Golden Bough Playhouse, home of Pacific Repertory Theatre

The Pacific Repertory Theatre is a non-profit California corporation, based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, that produces theatrical productions and events, including the annual Carmel Shakespeare Festival.[1] It is one of eight major arts institutions in Monterey County, as designated by the Community Foundation of Monterey County,[2] and is supported in part by grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation,[3] The Shubert Foundation, the Berkshire Foundation and the Monterey Peninsula Foundation.[4]

History

The company 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 its executive director since 2009. The organizational name changed to Pacific Repertory Theatre in 1994 when the company acquired the historic site of the Golden Bough Playhouse in downtown Carmel, and announced plans to establish a professional theatre for the region. In 2001, in order to facilitate an appearance by Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the company entered into a seasonal agreement with Actors' Equity Association.[5][6] It thereby became the only professional theatre in Monterey County.[1]

The company gained wider attention for its series of Shakespeare plays entitled Royal Blood: The Rise and Fall of Kings. Over the course of several summers beginning in 2001, it presented all of Shakespeare's histories in chronological order.[7]

PRT presents a year-round season of 10–12 plays and musicals in three historic Carmel theatres: The 300-seat Golden Bough Playhouse, the 120-seat Circle Theatre, and the 540-seat outdoor Forest Theater. The company presents over 175 performances each year.[4]

Forest Theater

In 1984, Pacific Repertory Theatre joined the Forest Theater community. At the request of the Carmel Cultural Commission, the company began producing shows at the historic outdoor facility, staging Robinson Jeffers' Medea, starring local actress Rosamond Goodrich Zanides.[8] In 1990, the company reactivated the old Carmel Shake-speare Festival of the 1940s, playing in repertory at the Forest, Golden Bough, and Circle theatres, and adding the hyphen in "Shake-speare" to denote interest and support research into the growing Shakespeare Authorship Question.[9] Since that time, the company has continued to stage productions at the Forest Theater every September and October, expanding into August in 2000, when it became the only professional theater company in residence at the Forest Theater.[1] In 2011, following the closure of the 50-year-old Children's Experimental Theater, the City of Carmel awarded the year-round lease of the indoor Forest Theater to PRT for its educational program, the School of Dramatic Arts.[10]

In early 2022, the city of Carmel entered into a lease with Pacific Repertory Theatre for the nonprofit to manage the venue for the next five years, with a five-year renewal option.[11] Under PRT's management of the venue, the Forest Theater has presented shows by Puddles Pity Party,[12] the Monterey Symphony,[13] the Forest Theater Guild,[14] Monterey Peninsula College Theatre,[15] concert promoter Steve Vagnini,[16] as well as other arts organizations and civic events.[17]

Leadership change

In 2008, Pacific Repertory Theatre Board of Directors named Kenneth Kelleher as artistic director, and founder Stephen Moorer was named executive director after serving as artistic director since 1982. Kelleher has been a theatre director in the San Francisco Bay area for many years, including at the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare at Stinson.[18] The 2009 season marked the first full season under Kelleher's artistic leadership. The season included a 14-member adaptation of Man of La Mancha, and the controversial David Hare play, The Blue Room, a frank look at sexual encounters based on La Ronde. Both productions were directed by Kelleher, who also assumed directorial duties for the season productions of Hamlet and As You Like It.[19]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Pacific Repertory Theatre". Archived from the original on 2008-09-26.
  2. ^ The Community Foundation for Monterey County Archived 2011-09-12 at the Wayback Machine. Cfmco.org, accessed April 29, 2011
  3. ^ "Search Our Grants". The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Pacific Repertory Theatre – PacRep Theatre, Carmel – Home Page". Pacrep.org. Archived from the original on 2014-01-05. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  5. ^ Wilbur, Brett (April 25, 2002). "Pac Rep Throws a Bash Celebrating 20 Years of Community Theater and its New Life as a Professional Company: The Second Act". Monterey County Weekly. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  6. ^ Thurman, Chuck (July 12, 2001). "The Pacific Repertory Theatre enters a new era with its star-studded production of The Cherry Orchard". Monterey County Weekly. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  7. ^ Shilstone-Laurent, Mark (March 1, 2001). "Stephen Moorer is the merrier as he leads Pacific Repertory Theatre into the most ambitious phase of its history: Director's Notes: On A Role". Monterey County Weekly. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  8. ^ Blum, Terry (January 2002). "Spotlight On Carmel: Stephen Moorer". Monterey County Theatre Alliance. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2009.((cite web)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ Clarkson, Philip B. "Carmel Shakes-Peare Festival", Archived 2017-03-18 at the Wayback Machine Shakespeare companies and festivals, pp. 28–31 (Eds. Ron Engle, Felicia Hardison Londré and Daniel J. Watermeier). Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995 ISBN 0-313-27434-7
  10. ^ Brownfield, Mary (February 4, 2011). "PacRep beats out Guild for chance to lease kids' theater" (PDF). The Carmel Pine Cone. Vol. 97, no. 5. pp. 2A, 28A. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  11. ^ Popęda, Agata (28 February 2022). "Carmel set to finally sign a lease with PacRep for the Forest Theater". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  12. ^ "Puddles Pity Party - Dates". puddlespityparty.com. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023.
  13. ^ "Love Letter to Hollywood, Vol. 1". Monterey Symphony. Archived from the original on 11 May 2023.
  14. ^ ""Ride The Cyclone" the Monterey County Premiere by the Forest Theater Guild". Forest Theater Guild. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023.
  15. ^ "MPC Theatre Company". Monterey Peninsual College. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  16. ^ Herrera, James (3 April 2023). "Music in the Forest Concert Series to kickoff with VTC fundraiser for its Music Therapy Room". Monterey Herald. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  17. ^ Conrad, Caitlin (2016-06-24). "Forest Theater in Carmel reopens". KSBW. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  18. ^ Hurwitt, Robert (2008-02-24). "For Bay Area theater, change at the top". sfgate.com. San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  19. ^ "Pac Rep continues a tradition of great storytelling for the 2009 season". Monterey Herald. Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

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