Thursday, November 21, 2013
Repertory theatre comes to Piedmont Avenue
Inside Bay Area: Piedmont Avenue, home to three bookstores, a cinema, and numerous coffee houses and restaurants, will soon be home to a whole new venture, one in keeping with the intelligencia and demographics of the area, the Piedmont Avenue Repertory Theatre.
Under the direction of John McMullen, the man behind the idea, a cast has been selected and rehearsals are underway for the theatre's first production, "The Dining Room" by A.R. Gurney, set to open Nov. 22.
McMullen is no stranger to theater, having earned a master's in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon, teaching drama at City College of San Francisco, Los Medanos College and Carnegie Mellon; and working as an art critic for the Berkeley Daily Planet for the past two years.
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4 comments:
This is about a five minute walk from my house! I'm excited that there will be a theater in this area. There is not a huge amount of arts and it is a really community oriented place so it will be cool to see what kind of crowd this theater draws. I hope that it can survive given the rate of new theaters that don't make it in today's economic climate especially in the Bay Area where rents are even higher. I am hopeful though, the area has some night life and a lot of families so if they tailor their productions to that they should be okay.
How do you look at the demographics of an area to figure out whether it is financially viable for a theatre to exist there? I wonder if having a movie theatre in the same area as a theatre would cause problems for the theatre, as while they cater to different audiences, they do produce similar things to view. And while the merchants in the area have said that they think a theatre would be a good idea, does their opinion reflect that of the consumers?
ZoeW--hope you can make it...final performances Sat @ 8 and Sun @ 7.
thediningroom.brownpapertickets.com
Rents are high, but there is a lot of support if we can nail down a venue on the Avenue.
caschwartz--No problem with the cinema...they support us and even took our cards for display. Neighborhood folks we talk--and we talk to a lot out on the street doing promotion--are wildly enthusiastic about a semi-pro theatre nearby so they don't have to cross the bridge or find parking in Berkeley all the time.
And there are 3 things essential to any businesses success, and the first of these is "location." Saves on publicity, too.
Hello John,
I wish I could make it out, unfortunately I will still be in Pittsburgh. I wonder if I could potentially meet with you and pick your brain about theater in the bay area? Break a leg with the show!
-Zoe
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