The San Gabriel Mission Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located in the Mission District of the city of San Gabriel, California.
The San Gabriel Mission Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located in the Mission District of the city of San Gabriel, California.
The Playhouse was constructed between 1923 and 1927 for John Steven McGroarty’s hugely successful Mission Play . [1] [2] [3] [4] The Mission Playhouse’s architect was Arthur Burnett Benton who designed the Playhouse in the Mission Revival style. [5] The façade was designed to resemble McGroarty’s favorite mission, San Antonio de Padua in Monterey County. The 1,387-seat theater has Native American influences in its painted and carved ceiling. Replicas of Spanish lanterns used aboard galleons in the 1800s hang from the ceiling. Woven tapestries that were a gift from King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1927 adorn the sides of the theater. The theater is home to a fully restored 1924 Wurlitzer pipe organ originally built for the Albee Theatre in Brooklyn, New York. [6]
After the run of The Mission Play, the Mission Playhouse was used as a movie theatre. During WWII, the Playhouse dressing rooms were turned into apartments. Since 1945, the Playhouse has been owned and operated by the City of San Gabriel. When the City purchased the Playhouse, they renamed it the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium. On September 26, 2007, the theatre was renamed and once again called the Mission Playhouse. [7]
The Playhouse is known to be haunted by the spirit of Its original owner, known affectionately by locals as “Uncle John”, who often makes surprise appearances during stage performances.
The Playhouse has been used as a film location for various TV series and movies such as The Love Boat and Remington Steele. Throughout the years, many notable names have graced the Playhouse stage including B.B. King, Tippi Hedren, Lilly Tomlin and Tony Bennett. [7]
The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche—to the basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland's Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California during that period. The theater has over 1,400 seats. The theater's ceiling is the last known leatherette ceiling in the United States and possibly the world. Another leatherette ceiling was demolished just a few years ago. To make the ceiling look as though it is leather requires a special technique regarded as lost today.
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The Mission Play, by John S. McGroarty, was a three-hour pageant portraying the history of the California missions. Performed in San Gabriel, Ca, it was first staged in 1912 across from the San Gabriel Mission. In 1927 the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse was constructed to house the production. It was seen by over 2.5 million people.
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Originally called the Mission Playhouse, this city-owned auditorium was designed especially for John Steven McGroarty's Mission Play.