Jewel Theatre Company

Jewel Theatre Company (JTC) is the only year-round professional theatre company in Santa Cruz County. We recently moved into our new home at the Colligan Theater at the Tannery Arts Center in downtown Santa Cruz. JTC prides itself on bringing you quality, professional actors performing in both familiar favorites and lesser known plays, by first-rate playwrights. Our seasons are eclectic, ranging from drama and musicals to comedy and classics. All in a quest to bring you inspired live theatre you’ll want to tell your friends about.

Founded in 2005, JTC operates under a contract with Actors' Equity Association (the union for professional actors and stage managers in the U.S.) and is dedicated to creating extraordinary productions that explore and advance the art of theatre by entertaining, enlightening and engaging the community.

JTC productions run the gamut from premieres to rarely-seen plays to more well-known, popular fare, highlighting artistic excellence in all aspects of production – writing, acting, directing and design. JTC’s inaugural production, Love Match, was a funny, sometimes touching examination of life, love and the human condition, combining several one-acts by accomplished playwrights with songs a la Americana, and was dubbed by critic Ann Bennett of the Santa Cruz Sentinel as “Best Surprise” of 2005. JTC’s next production was Nicky Silver’s Raised in Captivity. The Sentinel critic described this dark comedy as “vivacious” and “captivating” and said “It’s a tricky kind of theater that requires a delicate balance to pull off, and JTC has brought just the right touch,” further validating the company’s burgeoning reputation for presenting unique, quality theatre that is moving, funny, and philosophical, a reputation that continues to this day.

JTC also presents fresh interpretations of more popular material such as You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Sylvia (dubbed “adorable” by the Sentinel critic), both of which played to several standing room only houses in JTC’s 2006/2007 and 2009/2010 seasons, respectively. Additionally, JTC is active on the new works front, having presented an original one-act play, a west coast premiere of two Lanford Wilson one-act chamber musicals, and an elaborate staged reading of a new musical about Peggy Guggenheim.