Sunny Side Theatre Co is an educational nonprofit theatre company organized as a 501(c)(3) in California. Our mission is to increase the knowledge of multicultural mental health issues through through researching, writing, teaching and producing culturally relevant and accurate performances to which the public is invited. Our programs offer low-cost theatrical arts projects, free adult acting coaching, and implement proactive disability accommodations. In doing so, Sunny Side creates an inclusive and evocative space that is accessible to artists and audiences of color, those of lower socioeconomic statuses, the LGBT community, and those with mental and physical disabilities.

Our mission and model are rooted in and guided by our goals of artistic and social change. A 2021 study examined in the “Journal of Experimental Social Psychology” asserts that attending live theatre promotes empathy, changes attitudes of socioeconomic statuses, and leads to prosocial behavior. Our programs are designed to reflect a social action model. Under this model, Sunny Side focuses on creating stage opportunities, providing free training and conducting polls to respond to, empower, and connect disenfranchised theatrical artists of color. While doing so, the art produced is made to be both humanizing and increasingly accessible to patrons of varying socioeconomic statuses. We honor authentic cultural representation in the arts by writing, casting, staging, and offering original and mindfully selected programming that is the product of research and real life, and features modern and mindful practices.