our history
Solano College Theatre is located on the main campus of Solano Community College. Our recently renovated theatre building, the Solano College Center for Performing Arts, features a state-of-the-art 368-seat performance venue, theatre and music classrooms, rehearsal rooms, recording studio and scene shop. The addition of a black box performance space, Studio G, gives students the opportunity to learn and practice in a professional dance studio environment.
Solano College Theatre came into existence as the result of an attempt to rescue the Music program from Prop 13 budget cuts in 1980, when Professor Walt Mikolajcik convinced the SCC Governing Board that Musical Theatre could be more financially self-sustaining than an athletic program. One three-unit class was created for him to prove it, and the successful first production was an 1899 musical version of Robin Hood, directed by Terry Rucker.
Walt provided musical direction for many more shows, with David Leonard coming on board to design sets and lighting. The following years were busy ones as productions of major musicals such as Anything Goes, Damn Yankees, Kiss Me Kate, Candide, and Chicago populated the stage. The combined energy of the students of the Music, Drama, and Dance departments brought three productions to life each year. These not-so-humble beginnings would pave the way for Solano College Theatre to become the most awarded and respected regional theatre in Northern California.
Professor Emeritus George Maguire became the new Drama Department Director in 1985 and he, along with Managing Director David Leonard, brought Solano’s theatre program into the spotlight with the creation of the Actor Training Program and a full season of award-winning productions beginning with Camelot.
Solano College Theatre at times produced as many as ten productions in a single season as well as running a tri-city youth theatre program, staging free Shakespeare on the waterfront, and offering a full roster of acting and technical theatre classes.
The restructuring of the Theatre Arts Department in 2012 renewed our commitment to what matters to us most: providing quality theatre arts education to the next generation of theatre professionals and producing shows that contribute meaningfully to the culture and entertainment of our Solano County community.
Show list
2024-2025
The Visit
Head Over Heels (April 2025)
No Exit (May 2025)
2023-2024
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Bottom’s Dream
Anything Goes
2022-2023
Immaculate
Pinned Butterfly
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Alice in Wonderland
2021-2022
The Servant of Two Masters
Pippin
2020-2021
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Deathtrap
2019-2020
Clybourne Park
Getting Out
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (postponed due to Covid-19)
2018-2019
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Macbeth
2017-2018
Peter and the Starcatcher
My Fair Lady
2016-2017
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Cabaret
2015-2016
Dead Man’s Cell Phone
Spring Awakening
2014-2015
Rhinocerous
Little Shop of Horrors
2013-2014
A Golden Fleecing
Moon Over Buffalo
Othello
2012-2013
Of Mice and Men
The Three Musketeers
2011-2012
Always… Patsy Cline
The Crucible
Ain’t Misbehavin’
Distracted
2010-2011
Rent
Dracula
Annie
Eurydice
The Wizard of Oz
2009-2010
Much Ado About Nothing
The Producers
Bye Bye Birdie
Our Town
Thoroughly Modern Millie
2008-2009
Noises Off!
Assassins
The Talented Mr. Ripley
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
2007-2008
Smokey Joe’s Cafe
The Comedy of Errors
The Shadow Box
Intimate Apparel
A Year With Frog and Toad
2006-2007
Annie, Get Your Gun
Dean Man Walking
The House of Ramon Iglesia
Bat Boy: The Musical
The Underpants
2005-2006
Beauty and the Beast
Wait Until Dark
Taming of the Shrew
A Raisin in the Sun
Sweeney Todd
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown
2004-2005
Cabaret
Proof
Fences
Seussical
The Importance of Being Earnest
Suds: The Musical
2003-2004
Grease
The Lion in Winter
Wonder of the World
HONK!
Always… Patsy Cline
2002-2003
The Sound of Music
This is Our Youth
I Am A Man
Amadeus
Three Tall Women
The Will Rogers Follies
The Laramie Project
2001-2002
The Three Sisters
Jekyll & Hyde
Wish You Were Here
Harvey
Sonnets for an Old Century
W;t
Tintypes
As Bees in Honey Drown
2000-2001
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
The Cripple of Inishmaan
A Christmas Carol
A Winter’s Tale
Baker Street
A Streetcar Named Desire
My Children! My Africa!
West Side Story
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Forever Plaid
1999-2000
Little Shop of Horrors
The Music Man
Shirley Valentine
Angels in America (Part 1)
A Christmas Carol
The Foreigner
Nunsense
A Chorus Line
Bus Stop
Always… Patsy Cline
1998-1999
Jesus Christ Superstar
Moon Over Buffalo
The Glass Menagerie
Home
Pieces of the Quilt
The King & I
1997-1998
Annie
Blood Brothers
Mother Hicks
Charley’s Aunt
Love Letters
The Heiress
The Wizard of Oz
1996-1997
Evita
Diary of Anne Frank
Fifth of July
Twelfth Night
Pippin
1995-1996
Carousel
All My Sons
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Lost in Yonkers
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
1994-1995
Fiddler on the Roof
Dancing at Lughnasa
The World Goes ‘Round
The Front Page
The Secret Garden
1993-1994
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Equus
Romeo & Juliet
I Hate Hamlet
Oliver!
1992-1993
South Pacific
Death of a Salesman
Peter Pan
I Remember Mama
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Master Harold and the Boys
1991-1992
Broadway Bound
Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2x this year!)
The Elephant Man
The Little Foxes
Big River
I’m Not Rappaport
1990-1991
The Nerd
Can-Can
The Cherry Orchard
A Christmas Carol
Devour the Snow
She Loves Me
1989-1990
Little Shop of Horrors
42nd Street
Hotel Paradiso
A Christmas Carol
It’s Only a Play
1988-1989
Cabaret
The Man Who Came to Dinner
To Kill a Mockingbird
Man of La Mancha
1987-1988
Hay Fever
The Fantasticks
Terra Nova
Camelot
The Miracle Worker
1986-1987
Arsenic and Old Lace
Hello, Dolly!
Sly Fox
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Grease
1985-1986
Chicago
Picnic
Candide