Lights Up Theatre Company
Garden Street Black Box Theatre, 2300 Garden Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
About
Lights Up! Theatre Company offers professional acting training, singing training, dance training, and vocal training. Participants take part in improv, stage combat, musical theatre programs, an acting intensive workshop, conservatory classes, and a showcase, along with performance experience. The company presents two musicals and one straight play each season and rehearses during the school year as a company.
• Ages: 11–18 years old
Lights Up! Theatre Company was founded in 2018 and is led by Artistic Director Amy Love. Its mission states that it provides professional training and performance experience in a nurturing environment and offers a secure and accepting theatrical home for developing performers, while challenging them with professional acting, singing and dance training. The company is described as Santa Barbara's Teen Theatre Company and offers summer musical theatre programs for grades 6–12, with summer programs described as a low-pressure, fun way to experience their approach to theatrical training. Summer program enrollment is open to anyone in the specified age group for each program, and prior Lights Up! experience or company membership is not required, and scholarships are available.
The program includes a conservatory option with once or twice a week classes that end with a small showcase. Each season they present two professionally-produced musicals and a straight play. The company is recognized in Santa Barbara as a place where teenagers of all backgrounds and life experiences feel safe and seen, and its community of actors is described as accepting, compassionate, and connected. Many company members begin as pre-teens and stay with the company through high school graduation. Staff set high expectations for character, kindness, and inclusion while teaching and modeling professional theatre etiquette, and the company culture honors the singular experience of adolescence and the fundamental human need for belonging. Their approach incorporates teaching into rehearsal time so actors receive skills they can use on stage and in the wider world.
Lights Up! Theatre Company lists season sponsors including Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and Towbes Foundation, and gifts of $500 and above from the Ball Family, Sherri Ball, the Buell Family, the Hueber Family, the Powers Family, Christina Wood, Glen and Lisa Wysel, and The Wizard of Oz production sponsors Anonymous, David Kim Group, and Richard Yates: The ARTS District of Santa Barbara.
Last updated June 23, 2026.
• Ages: 11–18 years old
Lights Up! Theatre Company was founded in 2018 and is led by Artistic Director Amy Love. Its mission states that it provides professional training and performance experience in a nurturing environment and offers a secure and accepting theatrical home for developing performers, while challenging them with professional acting, singing and dance training. The company is described as Santa Barbara's Teen Theatre Company and offers summer musical theatre programs for grades 6–12, with summer programs described as a low-pressure, fun way to experience their approach to theatrical training. Summer program enrollment is open to anyone in the specified age group for each program, and prior Lights Up! experience or company membership is not required, and scholarships are available.
The program includes a conservatory option with once or twice a week classes that end with a small showcase. Each season they present two professionally-produced musicals and a straight play. The company is recognized in Santa Barbara as a place where teenagers of all backgrounds and life experiences feel safe and seen, and its community of actors is described as accepting, compassionate, and connected. Many company members begin as pre-teens and stay with the company through high school graduation. Staff set high expectations for character, kindness, and inclusion while teaching and modeling professional theatre etiquette, and the company culture honors the singular experience of adolescence and the fundamental human need for belonging. Their approach incorporates teaching into rehearsal time so actors receive skills they can use on stage and in the wider world.
Lights Up! Theatre Company lists season sponsors including Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation and Towbes Foundation, and gifts of $500 and above from the Ball Family, Sherri Ball, the Buell Family, the Hueber Family, the Powers Family, Christina Wood, Glen and Lisa Wysel, and The Wizard of Oz production sponsors Anonymous, David Kim Group, and Richard Yates: The ARTS District of Santa Barbara.
Last updated June 23, 2026.
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