Victoria Theatre is a 480-seat theater in San Francisco's

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

, which presents locally produced original plays, live concerts,

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

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 (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. It is not connected to the Red Vic, a now-closed repertory movie theater in the Haight.

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 Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he w ...

and

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

. In the 1940s and 1950s, the theater was named El Teatro Victoria and showed

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

movies. From 1963 to 1978, the theater was a

burlesque house A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

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. In 1984,

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ' ...

"first came to national prominence with her one-woman show" in which she portrayed Mabley, ''Moms'', first performed in Berkeley, California, and then at the Victoria Theatre. The

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...

preserves a poster advertising the show.

Recent activity

The theatre has video and 35mm with

Dolby 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 (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 fo ...

Surround Sound capabilities. The Victoria Theatre became San Francisco Landmark #215 on 2 March 1996. The 2010 film ''

All About Evil ''All About Evil'' is a 2010 American black comedy slasher film and marks the feature film directorial debut of Joshua Grannell, who also wrote the script. The film stars Natasha Lyonne as an unhinged theatre owner who begins making snuff films ...

'' by

Peaches Christ Peaches Christ (stage name for Joshua Grannell) is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where her Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based. Gra ...

(stage name for Joshua Grannell), was filmed in and outside the Victoria Theatre. From June 19 to 29, 2014, the Victoria, along with the Roxie Cinema and the

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that 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 California Churrigueresque façad ...

, hosted the 38th

Frameline The Frameline Film Festival (aka San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival) (formerly San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) began as a storefront event in 1976. The first ...

San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.Frameline Film Festival website
/ref> The theater often hosts new

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

s like ''

The Recess Ends ''The Recess Ends'' (2009) 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. The f ...

'', and live theatrical performances by

Ray of Light Theatre Ray of Light Theatre is a musical theatre company in San Francisco. History Ray of Light Theatre was started by the founding artistic director, Shane Ray, and founding board co-chair, Adrienne Abrams, in 2000. Production highlights & honors: In ...

such as '' Bat Boy: The Musical'' (2005), ''

The Rocky Horror Show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple ...

'' (2008), and ''

The Who's Tommy ''The Who's Tommy'' is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Pete Townshend and a book by Townshend and Des McAnuff. It is based on the 1969 rock opera ''Tommy'' by The Who. Productions The musical opened at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, ...

'' (2009).

References

External links

{{Portal, San Francisco Bay Area
Official Site
Theatres in San Francisco Cinemas and movie theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area Mission District, San Francisco San Francisco Designated Landmarks Event venues established in 1908 Theatres completed in 1908 1908 establishments in California

History

Recent activity

See also

References

External links