The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.
The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy. The community theatre organization quickly grew to prominence and in 1925, the citizens of Pasadena raised funds to build an extraordinary theatre in the heart of the city. It was known originally and for the first few d...
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The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic theatre located in Pasadena, California.
The Playhouse's history began in 1917 when actor/director Gilmor Brown began producing a season of plays at an old burlesque house he called the Savoy. The community theatre organization quickly grew to prominence and in 1925, the citizens of Pasadena raised funds to build an extraordinary theatre in the heart of the city. It was known originally and for the first few decades of its existence as the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Its community theatre (ie: non-professional) beginnings and the tremendous amount of local support led George Bernard Shaw to dub Pasadena “the Athens of the West,” likening the enterprise to the ancient Festival Dionysia.
Designed by Elmer Grey (whose notable credits include most of the California Institute of Technology campus and Polytechnic School) and built by the Winter Construction Co. (also noted for Sid Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood),...
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