Theatre Bay Area is a non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, founded in 1976, whose mission is to unite, strengthen and promote the theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 community in the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

, working on behalf of their conviction that the performing arts

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

 are an essential public good

Common good

The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. In the popular meaning, the common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all members of a given community...

, critical to a healthy and truly democratic society, and invaluable as a source of personal enrichment and growth. TBA was founded to serve San Francisco's vital artistic community, and is today the largest regional theatre

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...

 service organization in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, serving as a model for other service organizations around the country.

The San Francisco Bay Area is the third largest theatre center in the country, with more than 400 companies in 12 counties. The region boasts more theatre companies per capita than almost any other metropolitan area in the U.S. and is home to the third largest community of 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...

 (union) actors, following New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. Some 200 new plays are premiered in San Francisco each year, many going on to wider success. Theatre Bay Area’s present membership is derived from 12 Bay Area counties (the 9 counties plus Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz County, California

Santa Cruz County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, on the California Central Coast. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay. . As of the 2010 U.S. Census, its population was 262,382. The county seat is Santa Cruz...

, Monterey

Monterey County, California

Monterey County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, its northwestern section forming the southern half of Monterey Bay. The northern half of the bay is in Santa Cruz County. As of 2010, the population was 415,057. The county seat and largest city is Salinas...

, and San Joaquin

San Joaquin County, California

San Joaquin County is a county located in Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, just east of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 685,306. The county seat is Stockton.-History:...

 counties) and consists of more than 365 Bay Area theatre and dance companies, from multi-million dollar organizations to grassroots community groups; some 3,000 individuals, including actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s, directors, designer

Designer

A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...

s, playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

s, technician

Technician

A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...

s and theatre patrons

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

; and more than 100 organizational members, from libraries and universities to theatre industry professional services.

Theatre Bay Area’s most prominent programs include TIX Bay Area (“online or in line” ticketing services), Theatre Bay Area magazine (the central source for information on the Bay Area’s theatre community, reaching 10,000 readers), their Web site containing one of the most comprehensive theatre listings available in the Bay Area, numerous re-granting programs for emerging theatre companies and local theatre artists, and advocacy for the theatre and dance community on the local, state, and national level.

TIX BAY AREA (San Francisco's Half-Price Ticket Booth)

TIX Bay Area is walk-up box office selling half-price theater tickets on the day of performance and full-price tickets in advance to select events. Located in Union Square, San Francisco, California

Union Square, San Francisco, California

Union Square is a plaza of bordered by Geary, Powell, Post and Stockton Streets in San Francisco, California. "Union Square" also refers to the central shopping, hotel, and theater district that surrounds the plaza for several blocks. The area got its name because it was once used for rallies and...

in the heart of San Francisco's premier shopping and hotel district, the pavilion is on Powell Street between Geary and Post. The closest parking is at the Union Square Garage (sorry, no validation offered). TIX is accessible by public transportation and is wheelchair accessible.

Hours

• Tuesday-Thursday, 11AM-6PM
• Friday 11AM - 7PM
• Saturday 10AM - 7PM*
• Sunday 10AM - 3PM*
• Closed: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
• (Half-price tickets go on sale at 11AM all days)

Also Available from TIX Bay Area:

• Ticketmaster tickets (everything west of the Rocky Mountains)
• Adult Fast Passes and tourist 1, 3 & 7 day transportation passports and Muni maps.
• SF Arts Monthly, Theatre Bay Area magazine, city maps and tourist information.
• Gift Certificates
• Victorian Home Walk Tour
• Union Square Urban Adventures
• Gray Line / Coach USA sightseeing tours
• SF CityPass

Theatre Bay Area Magazine

The first issue, a mimeographed single page, appeared in January 1976 (it took the name Callboard four months later). The single page turned into a couple of stapled pages. In September 1987, under Theatre Bay Area's executive director and Callboard managing editor Deborah Allen, the publication grew to a 7-inch-by-11-inch format. In 1987, one color was added. The September 1988 issue was Jean Schiffman's first as editor (she was previously the organization's communications director, and before that a publications associate). Belinda Taylor became editor in June 1993 and by October 1993 had completely redesigned the magazine, inside and out. The result is the roughly 8.5-inch-by-11-inch magazine Theatre Bay Area Magazine has today. Finally the name Callboard was changed to Theatre Bay Area Magazine in January 2004 in an attempt to more accurately reflect its content. Not only does the magazine have up to date audition listings that Callboard got its start publishing in 1976, but it also covers several stories and articles about the whole Bay Area theatre scene and theatre in general.

External links

• Theatre Bay Area
• TIX Bay Area
• Theatre Bay Area Magazine current content page