The ages of the actors vary greatly in the performances.
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anyone who’s interested, there are lots of ways to be involved, and lots of ways to grow new skills. It’s all important.” Ruth Amber, vice president in charge of building and maintenance and Box Office manager, agrees. “My husband and I first came out here in 1989 and fell in love with it. I’ve been here for eight years now,” she said. “The theater is like family.” While the crew is mostly local, people come out from San Francisco State University, Notre Dame de Namur, Skyline and Foothill colleges, and beyond. Some come to act while others come to see the productions, and stay to do more. The plays and musicals for each season are chosen with community input. “We have a Financial Board and an Artistic Board,” Newman says. “The ability for people to join either board is just another way we solicit community input. The Artistic Board decides what productions to put on and the Financial Board makes it happen. “ Amber adds. “We try to give people a variety of shows, so we don’t have all comedies, or all musicals.” It takes six to eight weeks of rehearsals to put on show, depending
on the production. In 2013, the theater was temporarily yellow-tagged, but the PSP was still determined to perform. The company did one show at the old Serramonte Center, then decided to build a black box theater out of the playhouse’s hospitality room. The black box has 40 seats and allows the PSP to rotate through other productions with a different feel. The group recently put on “4,000 Miles,” which featured a four-person cast and had an intimate small-room feel about it. The main theater room is not much bigger, though, and still feels like a performance “done for you.” Both rooms are wheelchair accessible. “A lot of local people don’t know we exist, yet,” Amber says with a hint of excitement. “We rely on word of mouth and our road sign to attract a bigger audience. There are locals who still need to discover our gem in the woods, and we hope they do. “I remember back when our first show sold out,” she said. “It was ‘West Side Story,’ and everyone was doing that show because the rights were just released. Selling out was phenomenal and shows how high-quality our productions are. People should come in and test the waters.” PACIFICA
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