TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

TheatreWorks is a non-profit, professional theater company based in Menlo Park

Menlo Park, California

Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...

, 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...

and founded in July, 1970. The company is a member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT)

Regional theatre in the United States

Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...

and employs some 300 artists annually, including Equity

Actors' Equity Association

The Actors' Equity Association , commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing the world of live theatrical performance, as opposed to film and television performance. However, performers appearing on live stage productions without a book or...

and non-Equity actors, directors, designers and specialty artists. It is the 3rd largest repertory theater in the San Francisco Bay Area behind American Conservatory Theater

American Conservatory Theater

American Conservatory Theater is a large non-profit theater company in San Francisco, California, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. A.C.T. was founded in 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Playhouse and Carnegie Tech by theatre and...

and Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1968, as the East Bay’s first resident professional theatre. Michael Leibert was the founding artistic director, who was then succeeded by Sharon Ott in 1984. The company runs seven...

. The company stages a year-round season of eight productions-- comedies, dramas, and musicals --in the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts is located in downtown Mountain View, California. It is operated by the City of Mountain View and hosts a variety of art events. Its home theatre companies include Peninsula Youth Theatre and TheatreWorks....

and in the California Mission-style Lucie Stern Theatre complex in Palo Alto. The company is currently led by a 24-member board of trustees, a full-time staff of 49, and entertains 100,000 patrons a year including 9,400 season subscribers on a budget of about $7.1 million. TheatreWorkers, the company's volunteer guild, numbers 200 strong.

Beginnings - 1970s

TheatreWorks began as the dream of Robert Kelley, a Bay Area native who earned his degree in creative writing from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

in 1968. After teaching at Andover Prep in Massachusetts for a year, Kelley returned to Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto, California

Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

in 1970. As a musician and occasional actor, Kelley decided he wanted to make his living doing theater. He got his chance when the city of Palo Alto then asked him to launch a theater program that would engage teenagers and reflect the concerns of the community. The result was a powerful and original new musical called, Popcorn, which premiered in July 1970. Popcorn spoke volumes to the local community and reflected the tumultuous changes of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Popcorn became the launching point for a Golden Era of Creativity for the company. In the first 3 years, 13 new productions were written and performed. The small company performed anywhere they could find space - basements, parks, and even old warehouses. But Robert Kelley and TheatreWorks had gained a reputation for putting no limits on creativity. During this time TheatreWorks became known for two distinct qualities -- outstanding production values and diversity on stage. Despite a small budget, the influx of talented artists from around the Bay Area allowed TheatreWorks to create extraordinary sets and costumes. The company also regularly featured performers of color on the stage at a time when it was a rare occurrence. By the end of the decade the company had grown to include a six-member Board of Directors, four full-time staff, 700 season subscribers and a budget of nearly $150,000 per season.

1980s

In the 1980s, the company focused on diversity and innovation. Newly hired Associate Artistic Director Anthony J. Haney led the charge to increase awareness of TheatreWorks among top caliber performers of color in the Bay Area and to gain credibility in the African-American, Asian, and Latino communities. in 1981, a world premiere musical, The Fireworks Rag, written by Kelley, was the company's first primarily African-American cast. Furthermore, the company continued to introduce Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

audiences to plays and musicals never before seen on Bay Area stages. The company shifted its focus from writing new material every few years to finding and illuminating the works of emerging authors from around the country. The Stage II Series was implemented where smaller productions by lesser known authors could be explored and produced.
In 1985, Randy Adams was hired as the company's first managing director and within three years, TheatreWorks had signed its first contracts with the actor's union, Actors' Equity Association

Actors' Equity Association

, and reached the $1 million mark for its annual budget. By the end of the decade Theatreworks had a 16-member Board of Directors, 11 full-time staff, 5500 subscribers and a budget of $1.7 million.

1990s

In the 1990s, the company took up residence in the newly built Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

for 5 performances each season, while still keeping 3 performances in their original home, the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. They built the fully functional black box stage in Cubberley Center in Palo Alto, to accommodate the Stage II series. The company encountered new opportunities to produce world premieres with established artists. In the early 90's, the company presented the world premiere of Josephine, a musical based on the life of Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....

, starring Della Reese

Della Reese

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese , is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You...

. They also mounted a national casting search seeking an all-Native American cast for a new musical called Honor Song for Crazy Horse. TheatreWorks continued to top itself in audience attendance and critical acclaim, until the end of the decade when the company had a 20-member Board, 30 full-time staff members, 8500 subscribers, and a $4.5 million budget.

2000s

In the new millennium, TheatreWorks put in renewed energies toward developing New Works. Most notable was the launching of the New Works Initiative, which strives to support the creation of new work by providing writers with the resources to explore their ideas. In 2005, Randy Adams left the company, which led to the national search to bring in a new managing director, Phil Santora. The company continued to produce world premieres, and in fall 2007 they staged their 50th world premiere, Emma
Emma
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about the perils of misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a lively 'comedy of manners' among...

, a musical version of the popular Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

novel. The musical which would go on to be TheatreWorks' top-grossing, most-attended production ever.
The Broadway musical Memphis
Memphis (Musical)
Memphis is a musical by David Bryan and Joe DiPietro . It is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s...

began at TheatreWorks' New Works Festival in 2002 and made its World Premiere as a TheatreWorks Mainstage production in 2004. In 2009, Memphis opened on Broadway and subsequently won four Tony Awards awards, including Best Musical. During this time period, TheatreWorks has also been developing a relationship with power-pop musical group GrooveLily

GrooveLily

Groovelily is a trio, a pop band made up of Valerie Vigoda , Brendan Milburn , and Gene Lewin . The band was originally formed in 1994 as "The Valerie Vigoda Band." Groovelily's music combines classical music, musical theatre, jazz and rock...

. TheatreWorks has produced several of the group's musicals, including Striking 12 and the World Premieres of Long Story Short and Wheelhouse (Mainstage 2012).

2010s

As TheatreWorks celebrates its 41st season, it is one of California's largest theatres, with 36 permanent staff members, a 24-member Board of Trustees, more than 8,000 subscribers, and an annual budget of $7 million. A pioneer in diversity programming, a regular home to world and regional premieres, and a widely hailed source of original new works for the American stage, TheatreWorks has become the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley.

New Works Festival

As part of the New Works Initiative, the New Works Festival was founded in 2002. The festival consists of developmental productions, staged readings of both musicals and plays, and an artist panel.

See List of TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley) New Works

External links

TheatreWorks.org official website
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts official website

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