Richard Reineccius — S.F. theater pioneer
Richard Reineccius, a pioneer of the Bay Area’s midsize theater scene and San Francisco’s neighborhood arts programs, died at Oakland’s Altenheim Senior Housing center Feb. 5, just 11 days before what would have been his 79th birthday. The cause of death is given as unknown, pending an autopsy, but is believed to have been a heart attack, according to his family.
A passionate advocate for contemporary theater and opportunities for emerging artists, Mr. Reineccius founded the Julian Theatre in 1965, with his wife, Brenda Berlin, and a group of graduate and undergraduate students from what was then San Francisco State College, where he was teaching. At the time, the only professional theater companies in the region were the Actor’s Workshop and the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
Within the next five years, students from UC Berkeley and other aspiring theater artists had followed suit, starting Berkeley Repertory, the Magic, Eureka and other companies, and ushering in the active, diverse theater community that has thrived in the Bay Area ever since.
Richard Ronald Reineccius was born Feb. 16, 1937, in Cambridge, Minn., the youngest of 13 children, and grew up working on his parents’ farm. He attended Iowa State University as an electrical engineering major, but soon switched to drama and spent the next few years working with different theater companies. In the early ’60s, during a stint with the Army at Fort Bliss, he and Berlin, recently married, worked with Playhouse El Paso, where he became managing director. He graduated from S.F. State in ’65, and received his master’s degree there in ’68.
Mr. Reineccius served as artistic and general manager for the Julian, where he also acted and directed. Dedicated to producing “revitalized classics” and exciting contemporary playwrights from Britain, Germany and Eastern Europe, it became increasingly a home for new Bay Area writers during its almost three decades. The company had a rocky first few years during which it moved several times, starting at St. John’s Episcopal Church (on Julian Street) and working at various sites — including Walnut Creek and Berkeley, in the space that then became Berkeley Rep’s first home — before settling at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in ’68.
For most of the next two decades, the Julian remained one of the region’s principal midsize theater companies and hosted a diverse array of other dance companies, including John Doyle’s Grassroots Experience, Danny Glover and Gloria Weinstock in “Sugarmouth Sam Don’t Dance No More” and the African Uhuru Dancers. During this time, Mr. Reineccius also became increasingly involved in an Arts and the City program which evolved into the city’s Neighborhood Arts Program (now the Community Arts and Education Program of the S.F. Arts Commission).
He also spearheaded a movement, with other arts activists, that resulted in the city purchasing in ’73 the four buildings that remain its primary neighborhood cultural arts centers: Bayview Opera House, Mission Cultural Center, South of Market Cultural Center and the African American Art & Culture Complex.
The Julian began to falter in the mid-’80s, after Mr. Reineccius and Berlin divorced and she left the company, and had closed early in the ’90s when he was invited to direct a play in Poland, where he remained for the next 11 years. He moved back to the Bay Area in 2005.
Mr. Reineccius is survived by his son, Stacey Reineccius, and daughters, Narda Skov and Celia Chamberlain, as well as six grandchildren, aged 6 to 17. A memorial is being planned. Donations in his memory may be made to Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 DeHaro St., San Francisco, CA 94107.