About Us
Who We Are
Ray of Light Theatre was founded in 2001 by Shane Ray, who arrived in San Francisco looking for an artistic home and decided to build one. Twenty-five years later, we are one of the most recognized voices in musical theater in the Bay Area — built entirely on volunteer labor, driven by a passion for storytelling and collaboration.
Artists have always found their way to Ray of Light looking for the same thing Shane was looking for: a place to take risks, develop their craft, and have their voices heard. We have always been that place — for emerging artists and seasoned performers, for directors and designers and stage managers and music directors, and especially for the community of artists and audiences who have been at the heart of this company since the beginning.
We are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we have always been driven by one belief: that the best theater in this city shouldn’t require a Broadway budget or a mainstream mandate to exist.
What We Make
We pick shows with our gut and produce experiences that pack a punch. The story that won’t leave us alone, the musical nobody else is doing because nobody’s sure it’ll work, the one that feels dangerous and necessary at the same time. Kinky Boots. Hedwig. American Psycho. The Wild Party. Jesus Christ Superstar with an all-female cast. Lizzie, a rock musical about axe-wielding Lizzie Borden. Our annual Rocky Horror Show at Oasis. West Coast premieres of Heathers, Carrie the Musical, and Jerry Springer the Opera.
Ray of Light audiences return because they see themselves here — in the stories we choose, in the artists who build them, in the room itself. This is theater that meets you where you are, reflects your community back to you, and sends you home feeling something you didn’t have words for before you arrived.
Critics have called our productions cutting-edge, boundary-pushing, immersive, and electrifying. Every single show has been built by volunteers — after work, on borrowed stages — because they believed it mattered.
What’s Next
This spring, Ray of Light Theatre opens The Barbary Stage — our first permanent home, in Jackson Square, San Francisco.
The space has history: formerly the Gateway Cinema, a bustling single screen film house built in 1967, it’s was transformed into a 200-seat live theatre venue by the Eureka Theatre Company (the group that originally premiered Angels in America) in 1998. We’re giving it a new life — reinforcing the stage, upgrading the lighting grid, wiring better sound, updating the lobby. True to form, we’re doing most of it ourselves.
In addition to Ray of Light productions, we’re building a space to serve the broader artistic community — a place where independent artists can produce new work, where San Francisco’s creative community can gather, collaborate, and be heard. A room where artists can take risks, learn new skills, and find their people. A home for the theater kids onstage and off, for emerging voices, and for everyone who has ever shown up to a Ray of Light show and felt, for the first time, like they were exactly where they were supposed to be.
Bay Area theater companies are closing at a heartbreaking rate. We are choosing to do the opposite. The Barbary Stage is our bet that what made this city iconic isn’t gone — just looking for a room.
Ray of Light Theatre is a volunteer-run, registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Make a tax-deductible donation and invest in the future of live musical theater in San Francisco! No amount is too small (or too big!).