​Epps, Sheldon. 2022. My Own Directions : A Black Man's Journey in the American Theatre. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.
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Life in the theatre is often a rollercoaster ride, with all the excitement and occasional anguish that come with the highs and lows. The author’s journey in the American theatre has been amplified by his experience as a Black man who has frequently been “one of the few,” “the first” or even “the only.” His directing career has been full of rewards and opportunities as well as huge challenges and frustrations, along with the anger that has come from being “chased by race” for so many years. Much of the author’s experience comes from two decades artistic director of Pasadena Playhouse, one of the oldest and well-known theatres in America, and for a time early in his career, one of the whitest.
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This is the story of how the author came into leadership at Pasadena Playhouse after a successful career directing on Broadway, in London and all over the world. It relates how the theatre was radically changed and reignited by his leadership, including his insistence on making diversity a priority onstage and off. This is the very personal story of a person who wanted his race to be recognized, but never used as a reason to be less than fully respected. In many ways, this memoir tells the story of what people of color in America must face repeatedly to make their lives matter.

​​Fazio, Larry. 2017. Stage Manager : The Professional Experience Refreshed . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge. 
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Larry Fazio was born in Providence, Rhode Island and lives with his wife in Southern California. While serving in the United States Army, he trained as a motion-picture photographer. As fate would have it, he became part of the Department of the Army Entertainment—Special Services. While with this group, he was awarded the Army Oscar, the Irving Berlin Trophy, and the Gold Key Award—a three-year full scholarship to the Pasadena Playhouse in California. On the merits of his grades there, he was then given another scholarship to attend California State University, Fullerton, to finish his bachelor’s degree, where he won the Best Director Award.

His first big break came with a musical production of Gone With the Wind as the second assistant stage manager. Since that time, he has worked professionally in theatre, managing star productions of musicals, dramas, comedies, and magic shows throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe. His purpose in writing this book is to bring to the student and beginning stage manager the world of professional stage managing as he worked it and experienced it.

As a Docent-Volunteer, Larry   leads   the   tours   at   the   Pasadena   Playhouse.   

Stern, Lawrence, and Jill Gold. 2022. Stage Management . 12th ed. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jill Johnson Gold   recent productions credits   at   the   Pasadena   Playhouse   include   Little Shop  of Horrors,   Ragtime,   Casa   Valentina.     

Stage Management offers readers a practical manual on how to stage manage in all theatre environments.

Revered as the authoritative resource for stage management, this text is rich with practical resources, including checklists, diagrams, examples, forms and step-by-step directions. In addition to sharing his own expertise, Stern has gathered practical advice from working stage managers of Broadway, off-Broadway, touring companies, regional, community, and 99-seat Equity waiver theaters. In its 11th edition, the book is now fully in color and updated to include new information on Equity contracts, social media applications in stage management, and working with high school productions.

This book is written for Stage Management courses in university Theatre programs.

Our Town  by Thornton Wilder
Sep 26 – Oct 22, 2017
Directed by Sheryl Kaller
Co-Produced with Deaf West Theatre

Wilder’s journal notes for 1935 include ideas for ten plays, among them “M Marries N” (an early working title for Our Town). He began to work in earnest on the play in 1936 after resigning from his post as a part-time visiting lecturer in Classics and Writing at the University of Chicago.

After short try-outs in Princeton and Boston, the play opened on Broadway on February 4, 1938 to mostly favorable reviews, with Wilder playing the role of the Stage Manager for two weeks of the play’s run in September. Our Town garnered Wilder a second Pulitzer Prize and the play became a classic not only in American theatre, but in classrooms across the country. 

Thornton Wilder, Our Town: A Play in Three Acts, acting edition was published in 1939 by New York, Coward-McCann, Inc., in cooperation with S. French, Inc.

View  manuscript corrections of Our Town by Thornton Wilder.  (Thornton Wilder Papers   at  Beinecke Library, Yale University  ) . 

The play was  produced at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1939 by  Dir. Frank Ferguson
and in  1957 by  Dir. Barney Brown.​
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Meet  the cast of current production of Our Town. 

On October 8, 2017, Amos Tappan Wilder, a nephew of T. Wilder, has visited the  Pasadena  Playhouse and  attended  the  performance.  During Playhouse Talk on October 9th, he  offered an intimate look into the life of the playwright  and discussed his role as Literary Executor of the Thornton Wilder  Estate.  The  talk was  moderated by KPCC’s John Horn.

Broadway World Review  (Oct. 3, 2017): Time Passes and Life Goes On in Deaf West Theatre's 'Our Town' at Pasadena Playhouse

Los Angeles Times Review (Oct. 3, 2017): Deaf West and Pasadena Playhouse populate 'Our Town' with fresh faces .  By  Charles McNulty. 

Broadway World Interview  (Oct. 5, 2017): Jane Kaczmarek Stage Managing Her Future With Open & Always Entertaining Communications.

Pasadena Playhouse and Deaf West Make “Our Town” New Again. By Frances Baum Nicholson  (The  Stage  Struck  Review). 

New York Times (Oct. 13, 2017):  An ‘Our Town’ Image as Sturdy as a Chair: Behind the Poster. By Erik Piepenburg .  Interview with  Paula  Sher.

Los Angeles  Theatre  playgoers  reviews.

Our Town  Reviewed by Dana Martin  (Stage  Raw). 

On September 24, 2016, the Friends of the Pasadena Playhouse hosted a reception for the Alumni of the School of the Theatre Arts.  Cast members of The Fantasticks (1969) had joined an ensemble of current production for a cast call and a sing-along of "Try To Remember".

Patti La Marr, Ross Clark, and Valerie Amidon had created a special display dedicated to Alumni productions of The Fantasticks. Stop by at the Georgia McClay Friendship Center and see a journey of The Fantasticks from Off-Broadway to Pasadena and beyond ... 
The current show and the exhibit close on October 2nd. 

Photo Album of the Alumni Reunion (via The Pasadena Playhouse Facebook).

Images: Courtesy of the  Pasadena Playhouse Archives. ​

In the spring of 1969, the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts presented a production of The Fantasticks in the Patio Theatre (presently redwhite+bluezz restaurant). The student production was directed by Pete Parkin as part of his Master's degree program. That show received such positive reviews by the theatre critics in Los Angeles and Pasadena publications that the show was a sellout and held over for two additional weeks. That was a highly unusual event for a production performed and directed solely by students.

Flash forward 47 years... The director of the current production of The Fantasticks, Seema Sueko, invited Pete Parkin and his cast and crew of the 1969 production to attend a performance during this run. Seema's invitation has since grown into the 61st meeting and reunion of the Alumni and Associates of the Pasadena College of Theatre Arts, which is scheduled on September 24, 2016. At that time, 60+ former students will once again come together to celebrate their amazing school.

Images: Courtesy of the  Pasadena Playhouse Archives. ​