San Francisco Repertory Company

4147 19th St. | map |

Dates: It was running in the 1970s and 80s. This Castro district venue was on the southeast corner of 19th and Collingwood, one block west of Castro St. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this Tom Gray photo from his collection. 

The space was evidently a storefront church in the 1960s. Dennis Hammer Hanrahan commented: 

"I grew up around the corner. They tried to recruit me in the 60s. Then a theatre group took it over. There weren't any windows then." 

Christopher Enzi was there: 

"I attended a German Expressionist play at this short lived (pop up?) repertory theatre around 1981 to meet a member of the ensemble, Marion Eaton - star of Curt McDowell & George Kuchar’s 'Thundercrack'! The space, entered up the hill on Collingwood, was pretty bare bones; folding chairs and a bolt of black bunting, not much more glam than an AA meeting room.

"The building was owned by an arts supporting merchant who also ran the wine store a few doors down 19th Street who provided the space to the artistically inclined at a reasonable rate for at least 20 years. By 1989, the theatre had vanished and in the space, now a salon, was a gallery called Art Lick, run by David Siebold and Luis Da Rosa who also painted the Carmen Miranda Gorilla mural on Buffalo Foods."

Status: The building survives. 

 

That's 19th on the left, Collingwood on the right. At the time of this shot the tenant was a salon called Spunk. Photo: Google Maps - 2019

More information:  Well, at the moment there isn't any more data about this particular venue.

Jack Tillmany's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco" can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller. See an index here on this site. 

Nearby, somewhat earlier: A nickelodeon called the Liberty Theatre was once at 18th & Collingwood.

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