Lift Up Performing Arts in SF!

The Magic Theatre only earns 10% of its annual budget through earned revenue such as ticket sales and rentals. We rely on the support of our audiences and community to be able to produce the level of work that we do and to create a home for artists in the Bay.

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. Magic Theatre is a San Francisco Legacy Business and honoree of California Arts Council to Award Influential Artists, Arts Leaders, and Arts Organizations at 50th Anniversary Celebration Event.