Be a good spirit: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35879/store/donations/39370

Booooooo.
10/16/2026

Booooooo.

Address

125 S 7th Street
Santa Paula, CA
93060

Telephone

+18055254645

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