Theater artists have always embraced the impermanence of things. Live performance can create amazing, magical moments that hover in the air for seconds, minutes, or even (if we’re lucky) two hours of time. But any live performance is a temporary thing… Whether magical, miserable, or anywhere in between, eventually the lights must come down. The curtain must close.
That time has come for Dragon Theater. Since our founding in 1998 we have weathered difficulties, location moves, changes in administration, even a worldwide pandemic. We have survived where other small theaters have not. And for that we are grateful. But the past two years has created a perfect storm of difficulty for us.
Despite a broad base of talented artists working with us, and generous donors who helped us squeeze through tight times, there have simply been too many unpleasant surprises. Too many unforeseen and/or rising expenses. Grants which, while welcome, simply arrived too late to help. And so we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the business that is Dragon Productions Theater Company.
While this ending may temporarily cause a few tears, a sense of regret, we hope that over time we will all remember the Dragon fondly for the years of entertainment, adventure, tears and joy.
Meredith Hagedorn began Dragon Productions Theater Company to give creatives in the Bay Area a place to incubate their work and reach new potentials. Before settling into a permanent home, Dragon produced 9 shows around the Bay Area. Read more here.
Dragon settled into a 42-seat black box theatre in downtown Palo Alto, February of 2006. During this time dragon produced Dragon Lite and Dragon After Hours.
Dragon moved to downtown Redwood City, California and began Dragon’s 2nd Stage. Read more about the early years in Redwood City here.
Dragon has always been a place where early career theatre artists could realize their passion projects, with the support and guidance of the Dragon staff; and where audiences could experience ambitious, unusual and thought provoking plays.
Bora “Max” Koknar and Alika U. Spencer-Koknar joined the Dragon Family in 2016 and 2017, respectively, as staff members. and in 2019 officially took the helm as Co-Artistic Directors. They further expanded Dragon programs cementing Dragon as a vibrant community hub. Read more about our change in leadership.
Dragon closed its physical theater in Downtown Redwood City, Ca and begins Dragon’s 3rd Act all across the Bay Area with Justine Bechler taking on the role of CEO in 2021. Dragon continued offering youth classes in Redwood City and San Jose throughout the pandemic and moved their headquarters to San Jose so they could continue to provide quality theatre programming to the Bay Area. Read More about our new beginnings here.