In 2025, Bay Area theater was loaded with innovative artists producing great shows, coupled with a hope that the local scene will soon see healthier days.

During a spate of theater closures, funding challenges and diminished audiences, there’s been no shortage of ideas from the Bay Area’s top theater brass as to how Bay Area theater can survive. There were also plenty of victories to be had on our region’s stages in 2025.

Below, theater critics and regular KQED contributors Nicole Gluckstern and David John Chávez share their most significant Bay Area theater happenings of 2025.

The beautiful spectacle of ‘AZAD’ at Golden Thread

Written and performed by Sona Tatoyan, a Syrian Armenian American theatre-maker and Storyteller, AZAD defied categorization in its April premiere at Golden Thre

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