Pasadena Celebrates Its Playhouse

Twinkling overhead lights strung across El Molino Avenue on a clear spring evening highlighted rows and rows of perfectly set tables amidst pounding Taiko drums, mariachi singers and a classical music trio performing Beatle tunes Saturday evening, as the Pasadena Playhouse mounted its first full-scale fundraising  gala since 2016, dubbed “The Playhouse Party.”

“We’re back and we’re thriving,” said Artistic Producing Director Danny Feldman, as the evening began. “There were times when we thought we would never get here again, but here we are.”

Feldman later told the audience at dinner, “We are in the middle of our most ambitious season in our history, and we have our sights set on much bigger things here at the Playhouse.” 

The ambitious evening honored State Assembly Member Chris Holden, along with the LA Arts Recovery Fund, who together raised millions of dollars to keep the Pasadena Playhouse solvent and working during the pandemic. Holden secured a $1.6 million check from the California State Legislature in 2021, to overhaul the theater building’s heating and air conditioning system, while the Playhouse was one of 90 Southern California arts organization grant recipients from the LA Arts Recovery Fund.

‘It’s an amazing time to be here,” said Holden, “because it just shows the resilience of not only what the theater means to the larger community, but the people who are a part of providing executive leadership on the board, thinking about the future, planning and bringing the right kind of performances in during the pandemic. 

“Now,” he continued, “we’re here together, and we’re here to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments here at the theater, and the joy that it brings to people.”

“We are truly just getting started,” Feldman told the audience, as he announced a new series of programs for youth and families, including “professional theater made with the same high Pasadena Playhouse standards, but exclusively for young people in our community.”

“This is so exciting for the playhouse,” said board member Christina Hernandez. “It feels like an acknowledgement that we have emerged completely from the pandemic. We are a revived Playhouse, and to me this is a celebration of Pasadena  and its own State theater.”

US Congresswoman Judy Chu, a longtime supporter of the theater, also added, “Isn’t it great that we can be together and celebrate in person the fantastic accomplishments of the Pasadena Playhouse.” Chu added that she had seen a number of plays at the Playhouse over the last few years, mentioning specifically, “Fly,” the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, and the ongoing Stephen Sondheim festival. 

“I have just loved the innovation that’s here, and I love the musicals,” she added.

Pasadena resident, Golden Globe winner, and Emmy nominee Jane Kazcmarek, actually flew west from Connecticut where her daughters are attending school, to attend the bash.

“I couldn’t miss this, so I just got on a plane and got out here,” she said. Kazcmarek was also one of the first bidders to pledge $5,000 in the evening’s auction, to “adopt” a Pasadena elementary school for an in-class visit from a Pasadena Playhouse teaching artist next year. 

Her bid set off a flurry of bids, which were immediately  matched by an existing pledge, which quickly raised $40,000 from the guests to fully fund the new public school theater program for next year. 

And the auction was just beginning.