Sandbox Theatre Collective Set To Produce HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARS ROVER

Sandbox Theatre Collective is announced its upcoming production of Happy Birthday Mars Rover by Preston Choi, which will serve as the first project of its 2026 season.

Performances will take place upstairs at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro on select dates this summer, from June 19 through July 5.

Sandbox will be holding auditions for Happy Birthday Mars Rover by self tape submissions through March 18 at 11:59 p.m. Callbacks will be held on March 28 and 29 by invitation. For more information regarding casting, click here.

The Mars Rover sings Happy Birthday to itself as it searches for life on Mars as humans back on Earth search to understand what life is. A medley of snapshots, from cave people naming abstract concepts, bubbles that scream when popped, housewives battling existential dread, cows trying to get to heaven, and the last human on Earth collecting jars of hair. Happy Birthday Mars Rover is a darkly comedic and whimsically morbid attempt to understand the human condition and life itself.

This production will be directed by Kara Toll and produced by Phillip Heflin.

Happy Birthday Mars Rover is "a play that wrestles with existential, cynical feelings about human beings and about the future, but that balances a call to action with an opportunity to play and delight in the beautiful things about humanity," said Toll. "This play is for people who have a dark sense of humor; people who are wrestling with existential dread; people who like climbing to the top of tall hills and looking down; people who wonder what's at the bottom of the ocean or out in space; and people who anthropomorphize the Mars rover."