The curtain has been raised on the Coachella Valley theater season.

The desert has more than a dozen stage venues, including such intimate 50-seat-or-less theaters as the La Quinta Playhouse in Old Town La Quinta, Thorny Theatre in Palm Springs, Groves Cabin Theatre in Morongo Valley and Paul Newman Theatre at the Stroke Recovery Center in Palm Springs.

The 1,123-seat McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert — the valley's largest full-facility theater — hosts national touring musicals and some College Of the Desert productions.

The desert's other major theaters are the 300-seat Indian Wells Theater at Cal State University San Bernardino in Palm Desert and the 433-seat Annenberg Theater at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

The mid-size theaters include the 160-seat Arthur Newman Theatre (named after the late Paul Newman's brother) at Joslyn Senior Center Palm Desert, the 224-seat Palm Canyon Theatre in Palm Springs and the 154-seat Pollock Theatre at COD.

The Indio Performing Arts Center has three 125-seat theaters.

Looking for a home

Not every local theater has a performance company — or even a permanent home.

The new Jorn Winther Productions, founded by veteran stage, film and television director Jorn Winther, is producing Neil Simon's “Come Blow Your Horn” at the Indian Wells Theater through Oct. 26. It will launch Simon's “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” Oct 24 at the IPAC and then move that comedy to the Indian Wells Theater Nov. 7-30.

The California Desert Regional Theatre, led by actor and former television writer Justin Blake, produces plays at the Rancho Mirage Public Library.

The new Dezart Performs company is also presenting a play-reading series at its Dezart One Gallery in Palm Springs. It is currently seeking new plays to read on the fourth Saturday of each month to help fill a void left last year when the Playwrites Circle of Palm Springs folded.

The new Desert Hot Springs Playhouse hasn't announced its debut because it's been unable to secure a venue.

But the new nonprofit Coachella Valley Repertory says it doesn't even want a permanent home.

Its artistic director, Ron Celona, surveyed regional theater companies around the country and determined the best economic model for this theater-rich area is the San Jose Civic Light, which selects its plays and then finds theaters that are suitable for the material.

Putting theater on the map

Of the local theater companies that do have a home, only Palm Canyon is officially sanctioned by Actors Equity, the national stage actors union, to use Equity performers and stage managers.

Of course, many actors with Equity and Screen Actors Guild credits do work with other local theater troupes.

But Palm Canyon — which just launched its 10th season with a production of “Oklahoma!” — also has a Shakespeare reading series, starting Sunday with “Troilus & Cressida,” and an arts education program that includes an Equity Membership Candidates Program with post-graduate theater training.

Celona, who built the Joslyn Players into a Desert Theatre League award-winning company, is planning the valley's first all-Equity troupe. And while that may sound expensive, he's built a strong support system to go with a plan to spend funds on shows, not a permanent venue.