December 6, 2022 (La Mesa) - In San Diego, we do not have snow for Christmas. For many, it isn't Christmas without snow. In "The Gifts of The Magi" presented by Lamplighter's Theatre, the character City Her asks the question: how can I tell the Fourth of July from Christmas without snow? The Narrator, Willie Porter, sums up the Christmas season with his reply: people are uncharacteristically civilized.  That’s a term I fell in love with immediately because it's so apt.

July 14, 2022 (La Mesa) - Who says boys can't be drama queens or their male counterparts?  Lamplighter's presents Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon and directed by Dennis Floyd.  It’s an emotional rollercoaster filled with laughter and tears. 

By Kathy Carpenter

March 2, 2022 (La Mesa) - It's said you can't go home again because nothing will be the same. You have changed in your time away. In the 1940s, elderly Carrie Watts lived in Texas in a small apartment with a controlling daughter-in-law and her hen-pecked son. For 20 years, she kept trying to return to Bountiful, where she had spent the happiest years of her life. The only thing that keeps her going in her aged years is that she keeps trying to sneak out and go back home. She's always been caught, until now.

November 28, 2021 (La Mesa) - Once upon a time, before scrolling through your social media feed, before television, in a simpler time, there was radio--with only a couple of options to choose from. But the family came together and listened. Lamplighter's theatre presents "The 1940s Radio Hour," a musical by Walton Jones touching on the nostalgia of the era. The play is a soothing and peaceful interlude among the chaos of the holiday season’s hustle and bustle.

September 14, 2021 (La Mesa) - Lamplighters Community Theatre  presents "The Front Porch," written and directed by local talent Geoge Bailey. Watching a video back in the winter of 2011 on Martin Luther King Jr, triggered a memory for Bailey. Growing up in Baltimore Maryland, Bailey was too young to recall the riots in 1968. But what he does remember is going with his father when things were safe to visit another family. He was shocked to see  tanks and soldiers with guns in their arms—a vivid childhood memory that inspired the play.

By Kathy Carpenter

December 8, 2020 (La Mesa) - Dateline with a touch of Glee sprinkled in best describes this virtual performance by Lamplighters Theatre in La Mesa. Director O.P. Hadlock's The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey shines a light on two things: first, the brilliant acting of James Steinberg, portraying eight characters in this one man show. It takes a great talent to pull shows like this off and have viewers leave feeling as if a whole group of people were witnessed.

By Kathy Carpenter

December 2, 2019 (La Mesa) - I'm a traditionalist. I want each holiday to have its time. Thus, I refused to watch Christmas movies until after Thanksgiving. Plays...well sometimes, I have to go earlier; I usually need to go in the first couple days to review them and give them adequate time for people to read. In this case, Black Friday was my induction into the Christmas season.

By Kathy Carpenter

July 19, 2019 (La Mesa) - Lamplighters Community theatre Presents The Sunshine Boys--a comfortable feud, with laughter at the stuff you can totally agree with.

Directed by Steve Murdock, The Sunshine Boys is about two old vaudeville partners. One day out of the blue, Al Lewis announces he is retiring. Willie Clark is so mad he does not speak to him for eleven years. Clark is not ready to retire.

April 26, 2018 La Mesa) - Pirates, fairies, mermaids. starcatchers, and the little boy who never wanted to grow up: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson do a great job explaining how Peter Pan, and the elements from the original story came about in a new novel. Rick Elice turned the novel into a play. Raylene J. Wall directed the Lamplighters version and brought the play to life. Fun, silly and well-acted, Peter and the Starcatcher makes you smile.