About San Francisco Playhouse

Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District at 450 Post Street, San Francisco Playhouse is an award-winning nonprofit theatre company that stages more than 300 performances per year.

Our Mission

Our mission is to share stories that uplift spirits, deepen self-awareness, and nurture compassionate community.

The Empathy Gym

Our theatre is an empathy gym where we come to practice our powers of compassion. Here, safe in the dark, we can risk sharing in the lives of the characters. We feel what they feel, fear what they fear, and love what they love. And as we walk through our doors we take with us greater powers of understanding to make our community a better place, one play at a time.

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse is the Bay Area’s premiere mid-sized theatre company. Staging six plays and musicals per year at its 199-seat Mainstage theatre on Post Street, as well as three world premieres per year at intimate stages in downtown San Francisco, the Playhouse presents over 400 performances per year.

Since moving into its home at 450 Post Street in 2012, San Francisco Playhouse has received over 80 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and more than 250 nominations.

San Francisco Playhouse has been the home of multiple world premieres that have gone on to national and international acclaim, including Seared by Theresa Rebeck, Ideation by Aaron Loeb, in a word by Lauren Yee, and Grounded by George Brant.

“A company [that] stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around.” – The New York Times

“A cornerstone of the city’s cultural landscape … San Francisco Playhouse offers something for every theater lover.” – California.com

“San Francisco Playhouse has mastered the theater industry’s nigh-impossible balance of drawing audiences, holding onto them and nudging them out of their comfort zones.” – San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create works that celebrate the human spirit.