Victoria Theatre (San Francisco)
Encyclopedia
Victoria Theatre is a 480-seat in San Francisco's Mission District, which presents locally-produced original plays, live concerts, film festival
s, musicals, performances by international performing companies and other kinds of events. The theater is located at 2961 16th Street (at Capp Street) in San Francisco, California
.
and Jerry Brown
. In the 1940s and 1950s, the theater was named El Teatro Victoria and showed Spanish language
movies. From 1963 to 1978, the theater was a burlesque house called the New Follies Burlesk. After renovation in 1978 and reopening in March 1979, it was renamed the Victoria Theatre, and is the oldest operational theatre in San Francisco.
Surround Sound capabilities.
The Victoria Theatre became San Francisco Landmark #215 on 2 March 1996.
From June 17 to 27, 2010, the Victoria, along with the Roxie Cinema and the Castro Theatre
, hosted the 34rd Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.. The theater often hosts new documentary film
s like The Recess Ends
, and live theatrical performances by Ray of Light Theatre
such as Bat Boy: The Musical
(2005), The Rocky Horror Show
(2008), and The Who's Tommy
(2009).
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s, musicals, performances by international performing companies and other kinds of events. The theater is located at 2961 16th Street (at Capp Street) in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
History
The Victoria Theatre was originally built in 1908 as Brown's Opera House, showing vaudeville and motion pictures, and was owned by ancestors of the California politicians Pat BrownPat Brown
Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown, Sr. was the 32nd Governor of California, serving from 1959 to 1967, and the father of current Governor of California Jerry Brown.-Background:...
and Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
. In the 1940s and 1950s, the theater was named El Teatro Victoria and showed Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
movies. From 1963 to 1978, the theater was a burlesque house called the New Follies Burlesk. After renovation in 1978 and reopening in March 1979, it was renamed the Victoria Theatre, and is the oldest operational theatre in San Francisco.
Recent activity
The theatre has video and 35mm with Dolby Pro LogicDolby Pro Logic
Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo was originally developed by Dolby in 1976 for analog cinema sound systems...
Surround Sound capabilities.
The Victoria Theatre became San Francisco Landmark #215 on 2 March 1996.
From June 17 to 27, 2010, the Victoria, along with the Roxie Cinema and the Castro Theatre
Castro Theatre
The Castro Theatre is a popular San Francisco movie palace which became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, in the Castro district, it was built in 1922 with a Spanish Colonial Baroque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window...
, hosted the 34rd Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.. The theater often hosts new documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s like The Recess Ends
The Recess Ends
The Recess Ends is a documentary film by brothers Austin and Brian Chu about the 2008-2009 recession. They crossed the United States to document the effects of the recession on people and communities, and filmed in all 50 states....
, and live theatrical performances by Ray of Light Theatre
Ray of Light Theatre
Ray of Light Theatre is a regional theatre company in San Francisco, California.The company produces a season of musical theatre from September to August each year. Its inaugural season was in 2001 in which the company produced You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown...
such as Bat Boy: The Musical
Bat Boy: The Musical
Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical with a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, based on a June 23, 1992 Weekly World News story about a half-boy, half-bat, dubbed "Bat Boy", found living in a cave....
(2005), The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
(2008), and The Who's Tommy
The Who's Tommy
The Who's Tommy is a rock musical by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff based on The Who's 1969 double album rock opera Tommy, also by Pete Townshend, with additional material by John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Sonny Boy Williamson.-Productions:...
(2009).