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Ghostbusters, a mom and son looking to save an old inn and five mischievous spirits are just some of the characters featured in the Sunol Repertory Theatre’s newest production, “Too Many Ghosts”.
The play, which is set to debut on Saturday, will be the small community theater’s 43rd production — a feat that director and Pleasanton resident Mike Telang said is indicative of the theater’s value to the Tri-Valley.
“Putting (on) 44 years worth of plays that continue to attract an audience is big,” Telang told the Weekly.
Founded in the early 1980s, SRT has spent the past four decades putting on small, local plays for the purpose of raising money for Sunol Glen School, which is where performances have been held every year (except for a hiatus during COVID). According to the theater troupe, it has raised over $250,000 in its 44-year run.
This year’s production of “Too Many Ghosts” is an original play inspired by the 2021 television show, “Ghosts”, according to an SRT press release last month.
Telang said the play is about a mom and son who move into an old inn where they discover five ghosts who refuse to leave. The story follows the mom and son, who want to convert the inn into a proper bed-and-breakfast, as they team up with the dead to save the inn from being bulldozed.
“This play is exactly the kind of show community theatre does best — it brings families together for a night of shared laughter,” Telang stated in the SRT press release. “It’s fast, funny and accessible for all ages, with humor that works just as well for kids as it does for adults.”
Telang said it is his first time directing a play with SRT since he joined two years ago. He said he has always had a love for theater since he was in college, so after he retired in January 2025, he started looking for local community groups to join.
That’s when he found SRT.
Apart from the great work the theater does with raising money for the kids at Sunol Glen, Telang said he appreciates how the troupe has developed a multi-generational tradition and love for the arts and for theater across the Tri-Valley.
With cast members ranging from longtime members who have been with the theater for decades to current Sunol Glen students who saw last year’s production and wanted to try their hand at acting, Telang said he truly believes SRT is keeping the arts alive. He even noted how this year, the play didn’t have any roles for kids — but after several students wanted to audition for a role in the play, they decided to change the script in order to include those kids.
One of the adult cast members is Patricia Balch, the mother of Pleasanton Mayor Jack Balch, who attended Sunol Glen School when he was a kid.
Balch said this year marks her 40th year with the theater company. She has done everything from curating the costumes and set designs to acting in each single play during the past four decades. This year she will be playing as one of the mischievous ghosts in the inn.
She said she first joined the theater company after seeing some of the plays when her kids attended the school and thinking it would be fun to be a part of the production.
Over the last 40 years, she said she has had nothing but fun working with all the different volunteers, getting to know everyone involved and watching children mature and eventually bring their own children into the fold.
“It’s like a real family,” Balch said. “Everybody supports everybody so much.”
Telang said he appreciated all of his cast and crew who, for the last two months, have been working hard on preparing themselves for opening week and added that he can’t wait for audiences to see what SRT has in store for them.
“We absolutely have a fabulous cast,” he said. “We have a group of very dedicated, talented cast members.”
The play is set to debut this Saturday (March 7) — it will run on select Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout March. For showtimes and tickets, visit www.sunol.net/srt.
Correction: A previous version of the story incorrectly described the gender of one of the lead roles in the play. The Pleasanton Weekly regrets this error.
