Old Globe Theatre
San Diego, CA
Venue Info
Built:
1935
Venue Status:
Status unknown
Seating Capacity:
580
Location Info
1363 Old Globe WaySan Diego, CA Find on Google
Other Names
- Old Globe Theatre (1935)
Trivia & History
This is the first of two theatres called the Old Globe that have occupied the same location in San Diego's Balboa Park.
The theatre was built as a temporary structure for the California Pacific International Exposition, 1935. Originally an open air theatre with bleacher seats, it hosted 50 minute condensations of Shakespeare plays performed by the Old Globe Production Company imported from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. When the Exposition ended in September 1936, a campaign to save the structure raised $15,000 and, with WPA labor, a roof was added and the temporary building was extensively overhauled.
The Old Globe's new tenant was a newly formed company, San Diego Community Theatre, leasing the facility from the city of San Diego. In Decemeber 1937, they reopened the theatre with a production of John Van Druten's The Distaff Side. Aside from a partial hiatus during World War II when the U.S. Navy commandeered Balboa Park, the company has been in continuous operation on the site ever since.
The first musical presented in the Old Globe Theatre was a topical San Diego-themed revue, Caught in the Act, in September 1949. It was successful enough to spur sequels the following five years.
San Diego Community Theatre officially changed its name to Old Globe Theatre, Inc. in 1958. Originally an amateur group, it first employed Actors' Equity performers for its San Diego National Shakespeare Festival summer season in 1959. For many years thereafter the theatre featured amateur performers in its winter productions and professional actors in the summer.
On March 8, 1978 an arson fire completely destroyed the first Old Globe Theatre.
See also the rebuilt Old Globe Theatre.
