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