Final Curtain Call for Pasadena Playhouse after 90 Years
By Terry Miller
Published: Monday, February 8th, 2010
After more than 90 years the Pasadena Playhouse closed its doors Sunday night Feb. 7, after the final performance of Camelot. The closure was a result of deep debt. The entire staff of 37 was laid off last Thursday.
Stephen Eich, executive Director and Sheldon Epps, creative director hugged on stage at a bittersweet moment in the history of the Playhouse.
Epps invited the entire cast and crew on stage for their final curtain call after what was perhaps one of the most poignant speeches of Epps’ career.
Epps told the crowd that although sadness was involved in the evening’s events, he sees the Playhouse closing as merely an intermission. He assured the 600 plus theatre-goers that there will be a second act .
“Tonight we are closing this theater,” Executive Director Stephen Eich said last night, “but we are absolutely optimistic that it will in fact reopen.” He concluded.
At the end of their remarks, Epps and Eich were joined onstage by “Camelot” cast members, Playhouse staff, and Board members who together took a final bow.
Few final decisions have been made about the Playhouse’s future.
“We firmly believe it would be irresponsible to continue to operate in the same financial patterns of the past,” Stephen Eich, the executive director of the playhouse, said in a statement, adding that the theater will explore bankruptcy and financial reorganization. The playhouse, which has closed and filed for bankruptcy before, has been the staging ground for numerous successful productions and has been the creative stomping ground for some of the world’s finest thespians.
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