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.
While continuing to premiere bold and new plays as The Magic has done for 54 years, is expanding its vision with exciting new programs: introducing a Residency Program- which includes Home Resident Company Campo Santo and the historic Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (Artistic Director Margo Hall), along with Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (Co-Artistic Directors Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Rotimi Agbabiaka), Ellen Sebastian Chang/ Sunhui Chang, the proud new home of the renowned Saint John Coltrane Church, and TigerBear Productions, and the incoming Play On! Shakespeare; new Performances Program, San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin; and our own Resident Artists: highlighting Playwright-In-Residence Star Finch and Resident Curator Juan Amador, Resident Producer Jerome Gentes, and designers Russell Champa, Tanya Orellana, Joan Osato, Christopher Sauceda, and Brittany White, Hybrid Program by Ashley Smiley.
The City Inside
2023 marks a dynamic new visual identity, Magic Theatre embraces a shift energetically, artistically, and aesthetically extending into lobby, cathedral, and theatres. Multiple new wall sized murals by local artists Mister Bouncer (Miguel Perez) from the Trust Your Struggle Collective, Adrian Arias, CeCe Carpio, and a space filled with legendary Black art from the Saint John Coltrane Church by Emory Douglas, Mark Roman, and Deacon Mark Doox. The space is open year round now for engagement and entertainment, arts and activation from the plays to the people- the Magic Theatre is Home for bringing the City inside.
