In April, SPARC Theater celebrated 20 years of bringing professional productions and arts education to the Tri-Valley. The nonprofit is an educational community resource as well as a professional theater company. SPARC’s 10-week literacy program, So Wise So Young, uses Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to increase language comprehension and reading skills. The program is taught in all second grade classrooms of the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District. The nonprofit also offers adult improv classes at its downtown SPARC Studio. A new workshop for high school students will be available this summer, in addition to existing summer camps for students in grades three to five and grades six to eight.

Many know SPARC for Shakespeare in the Vineyard, which produces theater outdoors at a vineyard. The theater company needs large indoor facilities as well. “Finding an affordable indoor space available for the number of days we require has proved impossible,” says Lisa Tromovitch, Executive/Artistic Director and Founder. “Post pandemic, building prices literally doubled, putting us into hiatus for a couple of years. But now a committee has formed to explore funding mechanisms to renew these plans that help complete the Stockman's Park plan in downtown Livermore.”

Regional performing arts organizations were never meant to survive on ticket sales alone, according to Tromovitch, who says that most theaters fall within a 60/40 or 40/60 split between donated and earned funds. “This is normal. If we raised ticket prices to the actual cost of producing the highly human-centered endeavor that is theater, most people could not afford it.”

Tromovitch worked hard for SPARC to qualify for a Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund grant from the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. Earning that grant allowed the nonprofit to stabilize its three-year funding plan with cash flow coverage during these uncertain times in the funding world. Funding is not the only challenge of keeping SPARC in business, of course. Building, painting, and installing a set; adding lights; creating costumes; and developing sound for a production all demand a great deal of work. So does clearing out everything after the production is over. Still, the challenges are worth the results.

Individuals can support SPARC by attending productions with friends as well as by donating. “Too many young people don't know they love live, professional theater because they've never experienced it,” notes Tromovitch. “If you want live, professional theater in the community, you need to show up and help market it by telling others how much you enjoy it.”

Tickets are on sale now for SPARC’s production of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark at Livermore’s Darcie Kent Vineyards July 2 to July 26, 2026 at 7:30 pm. SPARC officials say this gripping story of family, loyalty, and the cost of vengeance is a timeless masterpiece alive with rich emotion, thrilling action, and some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines.

“Donors to regional theaters look to a return on investment of community health and vitality,” Tromovitch adds. “ROI might be the ability to attract and retain desirable employees, or the mental health benefits that come with sharing a space, a laugh, a tear, with your community. Or the educational benefits of learning about other places, other cultures in an entertaining storytelling format. Theater is live and real, and affects us in a different way than film or video. It's truly special.”

For more information about SPARC Theater, please visit www.sparctheater.org, www.facebook.com/SPARCtheater, www.instagram.com/sparctheater, www.youtube.com/channel/UC1AIKW65QQLgqT1JilXsEoQ, or call (925) 443-2273.