San Jose has a reputation for being a modern community on the leading edge of technology. Equalling their appreciation for the high tech is San Jose\’s residents appreciation of enterteinment. San Jose is home to a symphony, countless theatres and more, all performing at beautiful and acoustically shocking places round the town, particularly in San Jose\’s South First Area District where several cultural activities and centers are found.

San Jose Repertory Theatre

Set up in 1980 as the first of the pro theaters in San Jose, the Rep has endured and grown into an established theatre known for its excellence across the nation. The Rep has a rep for every kind of theatre, from the classics to edgy contemporary works. The Rep has received several accolades in its 30+ year history, including designations and awards for performances of The Kite Runner, As You Lie It, Groundswell, and the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The Rep is a pretty locale in the center of downtown San Jose and encircled by fine and casual restaurants, premiere shopping and the city\’s best clubs, wine bars and music scene. There isn't a need to leave the Rep but with the Curtain Call Patron Lounge and free music after performances on selected nights. The Rep is one of the premiere theaters in San Jose for a very elegant experience.

City Lights Theatre Company

Though the Town Lights Theater Company only performs 6 plays per season, each offering is purposely selected to exemplify the Theater\’s reputation as modern, innovative, radical and thought provoking. Each play runs for about a month, with the season running from Jan to August. Plays are performed in an intimate 100 seat venue and are usually modern and edgy, even when interpreting classics like Hamlet and Chicago. Other offerings are often Pulitzer Prize winning plays hinged on tragedy and triumph, like Tracy Letts \’ August: Osage County, which chronicles a family\’s journey through dysfunction and reconnection to the backdrop of rural Americana. The City Lights Theater Company tries hard to offer the finest in modern theater and modern adaptions, as well as maintaining themselves as a theater space for promising and up and coming designers, technicians, actors, directors and all aspiring theater lovers.

The Stage

Promoted as the finest in Off-Broadway San Jose theaters, The Stage has a clear mission to present original works with a focus on recent programming, American literature and historical classics that explore the numerous angles of the human condition. The Stage is already in its 29th season, receiving accolades for its past performances of The Diary of Anne Frank, Glengary Glen Ross, Blade to the Heat, Inherit the Wind and particularly Tenders in the Fog, for which The Stage received six Dean Goodman Choice Awards. The Stage offers dramas, musicals, comedies and more, with a spotlight on promoting theatre and art with a 5-play season that runs from September to June, compromised of 120 performances and 10 prepared ?talkbacks? In its 200 seat, mid scale theatre facility.

The Tabard Theatre Company

With an objective of providing entertainment for all audiences with an abiding interest in San Jose theaters, the Tabard Theatre Company also has a strong focus upon community involvement. The theatre continually donates a portion of profits to charity, organizes food and clothing drives, and outreach programs aimed at making theatre reasonable for people that may not typically experience theatre. The Tabard Theatre produces 4 to six main productions per season, in addition to offering workshops for children and grownups. Seasons that were seeing at the Tabard Theatre Comapny are Antigone, The Little Prince, Neil Simon\’s \”Fools\”, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Xmas Carol, among others. The Tabarad Theatre also hosts some of San Jose\’s best live Jazz and lots of other performing humanities events in the 100-150 guest capacity location.

Symphony Silicon Valley, at the California Theatre

When the San Jose Symphony melted in 2001 after a 30 year run, it was reincarnated as the Symphony Silicon Valley that performs at the one of the best concert halls in San Jose at the California Theatre. The Symphony Silicon Valley performs classic works as well as more recent arrangements, while also displaying smaller group arrangements and soloists. The symphony Silicon Valley is the premiere ensemble in San Jose and performs with top class talent and direction.

California Theatre

First open in 1927 as one of the first concert halls in San Jose, it was closed for years before a $75 million renovation in 2004. The theatre is currently a modern facility seating 1100 guests,. Redesigned to capture its original 1920?s style. Found in San Jose\’s South First Area District (Sofa), the California Theatre is in the middle of San Jose\’s arts and culture scene, opposite to The Stage, Institute of Contemporary Art, many restaurants, bars, jazz clubs, and smaller music locales.

Children\’s Musical Theatre San Jose

The CMT was launched in 1968 and is among the nations biggest youth performances and training programs. The CMT casts all that audition to plug an amiable and nurturing atmosphere that fosters children\’s interest and evolution in theatre. Tickets are available online over the telephone and the Convention Center and the Montogomery Theatrebox offices. Current performances such as Seussical, Doctor Dolittle, Xanadu and Bye, Bye Birdie. The CMT has a commitment to promoting variety inside its players and cultivating the love of theatre inside all interested children.