School is back in session for thousands of Bay Area kids, which also means theater is back in session for many of our regional troupes. New seasons mean new hopes that companies will keep on churning out terrific content in front of many patrons ready to support local productions. Here are some great recommendations to get your fall started.

“Eureka Day”: City Lights is the latest local company to produce this instant classic, arguably one of the most decorated Bay Area plays in recent memory. Regional productions, and a critically-acclaimed, 2025 Tony Award-winning run on Broadway for best revival of a play are due to Oakland-based playwright Jonathan Spector.

The story is set in Berkeley at the Eureka Day School, where vaccination requirements are up for debate among parents and administrators due to a mumps outbreak. A strong cast in downtown San Jose is the latest to interpret this whip-smart comedy. Artistic director Lisa Mallette directs.

Details: Sept. 24-Oct. 18; City Lights Theater; $25-$73; cltc.org.

“Into the Woods”: Sunnyvale Community Players, the 57-year-old South Bay company, is taking on one of Stephen Sondheim’s great masterpieces. Based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, multiple people set out to change their fortunes, with results not necessarily being “happily ever after.” Cinderella, The Big Bad Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood a rapping witch and other familiar characters bring forth Sondheim and James Lapine’s iconic production. Hits such as “On the Steps of the Palace,” “Stay With Me,” and “It Takes Two” inform the mellifluous score. Executive Artistic Director Thomas Times directs.

Details: Sept. 5-27; Sunnyvale Theatre; $46.10-$59.42; sunnyvaleplayers.org.

“Dracula”: Fall performing arts season often means getting in touch with one’s inner-spooky. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is offering such an opportunity, with their production of Steven Dietz’ play “Dracula,” based on Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Literature’s best known vampire is ready to tell his tale of superstition, love and blood, ready to explode in Mountain View as the scary season kicks off. Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli directs.

Details: Oct. 7-Nov. 1; Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; $44-$104; theatreworks.org.

“Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest”: How does a theater company lay out an entire cornfield in the middle of nowhere on a stage? The Toni Rembe Theater at A.C.T. San Francisco will be stretched to the limits telling this tale of mistaken identity, adapted from Hitchcock’s classic 1959 film. The show promises to be a high-flying thrill ride. Emma Rice, who also did the adaptation, directs.

Details: Sept. 22-Oct. 18; Toni Rembe Theater; $28-$141; act-sf.org.

“Don Giovanni”: Opera San Jose is unveiling a new production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s melodramatic psychological thriller. The piece follows the fall of the notorious libertine, a reckless womanizer, ignoring many supernatural warnings until a ghostly stone attempts to have its way with his soul. Alek Schrader handles the directing duties, while resident music director Joseph Marcheso conducts.

Details: Sept. 13-27; California Theatre; $50.50-$250.50; operasj.org.

“The Cook”: Prolific Cuban playwright Eduardo Machado explores an aristocratic Cuban family as members flee from Havana to Miami on the eve of Fidel Castro’s revolution, leaving their mansion to their cook Gladys, who protects the domain for 40 years. Described as “quietly devastating,” Machado’s play at Berkeley Rep is another in his many chronicles of Cuban life, both in the United States and on the island of his birth. The Rep’s Associate Artistic Director David Mendizábal directs.

Details: Sept. 4-Oct. 11; Berkeley Rep Peet’s Theatre; $70-$154; berkeleyrep.org.

“The Glass Menagerie”: The haunting tale of the Wingfield family, as they lay trapped inside circumstances that are both circumstantial and self-inflicted, takes root at Center Rep in Walnut Creek. The production is a “Legacy Revival,” incorporating a freshly reimagined staging of a classic canonical play.

Haunted by deserting his delusional mother Amanda and sister Laura, who’s painfully shy and retreats to her collection of glass animals, Tom recalls the days when he yearned for artistic freedom while suffocating inside a job at a shoe company. The tragedy of each character informs the thrill of the story, while another character, the gentleman caller, disrupts the family even further. Center Rep’s artistic director Matt M. Morrow directs.

Details: Sept. 6-27; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $31-$78; centerrep.org.

“Barcelona”: San Jose Stage kicks off its season with the Bay Area premiere of this story of an drunken American woman and her one-night stand with an older Spanish man. A tale of danger, both political and personal, is the basis for this two-hander, written by one of the most dynamic playwrights in the American theater at present. Coming off the 2026 Pulitzer Prize-winner for “Liberation,” (produced at Berkeley Rep this fall), Wohl’s play will certainly thrill with masterful and witty dialogue. Randall King directs.

Details: Sept. 23-Oct. 18; San Jose Stage; $38-$72; www.thestage.org.

Seeds of Time Festival: Over the course of three weeks, six new plays will be developed and performed in the North Bay. Play On Shakespeare, the company that partners with professional playwrights to reimagine and craft new takes on Shakespeare, sponsors the second annual festival. As a critical piece of the gathering, audience members will be able to engage in discussions with artists about the pieces over food and drink. Aejay Antonis Marquis curates the festival.

Details: Oct. 3-18; Marin Shakespeare Company Downtown Theatre; $0-$49; marinshakespeare.org.