Theater with Purpose: SPARC's 20th Anniversary Season Confronts Technology, Memory, and the Search for Truth
Theater with Purpose: SPARC’s 20th Anniversary Season Confronts Technology, Memory, and the Search for Truth
Livermore, CA — As SPARC Theater celebrates its 20th Anniversary Season, the company is doing more than marking a milestone. At a moment when technology is reshaping medicine, artificial intelligence is redefining creativity, and uncertainty colors daily life, SPARC’s 2026 season invites audiences to grapple with the most urgent questions of our time.Through bold new works, a landmark American drama, and one of Shakespeare’s most searching tragedies, SPARC’s anniversary season explores what it means to remain human in an age of accelerating change.
Exploring the Ethics of Innovation: Science@Play
SPARC’s acclaimed Science@Play reading series returns in March with two thought-provoking staged readings at the SPARC Studio in Livermore.The series opens with an AI Playwriting Experiment, examining the intersection of artificial intelligence and human storytelling. The project asks: Can a machine capture the emotional complexity of the human experience — or does authorship itself define our humanity?
The second weekend features the commissioned world premiere of The Moon is Always Full, a new play by filmmaker and playwright Cleavon Smith. The play focuses on emerging medical technology implanted directly into the human brain — exploring questions of autonomy, equity, consent, and who ultimately controls innovation when technology lives inside us.
“In this anniversary season, we’re not looking backward — we’re leaning into the future,” says Lisa A Tromovitch, Executive Artistic Director. “
“Theatre is human connection through and through,” says Michael Wayne Rice, Science@Play Program Director. “With AI proliferation, I constantly ask myself: How long before what is human is completely unrecognizable? AI development greatly outpaces our ability to culturally assimilate the technology in an ethically responsible manner. So, what becomes of us when humanity allows itself to be consumed by AI?”
Smith echoes that urgency.
“With The Moon is Always Full, I’m diving into the emotional and ethical terrain of AI-driven medical science — especially technology implanted in the brain,” says Cleavon Smith. “I’m fascinated by the promise of healing and enhancement, but also by the power structures behind it. When technology is literally inside your mind, who has agency? Who benefits? Who gets left out? Theater is the perfect space to wrestle with those questions.”
The Fragility of Memory: The Glass Menagerie
In May, SPARC presents Tennessee Williams’ enduring American masterpiece, The Glass Menagerie.Williams’ memory play examines family, longing, and the delicate tension between hope and illusion. In an era defined by rapid change and digital overload, the play’s intimate portrait of memory feels newly resonant.
“The Glass Menagerie reminds us that memory shapes identity,” Director Gary Armagnac says. “In a world moving at relentless speed, this play asks us to slow down and examine what we hold onto — and what we must release.”
Modern Madness and Moral Reckoning: Hamlet
SPARC’s beloved Shakespeare in the Vineyard returns this summer with The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, performed under the stars at Darcie Kent Vineyards in Livermore, followed by additional performances at the Village Theatre in Danville.Few plays speak more powerfully to instability, misinformation, political corruption, and personal doubt. Hamlet’s struggle to act decisively in a morally fractured world mirrors the anxieties of our own era.
“Hamlet is a young person trying to find truth in a world that feels manipulated and unstable,” says Tromovitch who will direct the play. “That struggle feels incredibly contemporary. Shakespeare reminds us that confusion, doubt, and moral courage are not new — but neither is resilience.”
Presented in the picturesque vineyard setting that has become a SPARC signature, audiences are invited to bring a picnic, enjoy local wine, and experience Shakespeare in community — a celebratory culmination of SPARC’s 20 years of professional theater in the Tri-Valley.
FACT SHEET
WHO:SPARC Theater
WHAT:
2026 20th Anniversary Season
WHEN:
Science@Play #1 – AI Playwriting ExperimentMarch 13, 14, 15, 2026
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM
Sunday at 4:00 PM
Science@Play #2 – The Moon is Always Full
March 27, 28, 29, 2026
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM
Sunday at 4:00 PM
The Glass Menagerie
May 1–3, 2026
(Performance times vary — see website)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
July 2–26, 2026
All performances 7:30 PM
Darcie Kent Vineyards
WHERE:
Science@PlaySPARC Studio
2172 Railroad Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
The Glass Menagerie
Bankhead Theater
2400 First Street
Livermore, CA 94550
Hamlet
Darcie Kent Vineyards
7000 Tesla Road
Livermore, CA 94550
HOW:
Tickets available at:https://link.edgepilot.com/s/2f22969b/Usq3GH_6WEOA9J2nLJnwSw?u=http://www.sparctheater.org/
Phone: 925-443-2273
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Emma Ledesma
Production Stage Manager
SPARC
https://link.edgepilot.com/s/104e3d50/gZXj9mBfb0mrxvcivq1MTw?u=https://sparctheater.org/
925.443.2273
