Ray of Light Theatre, the local musical-obsessed theater group that has performed mostly at the Victoria Theater in the Mission District for much of its 25 years of existence, has a new home downtown.

As of last week with the opening of Mean Girls, the Musical, Ray of Light Theatre has been entertaining audiences in the newly refurbished Barbary Stage — aka the former single-screen movie theater next to the Safeway at 215 Jackson Street, which most recently was home to the now defunct 42nd Street Moon theater group.

There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Barbary Stage last week, presided over by former SF Drag Laureate D'Arcy Drollinger and state Senator Scott Wiener.

"To be opening a new theater is... truly extraordinary," Wiener said at the event. "And it needs to become less extraordinary, because we need more art, not less."

Ray of Light renovated the theater with the help of donations from its fans and subscribers, expanding the size of the stage, installing new lighting, and remodeling the lobby and restrooms — adding historical photos of the Jackson Square and "Barbary Coast" areas to the lobby.

Purple hues now cover the walls and floors of the restrooms and lobby, with black accents and gold bathroom fixtures. And as the Chronicle reports, a new platform has been installed above the stage for the orchestra, making them visible during shows.

"Twenty-five years ago I started Ray of Light because I wanted a home — for the theater kids, the observers, the people who grew up feeling everything and needed somewhere to put it," wrote Ray of Light's founding Artistic Director Shane Ray at the outset of the project. "I wanted a place in SF where we could put passion, danger, hilarity, and rebellion on stage (often all at once)  and not be precious about it; a place where audiences could have a great time and still walk out changed. We’ve built every show on volunteer labor and love, and after two and a half decades of making this work in other people's spaces, we are building something permanent, a home of our own."

"The Barbary Stage is a bet that what made this city iconic isn't gone yet — just looking for a room," Ray adds.

The Jackson Square neighborhood, as the Chronicle points out, is now home to multiple AI startups (and also former Apple product designer Jonny Ive's design firm that got acquired by OpenAI), but Ray of Light is hoping to fit right in.

"This is an opportunity to meet people in this neighborhood where they’re at and say, ‘OK, maybe that’s your work life. We’re down the street,’” says Artistic Associate Jenn Bevard, speaking to the Chronicle. “It feels ripe with a sense of possibility — not like we’re at odds with the community."

And the all-volunteer leadership team of Ray of Light Theatre says that they're glad to be downsizing from the Victoria in terms of seating capacity, with the Mission District theater seating 480, and the new Barbary Stage seating 199, making for a better sized and more intimate theater-going experience.

Mean Girls runs through May 30, and you can find tickets here. And Ray of Light's 2026 season will continue in August with Urinetown, and in October with the Britney Spears jukebox musical Once Upon a One More Time.