Trinity Theatre Company is settling into a new San Diego home in the Miramar neighborhood, a space nearly three times larger than the Mission Valley theater it was forced to leave behind. The company is marking the move with a production of Sarah Ruhl’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” a play about technology, connection and what it means to stay human in a wired world.
The relocation was triggered by the loss of what had been described as a “permanent” space at Mission Valley Mall, according to sdjewishworld.com. The new venue, at 9520 Padgett Street, Suite 208, covers roughly 9,000 square feet, the outlet reports, making it nearly three times the size of Trinity’s former theater.
The new space includes room for classes and storage, along with dressing rooms, a shop, a dance studio and a music room, giving Trinity’s education and production work places to spread out.
A Comedy Built Around a Stranger’s Ringing Phone
For its inaugural show in the new space, Trinity turned to “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” a comedy, according to app.arts-people.com. The ticketing listing describes the production as following the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.
Sarah Ruhl wrote the play in 2007, and it premiered on Broadway in 2008, the same sdjewishworld.com report notes. The production will feature San Diego actor Sasha Foo, according to the outlet, in a cast built around a story centered on a mysteriously ringing cell phone.
Old Themes, New Urgency
The subject matter gives the revival an unplanned timeliness. The production explores technology’s role in people’s lives amid contemporary concerns about artificial intelligence, the report states, a tension baked into a script written nearly two decades ago but staged now in a moment when questions about machines, connection and what gets lost in translation feel newly urgent.
Trinity itself has deep local roots. Sean Boyd and classmate Kenden Reed founded the company in 2012 while seniors at San Diego High School, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. As of March 2023, the theater employed 30 staff members, including part-time teachers, and operated year-round, the paper reported, staging three professional shows for adult actors each season alongside numerous youth productions through its education program.
A Bigger Stage for San Diego Theater
Trinity’s expansion lands amid a broader wave of movement in San Diego’s theater scene. Elsewhere in the city, a historic Navy building at Liberty Station was reborn as The Joan, a $43.5 million performing arts center that became the new home for Cygnet Theatre, opening with “Follies” in 2025, according to a Forbes account republished by Cygnet Theatre. Trinity’s move to Miramar likewise followed the loss of its Mission Valley space.
San Diego Jewish World reports that “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” runs Oct. 22–25, 2026, with performances Thursday through Sunday. The show marks Trinity Theatre Company’s first production in its new Miramar venue since its move out of Mission Valley Mall, giving San Diego audiences their first look at how the company’s bigger footprint translates to the stage.
