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The Pacific Repertory Theatre, originally known as the GroveMont Theatre, is a non-profit year-round theatre company based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States. The company presents an annual season of ten to twelve productions, both stage plays and musicals.
Pacific Repertory Theatre was founded in 1982 by Carmel-by-the-Sea resident Stephen Moorer, who served as its artistic director from 1983 to 2008 and has been its executive director since 2009. Kenneth Kelleher has been artistic director since 2008. The company's main venues are Carmel's Golden Bough Playhouse and the outdoor Forest Theater. In 1990, the company reactivated the annual Carmel Shakespeare Festival. The company gained attention for its series of Shakespeare plays titled Royal Blood: The Rise and Fall of Kings produced over the course of four summers beginning in 2001. This series included the first productions of Edward III and Thomas of Woodstock in the US.
Pacific Repertory Theatre (PacRep) is a professional theatre company located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It is the only professional theatre company located on the Monterey Peninsula. [1] It is a member of the League of Resident Theatres [2] and presents a year-round season of plays and musicals. [3] The company stages its productions in three Carmel theatres: [4] the Golden Bough Playhouse, [1] the Circle Theatre, [5] and the Forest Theater. [2] [6]
PacRep was founded in 1982 as GroveMont Theatre by Carmel-by-the-Sea resident Stephen Moorer, who served as its artistic director from 1983 to 2008 and has been its executive director since 2009. [7] [8] In the 1980s, organization struggled to survive, with a $4,500 annual budget and no permanent place to perform. It was then governed by a board made up of six friends. [9] The organization's name changed to Pacific Repertory Theatre in 1994 when the company acquired the site of the Golden Bough Playhouse in downtown Carmel, and announced plans to establish a professional theatre for the region. [10] [11] In 2001, to facilitate an appearance by Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard , [12] [13] the company entered into an agreement with Actors' Equity Association. [11] [14] It is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. [2]
The European Foundation for Quality Management studied PacRep in a case study on financing for non-profit organizations which was originally published in 2006 in Above the Clouds: A Guide to Trends Changing the Way We Work: a Project, and again in that works 2017 re-publication by Routledge. [15] The Brookings Institution published a case study of PacRep as one of several in social entrepreneurship in the 2008 book The Search for Social Entrepreneurship. [16]
In 2008, PacRep named Kenneth Kelleher as artistic director and Moorer as executive director. [17] For the 2009 season, Kelleher directed David Hare's The Blue Room , an adaptation of La Ronde , [18] along with Man of La Mancha , Hamlet and As You Like It . [19]
Between September 2021 and September 2022, 14 out of 20 board members of the PacRep resigned. Disagreements over construction resulted in a board motion to terminate Moorer as executive director, but a vote was never taken. After this motion, board members told a reporter they had been threatened with lawsuits and that this had led to the mass resignation; Moorer denied making any threats. [8]
At the request of the Carmel Cultural Commission, PacRep began producing shows in 1984 at the outdoor Forest Theater, staging Robinson Jeffers' Medea. [20] In 1990, the company reactivated the old Carmel Shakespeare Festival (CSF) of the 1940s, playing in repertory at the Forest, Golden Bough, and Circle theatres, amidst growing interest in the Shakespeare Authorship Question. [21] [22] Since that time, the company has continued to stage productions at the Forest Theater every September and October, expanding into August by the 1990s. [23] In 2000, it became the only professional theater company in residence at the Forest Theater. [24] CSF has the largest budget of any of the California Shakespeare festivals. [2] In 2004 PacRep's artistic director Stephen Moorer was the recipient of the "Award of Artistic Excellence for Distinguished Achievements in the Advancement of Shakespearean Drama" at the eighth annual Edward de Vere Studies Conference at Concordia University. [25]
Following the closure of the 50-year-old Children's Experimental Theater in 2011, the City of Carmel awarded the year-round lease of the indoor Forest Theater to PacRep for its educational program, the School of Dramatic Arts. [26] [27] In early 2022, the city of Carmel entered into a lease with PacRep for the nonprofit to manage the venue for the next five years, with a five-year renewal option; [28] the company continues to mount its own productions there, alongside those of other arts organizations, and holds civic events. [29] [30]
Some of the plays staged at the CSF include Romeo and Juliet (1991; 1997), [23] [31] Henry V (1994), [32] Julius Caesar (1994), [32] The Taming of the Shrew (1995), [33] The Merchant of Venice (1995), [33] Cymbeline (1996), [34] Henry IV, Part 1 (1996), [35] Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1996), [36] Coriolanus (1997), [23] [37] Antony and Cleopatra (1998), [38] Much Ado About Nothing (1998), [38] King Lear (1999), [39] The Merry Wives of Windsor (1999), [40] A Midsummer Night's Dream (2000 [41] and 2007), [42] The Winter's Tale (2002), [43] Macbeth (2007), [42] Troilus and Cressida (2008), and The Comedy of Errors (2008). [44] In 1999 the CSF included a revival of Lee Blessing's Fortinbras ; [39] a play set immediately following the events of Hamlet . [45]
In 1997 PacRep produced a revival of Jean Anouilh's rarely performed Ardèle . [46] According to theatre scholar Amnon Kabatchnik, "the first major revival of Volpone in the twenty-first century was produced by the Pacific Repertory Theatre" in September 2000. [47]
The company gained wider attention for its series of Shakespeare plays titled Royal Blood: The Rise and Fall of Kings. Over the course of four summers beginning in 2001, it presented all of Shakespeare's histories in chronological order. [48] [49] This included the first staging in the United States of the play Edward III (2001); the potential authorship of the play by Shakespeare is a subject of scholarly debate. [50] PacRep also presented the first American production of Thomas of Woodstock in 2001; another play controversially suggested as being authored by Shakespeare. [51] [52] The decision to stage these plays alongside Richard II led the Shakespeare Oxford Society to hold its 25th annual conference in Carmel, California, so that conference members could also attend performances of these rarely staged works. [22] [53]
In 2003 PacRep continued its Royal Blood play series with Part 1 and Part 2 of Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy of plays. [54] That same year the company presented a revival of Euripides' Medea , which was the final production staged by director Joseph Chaikin before his death later that year. [55] Also in 2003, the company revived Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story ; [56] a production that it repeated in 2004. [57] In 2008, PacRep premiered Curtain Call by Gary Goldstein, who had won the Hyperion Playwriting Competition; a national competition instituted by PacRep. [58] [59] Some other plays produced by the company include Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (2006), [60] Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage (2012), [61] and Cyrano de Bergerac (2017). [62]
Musicals produced by the company include Oliver! (1997; 2002), [23] [63] High School Musical on Stage! , [64] Fiddler on the Roof (2012), [65] The Full Monty (2014), [66] Heathers: The Musical (2016), [67] Shrek the Musical (2018), [68] Chicago (2019), [69] Mary Poppins (2022), [70] and The Addams Family (2023). [71] The company staged the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan in 2015. [72]
In 2020 the second phase of a three million dollar upgrade to the Golden Bough Playhouse was begun. [73] In 2024 the newly renovated playhouse re-opened with a PacRep production of Selina Fillinger's farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive . [74] [75] Other 2024 productions included the musical 9 to 5 [76] and Kate Hamill's stage adaptation of Sense and Sensibility . [77]
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.
Carmel-by-the-Sea, commonly known simply as Carmel, is a town in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 at the 2010 census. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is a tourist destination, known for its natural scenery and artistic history.
The San Jose Repertory Theatre was the first resident professional theatre company in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1980 by James P. Reber. In 2008, after the demise of the American Musical Theatre of San Jose, the San Jose Rep became the largest non-profit, professional theatre company in the South Bay with an annual operating budget of $5 million. In 2006, it was saved from impending insolvency by a $2 million bailout loan from the city of San Jose; this was later restructured into a long-term loan similar to a mortgage.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It runs seven productions each season from its two stages in Downtown Berkeley.
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Elizabeth Rex is a play by Timothy Findley. It premiered in a 2000 production by the Stratford Festival. The play won the 2000 Governor General's Award for English language drama.
The Forest Theater is an outdoor amphitheater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Founded in 1910, it is one of the oldest outdoor theaters west of the Rocky Mountains. The performer and director Herbert Heron and author Mary Austin were founding forces. The facility also includes a smaller indoor theatre and a school.
Stephen Moorer is an American stage actor, director, and producer based on the Central California Coast. He founded the GroveMont Theatre in 1982, renaming the non-profit organization Pacific Repertory Theatre in 1994, when the group acquired the Golden Bough Playhouse in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
The Theatre of the Golden Bough also known as the Golden Bough Theatre, was built by Edward G. Kuster in 1924 on Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was destroyed by fire on May 19, 1935. Kuster moved his film operation to the former Arts and Crafts Hall on Monte Verde Street, nearby in Carmel, which he had previously purchased. He renamed it the Filmarte, and it became the first art house between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1940, Kuster renamed the theater the Golden Bough Playhouse and presented plays and films year-round. In 1949, this second Golden Bough also burned down.
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The Theatre of the Golden Bough also known as the Golden Bough Theatre, was located on Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. This "Golden Bough" was one of two theaters in Carmel's history. It was destroyed by fire on May 19, 1935. Kuster moved his film operation to the older facility on Monte Verde Street, renamed it the Filmarte and it became the first "art house" between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It later became the Golden Bough Playhouse.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre companies and one of its most consistently innovative.
The Sunset Center is located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States. It is a performing arts center which features concerts, comedy, theatre, and dance. Formerly the Sunset School, the site was purchased by the city of Carmel in 1965 with the plan to develop it into a cultural center. It is home to the Carmel Bach Festival. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 1998.
The Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was an art gallery, theatre and clubhouse founded in 1905, by Elsie Allen, a former art instructor for Wellesley College.
Edward Gerhard Kuster was a musician and attorney from Los Angeles for twenty-one years before coming to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in 1921. He became involved in theater there and established his own theatre and school. He built the Theatre of the Golden Bough in 1924, and a second and third theater, each called Golden Bough Playhouse, the last of which opened in 1952. Kuster directed 85 plays and acted in more than 50 roles in the 35 years he lived in Carmel.
Colman Domingo is an American actor, writer, and director.
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