Broadway by the Bay
Encyclopedia
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It began as the San Mateo Community Theatre
San Mateo Community Theatre
San Mateo Community Theatre was begun in 1963 by the Parks & Recreation Department of the City of San Mateo in California to present summer productions with local high school and college students. It was later renamed Peninsula Civic Light Opera and today is known as Broadway by the Bay....
, a community group established by the San Mateo Recreation Department, with Dr. Randolph Hunt as music director and Robert Lynch as drama director in June 1963 at Hillsdale High School
Hillsdale High School (San Mateo, California)
Hillsdale High School is a public high school in San Mateo, California serving grades 9–12 as part of the San Mateo Union High School District...
in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...
.
History
Historically, Broadway By the Bay is an outgrowth of a San Mateo Recreation Department program that originated in the 1950s as "La Honda Music Camp." Each summer, that program employed the talents of young musicians, singers, and actors to produce a musical (primarily Gilbert & Sullivan operettas), which was staged at the camp site in Jones Gulch near La Honda, CaliforniaLa Honda, California
La Honda is a census-designated place in southern San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 928 at the 2010 census. It is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Silicon Valley and the Pacific coast of California...
. The program grew to become the "San Mateo Community Theatre" with summer productions of three Gilbert & Sullivan operettas from 1963 to 1965 at Hillsdale High School.
First productions
Dr. Hunt and Robert Lynch were the directors for the first two summer productions at Hillsdale High SchoolHillsdale High School (San Mateo, California)
Hillsdale High School is a public high school in San Mateo, California serving grades 9–12 as part of the San Mateo Union High School District...
, both operettas by Gilbert & Sullivan. Dr. Hunt had directed a number of the operettas when he taught at Capuchino High School
Capuchino High School
Capuchino High School is a public high school in San Bruno, California, although the school is surrounded by the city of Millbrae on all but one corner...
in San Bruno
San Bruno, California
San Bruno is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 41,114 at the 2010 census.The city is adjacent to San Francisco International Airport and Golden Gate National Cemetery.-Geography:San Bruno is located at...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
from 1950 to 1960. After earning his doctorate, Hunt taught at Crestmoor High School
Crestmoor High School
Crestmoor High School opened in San Bruno, California in September 1962 to relieve congestion at Capuchino High School and Mills High School. It was the seventh high school to be built by the San Mateo Union High School District, based in San Mateo, California. Construction began in 1960 on a...
from 1962 to 1963. He was also on the staff of the La Honda Music Camp, which was known for its summer musical productions, and his success with the camp encouraged the City of San Mateo to establish a non-profit community musical theater. Lynch had acted in local productions of the operettas. Both Hunt and Lynch were considered leading experts of the popular operettas.
The first production was Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
, which Gilbert & Sullivan subtitled "Bunthorne's Bride," with three performances in August 1963 in the little theatre at Hillsdale High School and an additional performance at La Honda Music Camp in Jones Gulch, near La Honda
La Honda, California
La Honda is a census-designated place in southern San Mateo County, California, United States. The population was 928 at the 2010 census. It is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Silicon Valley and the Pacific coast of California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
. The cast utilized local high school and college students and included a future international opera singer, soprano Luana De Vol. The operetta was premiered in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1881 as a satire on the aesthetic and transcendental movements led by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. Dr. Hunt directed a small orchestra that included musicians from throughout San Mateo County.
In the summer of 1964, Hunt and Lynch collaborated on The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, with six performances at Hillsdale High School and an additional performance at La Honda Music Camp. This was clearly a more ambitious production. The operetta had been premiered in London, at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in 1885. Although The Mikado has a Japanese setting, it actually satirizes British customs and politics; much of the political satire seemed quite appropriate during the controversial 1964 political campaigns between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
.
Citing increasing responsibilities at Merritt College
Merritt College
Merritt College is a two-year community college located in the Oakland Hills in Alameda County, California. The school's enrollment is approximately 6,000 students. The college is named after physician Dr...
in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where he taught from 1963 until his retirement, Dr. Hunt did not return for the summer 1965 production. Instead, Anthony "Duke" Campagne, the band director at Hillsdale High School, worked with Robert Lynch on a production of H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
. There were four performances at Hillsdale and one at La Honda Music Camp.
After Gilbert & Sullivan
Capuchino High School
Capuchino High School is a public high school in San Bruno, California, although the school is surrounded by the city of Millbrae on all but one corner...
, and Ben Denton, the choral director at Aragon High School
Aragon High School
Aragon High School is an American public high school in San Mateo, California, and is part of the San Mateo Union High School District . It is located in San Mateo County, a large suburb just outside San Francisco...
. For the first time, the SMCT presented a classic Broadway musical: Oklahoma!
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
. Ton had a great influence on the production, which heavily used Capuchino graduates, including Gordon De Vol, Joyce Thomas, and Jerry Klinger in lead roles. Once again, the cast and orchestra were drawn from high school and college students throughout San Mateo County. Another first was moving the performances to the little theater at the College of San Mateo
College of San Mateo
College of San Mateo is a community college in San Mateo, California. It is part of the San Mateo County Community College District....
. Overall, the production was a great success and encouraged SMCT to produce more musicals.
Dr. Hunt returned as a director for the 1967 production of West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
and Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
. The performances were moved to the auditorium at San Mateo High School
San Mateo High School
San Mateo High School is an American National Blue Ribbon comprehensive four-year public high school in San Mateo, California serving grades 9–12 as part of the San Mateo Union High School District....
, later known as the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. This has been the home of the San Mateo Community Theatre, now known as Broadway by the Bay, ever since. There were serious cast problems in this production that marred the overall impression with those who attended. Nevertheless, staff changes soon resulted in better directions for future productions, which often relied on professional and semi-professional talent, as well as non-professional singers and dancers. Broadway by the Bay, as it is now known, has achieved consistently high, near professional standards for many years.
The San Mateo Community Theatre became an official non-profit organization in 1978. In 1983, the Board of Directors expanded the focus of the company and changed the name to "Peninsula Civic Light Opera." In 1999, a decision was made to gradually change the name to "Broadway by the Bay," to more accurately reflect the fact that the group stages Broadway-type musicals as opposed to operatic productions.
Broadway by the Bay Today
Broadway by the Bay continues to grow with nearly 6,000 season subscribers and over 3,000 single show ticket sales per production. The company made a major contribution to the national theatre scene by co-producing the full scale world premiere of The Prince and the PauperThe Prince and the Pauper
The Prince and the Pauper is an English-language novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada before its 1882 publication in the United States. The book represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction...
in August 1993. This musical is currently being reworked for a future Broadway production.
Broadway By the Bay is a not-for-profit corporation for the public benefit which provides full scale musical theatre productions of professional quality at family prices. The company continues to grow in professionalism, attendance and stature.
The three or four show season opens with the first production in May, the second in late July and early August, the third in September, and the fourth in October. Most productions are appropriate family entertainment. Each show normally has nine performances at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center (SAMPAC), which seats 1,600 people. Broadway By The Bay will move to the Fox Theatre in Redwood City due to a major renovation at SAMPAC in there 2011 season.
The actors, some musicians, some technical staff, box office workers, ushers and office staff are all volunteers, as is the 21-member Board of Directors. Over 40,000 volunteer hours are contributed each year. In addition to the tremendous contributions of time, the productions are supported by a budget of over $500,000. Regular staff includes the Executive Director, Artistic Director, Development Director and Office/Box Office Manager. Production directors are contracted for each show. A year-round office is maintained at 851 Burlway Road, Suite 300, Burlingame, California.