History: Playhouse Chronology

1920 On October 22, The Laguna Playhouse is founded.  Plays are performed in private homes.
1922 August 11 - First full production, Suppressed Desires by Susan Glaspel, presented in an old vulcanizing shop located where Coast Highway and the White House Restaurant meet.
1924 The Playhouse, built at a cost of $5,000, opens at 319 Ocean Avenue and serves as the home of The Laguna Playhouse through 1969.
1937 The Laguna Playhouse struggles to make ends meet throughout the Great Depression. Finally, in 1937, lack of funds prompts the Playhouse to seek assistance from City of Laguna Beach. The City purchases the Ocean Avenue theatre for lease-back by company.
1942 January 3. From board minutes: "The President, in reporting on the occupation of the Playhouse building by a detachment of soldiers of the U.S. Army, stated that late in the afternoon of December 23rd, 1941, the soldiers had arrived in town and, because of rainy weather, were in need of a building for temporary barracks purposes. He further stated that since no other building in town was available, arrangements had been made for the use of the Playhouse building for that purpose, and because of the urgency of the situation, that there had been no opportunity to call a meeting of the Board..."
1942 USO (United Service Organizations) rents the Playhouse for the duration of hostilities for the sum of $18.75 per month paid in the form of a $25 War Bond. The Playhouse performs there for the troops.
1946 USO vacates the Playhouse. The first full production following war is You Can't Take It With You, directed by Marjorie Williamson
1950s & 60s The Playhouse is rented for many summers to independent producers of summer stock, featuring stars such as Nanette Fabray, Roddy MacDowell and future stars such as Barbara Eden and Marlo Thomas.
1959-64 Howard "Hap" Graham serves as Managing Director
1964-66 Douglas Rowe serves as Managing Director
1964-65 First season of South Coast Repertory is presented at The Laguna Playhouse: Tartuffe, Waiting for Godot, Volpone, The Hostage, and a fifth play.  SCR directors David Emmes and Martin Benson give acting workshops for Playhouse members.
1965 A young actor called Harry Ford appears in Stephen Vincent Benet’s play John Brown's Body at The Laguna Playhouse. He later becomes better known to millions of movie fans as Harrison Ford.
1966 The board debates company’s future and asks, as the minutes record, "whether The Laguna Playhouse should be oriented as a social club or whether the goal should be for a regional Theatre of excellence." Douglas Rowe resigns as Managing Director, telling South Coast News, May 24, 1966: "We've got to grow away from community Theatre. We have gone as far as we can go in forty years. We have to look toward a professional Theatre with paid actors. It is happening all over and all around us."
1966-69 Irma Nofziger serves as Managing Director
1969 September: The Moulton Theatre opens at 606 Laguna Canyon Road
1969-70 John Ferzacca serves as Managing Director
1970-71 Jack Seymour serves as Managing Director
1971-75 Howard "Hap" Graham serves as Managing Director
1976-91 Douglas Rowe serves as Managing Director, Executive Director, then as Artistic Director, retiring in June 1991.
1990 Richard Stein is appointed Executive Director
1991 Andrew Barnicle is appointed Artistic Director
Laguna Playhouse leases a warehouse facility in Lake Forest to provide rehearsal space and serve as scene shop.
1994 February: The Laguna Playhouse acquires the former Bank of America branch on Pacific Coast Highway in South Laguna to serve as the site for a proposed second stage. This becomes a supplemental rehearsal hall for a number of years..
1995 May: The Laguna Playhouse signs a formal agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional Theatre actors and stage managers.
June: The Laguna Playhouse admitted as a "constituent" of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization of nonprofit professional Theatre. The Laguna Playhouse annual operating budget reaches $1.5 million, double what it had been seven years before. In addition to achieving balanced budgets in each of the five previous fiscal years, annual attendance has also grown by more than 30% during the same period to reach 65,000.
October: The City of Laguna Beach considers a "Village Entrance" Plan to create a park and a parking structure across the street from the Playhouse's Moulton Theatre.
1998 After a smash-hit, 4-week subscription run and 8-week summer revival, The Laguna Playhouse's West Coast Premiere production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, transfers to a commercial run in Los Angeles.
The Playhouse's critically-acclaimed production of The Last Session transfers to a commercial run in Los Angeles.
The Laguna Playhouse signs the LORT (League of Resident Theatres) agreement with Actors' Equity Association.
1999 The Laguna Playhouse is admitted to membership in the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), a prestigious body of the nation's 75 top professional resident theatres and joining the ranks of five other Southern California LORT members at that time.
The Playhouse purchases three condominiums in neighboring Aliso Viejo to supplement the apartments it rents at Club Laguna to house visiting artists.
2000 March: LML Music releases the original cast recording of The Laguna Playhouse's 1999 production of Gunmetal Blues. The cast includes artistic director Andrew Barnicle. The release marks the first time a Playhouse production has been selected to preserve a work of musical theatre. It is also the first time that a LORT theatre outside New York has ever recorded an original cast album.
The Laguna Playhouse produces Julie Harris' The Belle of Amherst and tours it nationally to 18 cities.
2002 The Laguna Playhouse is the first professional resident theatre licensed to produce the Tony Award-winning play Copenhagen, and tours it nationally to 24 cities.
2004 The Laguna Playhouse's West Coast Premiere production of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, directed by Laguna Playhouse executive director Richard Stein, is co-produced with San Jose Repertory Theatre and transfers there following its Laguna Beach run.
2005 November 29: Board members Suzanne and Jim Mellor pledge $5 million towards the capital campaign. Their pledge is the largest single philanthropic contribution ever made to a nonprofit organization in Laguna Beach.
2006 More than 110,000 theatregoers annually attend performances at The Laguna Playhouse. Its continued growth, artistic excellence, audience popularity and critical acclaim make it one of Southern California's most important nonprofit theatre companies.
The Laguna Playhouse production of Constant Star wins 5 prestigious NAACP Theatre Awards.
2007

December: Karen Wood appointed to join The Playhouse as new Managing Director.

2009

January: Co-production of Around the World in 80 Days with San Jose Rep.

April: World Premiere of Late Nite Catechism 3.

October: Co-Production of Moonlight and Magnolias with La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

October 30: Moonlight Masquerade Gala

2010 Artistic Director Andrew Barnicle resigns after 20 years of service.

Ann E. Wareham is appointed interim Artistic Director

Karen Wood is appointed Executive Director

2010/2011season features world premiere of I Loved Lucy, national tour of Daddy Long Legs written by John Caird (Les Miserables) and introduces ancillary programming such as internationally acclaimed comedienne Rita Rudner, Ethel Merman’s Broadway, Cloris Leachman, Monsieur Chopin and Girls Night: The Musical.

The Laguna Playhouse hosts The Laguna Beach Music Festival and The Laguna Dance Festival for their annual celebratory presentations.

October 22, 2010 marks the official 90th anniversary of The Laguna Playhouse. Public festivities are held to commemorate the occasion and announce the launch of our 90th celebration campaign and present the refurbished Callboard (compliments of Mike Tauber) located on Ocean Avenue adjacent to Forest Avenue Mall at the site of the original playhouse built in 1924.

Board of Trustees welcomes four new members: Heidi Miller, Lisa Hale, Joe Hanauer and Terri Turner

The City of Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce awards The Laguna Playhouse the “Premier Business of the Year” award.

October 29: 2nd Annual Moonlight Masquerade Gala is presented with increased attendance and proceeds.
2011 2011/2012 Season offers 6 plays (increased from 5 plays) and includes two musicals of I Left My Heart, A Salute to the Music of Tony Bennett and Lonesome Traveler, the Tony award-winning Shirley Valentine, the holiday productions of This Wonderful Life and Sisters Easter Catechism, Will My Bunny Go to Heaven and the world premiere of Tickled Pink written and featuring Rita Rudner.

Ann E. Wareham appointed as permanent Artistic Director

Board of Trustees welcomes four new members: Glenn E. Gray, Timothy D. Carlyle, Justin Meyers and Georgia Andersen

October 29: 3rd Annual Moonlight Masquerade Gala is presented with increased attendance and costume participation.