SUPPORT THE RECOVERY EFFORT FROM THE OLD TOWN NEWHALL FIRE

SUPPORT THE RECOVERY EFFORT FROM THE OLD TOWN NEWHALL FIRE

Early Monday morning, a fire tore through Main Street in Old Town Newhall, razing an entire block — including The MAIN theatre. Just hours after the lights went out and the lobby cleared on a Sunday matinee of You Got Older by Claire Barron, the space that was home to so many Santa Clarita theatre companies was gone.

While You Got Older was being put up by our friends and frequent collaborators at Dig Deep Theatre, many theatre artists and local companies (including ours) and had chipped in on the production and suffered severe losses. Personal/company losses for Theatre Extempore (and myself) are still being tallied, but total nearly $30,000 in destroyed tools, lighting, and other gear.

I hope you will consider giving to this GoFundMe created by the cast of You Got Older to help everyone try to recover what was lost.

If you’ve seen one of our shows, chances are good that you saw it at The MAIN. That theatre, operated by the city of Santa Clarita, was the stage on which our company was born; out of a production of The Bald Soprano. We would go on to produce Stupid F**king Bird and The Fantasticks there, and were programmed to return in 2027.

As the city’s performance venue, The MAIN truly was everyone’s space; a true community asset and the beating heart of the Santa Clarita theatre scene.

Now that space is gone. But the community remains and is in need.

Last night, the local theatre community came together at the meeting of Santa Clarita’s Arts Commission and it’s clear the community and the government are committed to the longterm strength and rebuilding after this fire. But in the short term, many have experienced costly losses that are tough for small, independent theatre companies to make up…especially with our theatre gone.

Times are hard. If you can’t give. Don’t. But if you are able, I ask you to think of the shows you’ve seen and stories you’ve experienced at The MAIN and make a contribution so more of those moments can happen in the future; from our company, Dig Deep, and all the others that called that stage home for almost 30 years.

Thank you to those who have already given in this time of need, and who have supported our shows in the past.

We will be back.

Jeremy D. ThompsonTheatre Extempore and Lighting/Sound/Scenic Designer on You Got Older

DONATE HERE

PAST PRODUCTIONS

  • This Is Our Youth

    May 2026
    The Olive Branch

    By Kenneth Lonergan

    This is Our Youth follows 48 hours in the lives of three very lost young souls in the big city in meticulous, hilarious, and agonizing detail, at the dawn of the Reagan era. The trio includes Warren Straub, a dejected 19-year-old who steals $15,000 from his abusive lingerie-tycoon father; Dennis Ziegler, the charismatic domineering drug-dealing friend who helps him put the money to good use; and Jessica Goldman, the anxiously insightful young woman Warren yearns for.

    Directed by Jeremy D. Thompson

    A co-production with Dig Deep Theatre

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  • The Fantasticks

    January 2026
    The MAIN

    Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones
    Music by Harvey Schmidt

    The all-time classic musical that ran for 42 years off-Broadway comes to The MAIN. Boy meets girl. Parents fake a feud to get them together. It works (until it doesn’t), in a moonlit tale of growing up, falling in love, and learning what that really means. The Fantasticks is a lyrical, timeless celebration of imagination, heartbreak, and hope that skewers romantic tropes with charm, wit, and a cardboard moon; reminding us that real love is rarely as poetic as the song—and twice as complicated.

    Directed by Jeremy D. Thompson
    Musical Direction by Robby Good

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  • Stupid Fucking Bird

    August 2025
    The MAIN

    By Aaron Posner
    Original Songs by James Sugg
    Sort of Based on “The Seagull” by Anton Chekhov

    An explosive, darkly hilarious dive into art, ambition, and heartbreak—Stupid F**king Bird pulls no punches and breaks all the rules.

    An aspiring playwright. A hungry young actress. A revered writer. An aging star. In Stupid F**king Bird, Aaron Posner’s darkly comic, sharp-edged adaptation “sort of based on Chekhov’s The Seagull,” the euphoria and agony of making art and chasing desire explode—sometimes literally—onstage.

    Directed by Jeremy D. Thompson

    Part of the Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival

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  • Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen

    June 2025
    Hobgoblin Playhouse

    By Tennessee Williams

    Step into the soft, aching world of Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, a hidden gem from the legendary Tennessee Williams. Written during a period of profound personal and artistic transition for Williams, this one-act piece captures the aching loneliness and quiet yearning that define much of his best-known writing. Unlike his larger, more famous plays like A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, this work strips away narrative to reveal the raw, unspoken currents between two souls.

    Directed by Jeremy D. Thompson

    Part of the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival

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  • The Bald Soprano

    July 2024
    The MAIN

    By Eugène Ionesco

    Directed by Jeremy D. Thompson

    Produced by Santa Clarita Shakespeare

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