Presidio Theatre soon back in commission
Dark for nearly a quartercentury, venue sets opening gala for September
After 24 years, the Presidio Theatre will light up again for live performances and has revealed a fall lineup aimed at showcasing the Bay Area’s eclectic talent.
The revamped venue is scheduled to reopen Sept. 21 with a gala celebration followed by a Sunday open house with free tours of the new performing arts venue, officials announced Friday, July 5. The first show is scheduled for Sept. 2829, featuring Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco, in association with the Ethnic Dance Festival.
“The most important thing about it is that we have another venue in order to showcase artists from San Francisco and the Bay Area,” says Bob Martin, executive director of the Presidio Theatre, a new nonprofit set up to manage and program it. “We will have national acts, but the emphasis is on giving local talent a stage to be seen and shine.”
The Spanish Colonialstyle structure was built by the Works Progress Administration and opened in 1939 on the Main Post. It had been the movie theater for the Presidio of San Francisco Army base but also had a stage that allowed it to host performances by the likes of Jack Benny and Bob Hope.
After the post was decommissioned in 1994 and became a national park, an attempt was made to turn the venue into a stage for musical theater. But the premiere, a 1940s big band dance revue called “The Big Broadcast,” failed to find an audience, and the Presidio Theatre folded shortly after it opened in 1995.
“The Presidio Trust didn’t have the wherewithal to build it up in those early days, so it just sat there,” said Martin.
Another attempt to revive the area in 2000, to make the Presidio the centerpiece of an arthouse movie complex, also went nowhere.
The 600seat house is now nearing completion of a $30 million renovation and expansion, courtesy of the Margaret E. Haas Fund. Haas, part of the family that owns Levi Strauss & Co., lives in Ross but grew up on Broadway in San Francisco.
“This is all about Peggy Haas, just one person,” Martin said. “She drove by one day and said, ‘Something has to happen. It is just crazy
“This is all about Peggy Haas, just one person. She drove by one day and said, ‘... It is just crazy that it is just sitting there.’ ”
Bob Martin, Presidio Theatre
that it is just sitting there.’ ”
The twoyear renovation of the Presidio Theatre includes a new rehearsal space, pavilion and courtyard to host various events.
Its initial fall schedule runs through Nov. 29 and includes the 60th anniversary performance of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a sitespecific performance art piece by ODC/Dance, the American Indian Film Festival Awards and “Perla Betalla in the House of Cohen,” a tribute to the late singersongwriter Leonard Cohen.
In October, the Presidio Theatre will join with the Presidio Trust to cohost the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for a screening of “Jane’s Declaration of Independence.” The halfhour reel was filmed in the Presidio in 1915, at a temporary studio built where the Presidio Theatre stands today, at the intersection of Moraga and Montgomery — just uphill from the Main Parade Ground and across the street from the Presidio bowling alley.
“This film shows just how long art and culture has been part of the Presidio,” Martin says.
Tickets for the opening celebration are $50 and will go on sale Wednesday, July 10. Tickets for all other performances will go on sale Aug. 4 at City Box Office and can be purchased online via www.city boxoffice.com or by phone at 4153924400.
For more details about the opening and the Presidio Theatre’s inaugural season events, visit www.presidiotheatre.org.
“We will have national acts, but the emphasis is on ... local talent.” Bob Martin, executive director of the Presidio Theatre