PASADENA LITTLE THEATRE SERIES
PASADENA LITTLE THEATRE TV

ĭue to changes in Actors' Equity Association laws, and the opening of drama departments in many schools and universities across the country, the School of Theatre Arts shut down in 1969.

PASADENA LITTLE THEATRE TV

In addition to training the Air Force to use television and radio equipment, the Pasadena Playhouse supplied the majority of Southern California's early TV stations with the first trained technicians in the business. The Playhouse also built and operated one of the first television stations in Southern California. The varied staging capabilities offered by its five venues led the Playhouse to become one of the first companies in California to experiment with new theatrical forms such as theatre-in-the-round.

In order to provide housing for the many students, older homes along El Molino Avenue were modified to become dormitories. During the school years, the Playhouse was very active, having as many as five independent stages in operation at any given time, giving 306–322 performances annually on the main stage alone. Ī school of theatre arts was established in the late 1920s that became an accredited college by 1937, eventually training such notable talents as Raymond Burr, Victor Mature, Ernest Borgnine, Eleanor Parker, Charles Bronson, Ray Vasquez, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Sally Struthers, Jamie Farr, Mako and others. The Playhouse was recognized by the Legislature as the State Theatre of California in 1937. Scott Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams, as well as many English language premieres of significant Continental dramas. drew the attention of the nation, bringing Southern California world premieres by authors such as Eugene O'Neill, William Saroyan, Noël Coward, F. The building that was designed by Grey and built by the Winter Construction Co. Its non-professional, community beginnings and the tremendous amount of local support for the project led George Bernard Shaw to dub Pasadena 'the Athens of the West', likening the enterprise to the ancient Festival Dionysia. Completed in 1925, the theatre was designed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style by Pasadena artist and architect Elmer Grey, with a fire curtain painted by Pasadena artist Alson S. The community theatre organization quickly grew and in May 1924, the citizens of Pasadena raised funds to build a new theatre in the city center at 39 South El Molino Avenue. Brown established the Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena in 1917 that would later become the Pasadena Playhouse Association, which necessitated a new venue for productions.

PASADENA LITTLE THEATRE SERIES

The artistic community that founded the Pasadena Playhouse was started in 1916 when actor-director Gilmor Brown began producing a series of plays at a renovated burlesque theatre with his troupe 'The Gilmor Brown Players'. Beginning around 1912, the period known as the Little Theatre Movement developed in cities and towns across the United States.

Pasadena little theatre