Chula Vista's only live community theater is opening a brand-new political satire this week, even as it stares down the end of its 27-year run on Third Avenue. OnStage Playhouse premieres Mensa, a dark comedy by San Diego playwright Salomón Maya, tomorrow, with performances continuing through September 13.
Mensa follows Esther, a gifted teenager studying to take the Mensa admission exam, as she gets caught in the middle of a dangerous ideological clash between her parents, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her father, David, has built a career as an outrage-driven media personality, while her mother's colleague, Valentina, produces his increasingly divisive content. Esther, distracted by her parents' unraveling marriage, watches as David and Valentina invite rival left-wing podcaster Sophia to a live debate that devolves into a dangerous confrontation, per the same report.
The cast includes Isabella Turner as Esther, Alex Chernow as David, Cristina Gallo as Valentina, and Larissa Ryan as Sophia. Maya, a two-time regional Emmy Award-winning producer, actor, and columnist for L'Chaim San Diego Magazine, has previously written full-length plays including Gridlock, Mugre, and Masa — the latter a 2024 drama about a family recovering from the Mexico City earthquake, and Mugre a 2023 play about three Latino men working at a South Bay car wash. Mensa marks OnStage's third world premiere of one of his plays.
A Playwright Chasing Something New
Maya has said Mensa is unlike anything he has written before, and that he wrote it to remind audiences what happens when people stop listening to one another, the article notes. The play takes its title from Mensa International, the high-IQ society founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill and Lancelot Ware, which initially reserved membership for people in the United Kingdom before expanding to more than 90 countries by 1960, according to Mensa International. The organization now counts around 150,000 members worldwide and requires applicants to score at or above the 98th percentile on an approved standardized test, such as the Mensa Admission Test, SAT, or GRE. In the play, the character Esther must be at least 14 years old to sit for the exam.
Mensa is the 11th production to emerge from OnStage's Page-to-Stage program, which works with local playwrights to edit and workshop scripts over a period of one to two years. That pipeline has already produced regional recognition: the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle awarded the Page-to-Stage production of Fragment/o/s of Air/e by local playwright Carla Navarro the 2025 Craig Noel Award for Outstanding New Play in February. OnStage previously won the 2022 Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Work at a Small Theater from the same organization.
A Ticking Clock on Third Avenue
Mensa's run will be followed in November by December 4th, written by Charles Peters, which will become the Page-to-Stage program's 12th production — and the final show inside OnStage's 60-seat storefront at 291 Third Ave. The theater has occupied that space in downtown Chula Vista since 1999, after first launching performances elsewhere in the city in 1986, according to Wikipedia. Its lease there expires in February 2027, and the monthly rent has nearly tripled to $6,850, according to From Another Zero.
Artistic Director James P. Darvas has said OnStage will search for a new South Bay space once December 4th closes, with hopes of opening a new theater sometime in 2027. The company has launched a $25,000 Finish Line fundraising campaign intended to cover current operating expenses through the end of 2026, per the Union-Tribune. Darvas has noted that OnStage can pay its bills with ticket sales during months when a show is running, but has no income during the stretches spent developing new work and rehearsing.
A Community-Priced Stage in South Bay
As the only live, non-profit community theater serving Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach, and San Ysidro, OnStage has long framed accessibility as central to its mission. To keep live performance within reach of South Bay residents, the theater adopted a flexible donation-based ticketing model with tiers starting at $15 a seat, according to KPBS. Tickets for Mensa are priced at $25.
OnStage Playhouse Board President Mabelle Reynoso, PhD, an award-winning playwright and co-host of the podcast Hey Playwright, has advocated for keeping the Page-to-Stage pipeline centered on local and borderland storytellers, according to the theater's leadership page. The company's financial squeeze arrives even as San Diego's City Council restored more than $12 million in municipal arts funding in 2024 after proposed budget cuts threatened cultural groups citywide, per From Another Zero — a reprieve that has not fully insulated a small storefront theater from rising commercial rents.
Mensa opens tomorrow with performances at 8 PM Thursdays through Saturdays and 5 PM Sundays, running through September 13 at 291 Third Ave in Chula Vista.
