History

The Coronado Playhouse is an intimate, 100-seat cabaret-style theatre with a full service bar. Catered dinners, at an additional cost, are available opening nights and for some holiday shows. The new venue which opened in 2006 with its state of the art equipment still overlooks still overlooks beautiful Glorietta Bay. Season ticket holders can reserve their tables a year in advance for every show. The playhouse is dedicated to providing quality entertainment with a combination of delightful classic comedies, dramas, and mysteries, dazzling musicals, colorful FREE Shakespeare, and exciting original works by local authors.

The Coronado Playhouse, the oldest community theatre in San Diego County, was first organized as the Coronado Players in February 1946. After four successful seasons of performing in the high school auditorium (and selling tickets door to door), the Players purchased the a World War II WAVE barracks and an adjoining Quonset hut from the U.S. Navy at North Island. The building that housed the theatre until it was demolished in 2003 to make way for the Glorietta Bay Project which included the new City Hall, a small park, and the Coronado Community Center which houses the new theatre.

In May 1950, Rena Kennyon directed the melodrama, The Curse of an Aching Heart, the first production to be staged in the new theatre. Since 1946, the theatre has produced over two hundred productions, 100 of which were directed by Stanley Martin, the professional director for the theatre for twenty-two years. He directed Suds in Your Eyes, based on the best selling book by Mary Lasswell, which ran for sixteen consecutive summers from 1950-1966. The theatre started a new summer tradition in 1997 with the Annual Free Shakespeare under the direction of theatre professional Keith A. Anderson. When the old theatre was demolished, the Coronado Playhouse operated out of a temporary strung structure Pavilion at the Coronado Ferry Landing and, in 2006, moved into the new theatre at 1835 Strand Way when the Community Center was completed.

Our theatre is operated under the direction of the Board of Directors, who are elected by the membership. Performers, stage, and technical crew are all dedicated volunteers. The Playhouse is self-supporting through box office revenues, season tickets, memberships, donations, grants, and the generosity of volunteers