History

Founded by Mattachine Society co-founder and gay rights pioneer Charles “Chuck” Rowland, Celebration Theatre was the storefront at the forefront of LGBT produced work when it started in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silverlake in 1982.

What began as a small storefront space to share LGBT stories has grown into a fully realized, nationally recognized award-winning theatre company. Established at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, Celebration produced plays by gay and lesbian playwrights, giving our community a voice and a presence. The first season included Robert Patrick’s T-Shirts and short plays, followed up in subsequent years with controversial hits like Jerker, by Robert Chesley and the world premiere of Naked Boys Singing, which went on to have a two-decade run Off-Broadway.

As LGBTQ material was being more broadly produced at the commercial level, Celebration began producing shows that had mainstream success or name recognition, often producing the West Coast or Los Angeles premiere. Shows such as Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F**king, which had its premiere at New York Theater Workshop, John Cameron Mitchell’s huge hit Hedwig and The Angry Inch, Moises Kauffman’s much-lauded Laramie Project and the Broadway hits [title of show] and Take Me Out brought new audiences into the theater in droves, often extending their runs due to popularity.

Over the last ten years Celebration has produced multi-award winning shows that reinvent classics for a small space, bringing a level of excellence and immediacy that has wowed audiences, including: The Color Purple, The Boy From Oz, Priscilla Queen of The Desert, Die Mommie Die, Cabaret, and The Producers. Celebration continues to produce world-premiere new works, including The Next Fairy Tale, Born To Win, Women of Brewster Place, the Musical, Ravenswood Manor, and many more. Several works have gone on to successful Off-Broadway runs: Drew Droege’s Happy Birthday, Doug and Bright Colors, Bold Patterns, Tom Lenk in Byron Lane’s Tilda Swinton Answers An Ad On Craigslist, and Jimmy Fowlie’s So Long, Boulder City.

In addition to producing new work, Celebration fosters the development of it with its Celebrating New Works play reading series, giving playwrights an opportunity to hear their words in front of an audience. In 2019, Celebration launched the WriteHer New Play Festival, giving women and female-identified playwrights an opportunity to see their work produced in a festival setting.

Over the history of the theater, Celebration and its individual productions have been nominated for and received numerous awards, including Ovation Awards, LA Weekly Theater Awards, Garland Awards, NAACP, GLAAD Media Awards, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards among others. Celebration Theatre has also received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Polly Warfield Award for Excellent Season, and the Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence.