{"id":18942,"date":"2024-07-11T11:49:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T18:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/?p=18942"},"modified":"2025-11-14T02:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T10:49:40","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-laguna-playhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-laguna-playhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you Need to Know About Laguna Playhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that Laguna Playhouse was founded as a community theatre in 1920<\/strong>, making the Playhouse one of the oldest continuously operating, not-for-profit theatres on the West Coast. Laguna Playhouse presented its first production, “Suppressed Desires” in 1922<\/strong>. In the play, the character Henrietta discovers that her husband and sister have suppressed desires for each other. Critics declared it a hilarious send-up of Freudian psychoanalysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1942<\/strong>, Laguna Playhouse closed for the first time to help house USO soldiers during WWII. Throughout the 1950’s<\/strong> and 1960’s<\/strong> Laguna Playhouse was rented out by independent producers who created shows featuring names such as Roddy MacDowell and Bette Davis! In 1965<\/strong>, young Harrison Ford even made an appearance in the show, “John Brown’s Body” produced by Stephen Vincent Benet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September of 1969<\/strong>, Laguna Playhouse was relocated to its current location, at 606 Laguna Canyon Road, just 2 blocks away from the Pacific Ocean. The original location is now Parking Lot #2 between Forest Avenue and Ocean Avenue, where an honorary call board displayed. Since then, Laguna Playhouse has continued to grow in productions, nominations, and awards!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from: ArtsOC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, over one hundred years and countless plays and musicals later, Laguna Playhouse is a prestigious treasure and immensely vital to the culture of Laguna Beach. Now amid a renaissance due in part to the new artistic director David Ellenstein, the intimate professional theatre is preparing to launch a banner season marked by exceptional quality and wide variety. Laguna Playhouse is steps away from downtown shopping and dining and makes for a fun evening during your visit. Be sure to check out the upcoming shows<\/a> and events<\/a> this year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sources: Laguna Playhouse<\/a>, Voice of OC<\/a>, Orange Coast Magazine<\/a>, Visit Laguna Beach<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laguna Playhouse is an historic equity theatre located in the charming arts colony of Laguna Beach, California. Steps away from the Pacific Ocean, Laguna Playhouse is known for its year-round season of captivating comedies, dramas, musicals, stand-up comedy and family fare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,149,42,80,44,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-date-ideas","category-events","category-family-fun","category-history","category-things-to-do"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18942"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22276,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18942\/revisions\/22276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitlagunabeach.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}