Who We Are

Rainbow Theater was established in 1993 with a mission to create unity, higher visibility, and understanding of the various cultures within our communities. By giving students an opportunity to experience and create multicultural productions, Rainbow Theater serves to enhance the cultural climate of the UCSC Campus and its surrounding community, encouraging the celebration of diversity. Our mission is to foster the spirit of unity by breaking down cultural walls, providing an outlet for creative talents of various ethnic groups, and focus on the concerns of our communities.

What We Do

Workshops:
• Workshops facilitated by Rainbow Theater students who introduce theater from a historical perspective.
• Students engage in theater games and improvisations to help understand expression and theatrical technique.
• Students participate in a discussion about higher education, social life, academics, and cultural awareness​.

Outreach:
• Brings multicultural theater to various high schools in Los Angeles and Bay Area.
• Offers information regarding the UC system and admissions as well  as information on higher education as a whole, students host question and answer panel regarding college life and academics.

Lectures:
• Provide an analytical perspective on plays and playwrights of color.
• Educates students on the history of theater with an emphasis on African American, Chicano/Latino, and Asian American playwrights, actors, directors and their presence in communities around the world.

Rainbow Theater is proud to present four multicultural productions led by students of color and features stories by African American, Latine, and Asian American playwrights. Rainbow will be performing for two weekends this May 6th-15th at 7:30PM at the Stevenson Event Center. Tickets are $8-13, admission is free to UCSC undergraduate students. Learn more about the shows below. 

Covid language 

1. Masks are to be worn indoors at all times. 
2. Bring your COVID test result/vaccination card or picture of it. For UCSC students, please be ready to present your green badge. 

UCSC Undergrads with ID free

Youth (5-18) & Seniors (65+) are $8
Adults (18-65) are $13
Cash and Checks ONLY
Parking in Lower Lot of Stevenson is $4
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Weekend 1
May 6th & 7th, 7:30PM
May 8th, 2PM
My Home on the Moon by Minna Lee
Directed Dondre Coleman
A funny, sincere, outrageous, and epic exploration of Vietnamese ancestry that occurs when the owners of a pho restaurant realize that their world is simulated by a corporation eager to gentrify the neighborhood.

Blu by Virginia Grise
Directed by Becca Hall
Memory, history, and culture collide with the starlit rooftop dreams of a myth-inspired character as Soledad and her partner, Hailstorm, redefine family on their own terms after the death of their eldest son in Iraq. blu, steeped in poetic realism and contemporary politics, challenges us to try to imagine a time before war.

Weekend 2
May 13th - 14th, 7:30 PM
May 15th, 2PM
Poet’s Corner, by UCSC students 
Directed by Yazlin Juarez
Poet's Corner is celebrating 29 years of student collaboration, student writing, student stories, student agency. Always back by popular demand, Poets Corner takes spoken word to new heights as it weaves in out of solo and group performances centered around current trends and issues.

Immediate Family by Paul Oakley Stovall
Directed by Bene’t Benton
The Bryant family reunion takes a comedic turn when the middle son brings home his Swedish boyfriend and tosses him into a stew of family dysfunctions. Race, sexuality and religion are on the menu as Modern Family meets Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in this "timely and important American play."