History
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MULTI ETHNIC THEATER
In January of 1993 Lewis Campbell, an acting teacher from School of the Arts in San Francisco, got a call from former student and professional actor Johanna Jackson. Would he work with some of her students while she was playing the role of Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird at Denver Repertory Theatre? He agreed and two months later a group of fourteen young actors presented an evening of one-act plays at The Gough Street Playhouse in San Francisco. One of the actors in the March production was Ronnie Hatter, Arts Coordinator at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. Ronnie suggested starting a new theater company on The Hill, and Multi Ethnic Theater (MET) was born. In June, Lewis took early retirement from teaching to become MET’s full-time Artistic Director.
A July 1993 program note contained the following message:
We have MET on The Hill ! Multi-Ethnic Theater is a true people’s theater. Tickets are sold on a sliding scale beginning at $2.00. We rehearse mostly on weekends, and everyone is invited to participate. Classes and production activities will begin again in the fall.
For the summer and fall of 1993 MET concentrated on training and the presentation of scenes and one-act plays. Then, in November, MET presented its first full length production, a handsome and delightful staging of Moliere’s Scapino. MET continued at the Neighborhood House, training and producing plays, through 1996. In 1997 the company moved its training operations downtown and began producing at The Gough Street Playhouse in alliance with Marcia Kimmell, director of The Next Stage Training Program. In 1998 Ms. Kimmell and Lewis Campbell founded a California non-profit corporation, Theater Residencies Incorporated (TRI), with MET and The Next Stage Training Program as two of its projects. At The Gough Street Playhouse, TRI / MET has presented one or more productions a year and has also supported efforts by visiting theater companies. Evicted from the Playhouse in 2017 MET continues in rented venues while it searches for a new home.
MET PRODUCTIONS — 1993 TO THE PRESENT
1993
One Act Plays
Hope is the Thing With Feathers
(Richard Harrity),
Ludlow Fair (Lanford Wilson),
Talk to Me Like the Rain and
Let Me Listen (Tennessee Williams),
The Death of Bessie Smith (Edward
Albee), Happy Ending (Douglas
Turner Ward), Home Free (Lanford
Wilson), Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of
Cancer (Jason Miller), The Rising of
the Moon (Lady Augusta Gregory),
Domino Courts (William Hauptman)
plus
Moliere’s Scapino
1994
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
(Lorraine Hansberry)
The Lower Depths
(Maxim Gorky)
Bleacher Bums
(Joe Mantegna)
1995
Golden Boy
(Clifford Odets)
Fences
(August Wilson)
The Mousetrap
(Agatha Christie)
Sarajevo Voices and
Euripides’ The Trojan Women
1996
Purlie Victorious
by Ossie Davis
He Who Gets Slapped
by Leonid Andreyev
Mister Shakespeare’s
Magic Mirror
a collection of sonnets and scenes
To the Diggings
by Kathleen De Azeved — at SFMOMA
1997
MET moves to
The Gough Street Playhouse
and presents:
World Premier
Body Snatchers, The Musical
by Bob Lesoine
1998
ONE ACT PLAYS
The Happy Journey
by Thornton Wilder
The Harmfulness of Tobacco
by Anton Chekhov
The Golden Fleece
by A .R. Gurney Jr.
1999
ONE ACT PLAYS
Happy Ending
(DouglasTurner Ward)
Birdbath
(Leonard Melfi)
Graceland
(Ellen Byron)
Hit and Run
(Joseph Hart)
The Happy Journey
(Thornton Wilder)
plus
Master Harold and the Boys
by Athol Fugard
2000
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
by August Wilson
Twelve Angry Jurors
by Reginald Rose
2001
The Sea Horse
by Edward J. Moore
Mister Shakespeare’s
Magic Mirror
a collection of sonnets and scenes
No Place to Be Somebody
by Charles Gordone
2002
The Time of Your Life
by William Saroyan
2003
White Liars and Black Comedy
by Peter Shaffer
2004
The Island and
Sizwe Bansi is Dead
by Athol Fugard
2005
When You Comin’ Back,
Red Ryder
by ark Medoff
2008
World Premiere
A Secret for Next Sunday
by Charles Johnson
2009
TRI / MET Welcomes
The Custom Made Theater Company as a resident project at The Gough Street Playhouse
2010
Gem of the Ocean
by August Wilson
2011
TRI / MET continues support of The Custom Made Theater Company at the Gough Street Playhouse
2012
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
the Lorraine Hansberry story
in association with The Custom Made Theatre Company
2014
World Premier
INDIAN SUMMER
by Charles Johnson
2015
Two Trains Running
by August Wilson
2016
Jitney
by August Wilson
2017
A Shakespeare Valentine and Voices From Harlem
Ain’t It So…
by Charles Johnson
Evicted from the Gough Street Playhouse MET continues as a nomadic theatre company
Refugee Voices and Euripides The Trojan Women
at the Royce Gallery Playhouse
2018
Radio Gold
by August Wilson
at the PianoFight Bar and Theater
2019
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
by August Wilson
at ACT’s Costume Shop Theater
2020
Pandemic Theater
