Our Legacy
Since the company’s founding in 1967 by visionary John Lion, the Magic Theatre has identified and cultivated writers on the cutting edge of American theatre, serving as a vital center for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard developed and premiered his Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, True West, and Fool for Love during his decade-long Magic residency (1974-84), forever altering the shape of American drama.
Magic is, and has been, home to a roster of brilliant artists: Paula Vogel, Soon 3, Athol Fugard, Mark O’Rowe, Nilo Cruz, Octavio Solis, Claire Chafee, Jon Robin Baitz, Anne Bogart, Stephen Belber, Basil Twist, and Rebecca Gilman, Linda McLean, Teresa Rebeck, Lloyd Suh, Julie Marie Myatt, and Christina Anderson. Magic plays have received numerous awards: the Pulitzer Prize for Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, ten Obie Awards, the Kennedy Center Award, PEN-West Awards for Drama, Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards, Los Angeles Drama-Logue Awards, and the NAACP Image Award.
A Bold, New Era
With the appointment of Sean San José as the new Artistic Director in June 2021, Magic enters a new golden age, as the first person of color to fully lead the organization in its 50+ year history. With this new leadership Magic is dedicated to making the Magic Theatre a home to more people by rightfully centering Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
The Magic will continue to bring new events from the Magic Theatre’s Resident Companies, Resident Artists and Community Collaborators: including co-productions and projections from Home Resident Company, Campo Santo; Two Productions from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre led by Artistic Director Margo Hall; co-production with Play On! Shakespeare; special performances from BACCE (with lead artists AeJay Marquis Mitchell, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, and Rotimi Agbabiaka); and upcoming announcements from new Resident Companies SFBATCO and San Francisco Art Project (led by Erika Chong Shuch and Jonathan Moscone); weekly services and special concerts from the legendary Saint John Coltrane Church and even more to come.
In addition to the World Premiere plays and Resident company productions and events, the Magic Theatre also features our New Play Development Reading Series from Resident Company Rainbow Zebra Productions (led by Artistic Director Andrea Gordon.) This program continues the New Play Development Reading Series following two years of readings highlighting Women Playwrights as well as the Magic Classics Reading Series of five Magic Theatre past premiere “classic” plays (which included Fool for Love, The Knees Desire The Dirt, Oedipus El Rey, House of Yes, and Buried Child.)
The Magic also continues the annual Martha Heasley Cox Reading Series with our Campo Santo inspired Open Process- sharing projects on their development path to premiere with the lead artists, designers, and the communities.
As of September 23, 2025 the Magic Theatre is recognized as a San Francisco Legacy Business!
Sean San José receives the official Legacy Business Award
Founded in 1967 by John Lion, dedicated to developing new American plays and playwrights. Its legacy includes world premieres by playwrights like Sam Shepard and a commitment to avant-garde work. The theater is currently undergoing transformation, particularly under Artistic Director Sean San José, to center Indigenous, Black, people of color and those who have been othered to foster inclusivity within the Bay Area's performing arts scene.
