The History of SARTA

SARTA was founded in 1984 by several members of the acting community, including the current Artistic Director of California Stage Ray Tatar. In June 1988, we became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Since 2003, SARTA has been operating with an all-volunteer board, and since 2009 we've functioned without paid office staff by leveraging third-party ticket vendors, PayPal, our website, and email marketing to stay in touch with our supporters.

Over the years, SARTA has offered acting classes, audition workshops, headshot days, General Auditions, Theatre Week, and many other events. In 1986, SARTA inherited the ELLY awards and grew it into the celebration of the arts it is today, with over 90 awards in both Youth and Adult categories. Our all-volunteer team of judges collectively view over 200 submissions from over 70 theatres.

Unfortunately, the ELLY awards are currently on hiatus due to COVID-19. However, we hope to continue to foster the love and celebration of theatre through our other programming.