San Jose’s Tabard Theatre to close its doors in April after 22 years
The community theater company spent the past three years battling increasing costs and lackluster ticket sales, Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Rhys Williams said.
At a time when many theater companies are touting their upcoming seasons, San Jose’s Tabard Theatre Company made a much sadder announcement Wednesday: It will close its doors after 22 years in April, following the final performance of its next production, “Once.”
“After three years of battling increasing costs, decreasing ticket sales and the on-going effects of a global pandemic, we are simply no longer able to make ends meet and therefore will be unable to complete the current season,” Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Rhys Williams said in an email to supporters.
The Tony-award winning “Once” opens March 10 and closes April 2. That means productions of “Othello” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” announced for this season will be scratched. But all other shows scheduled between now and April — including this weekend’s final performances of the comedy “The Super Secret Society: A playable play,” “A Girl Called Dusty” on Feb. 25 and Jamie Davis’ “Swing Into Spring” on March 11 — will go on as planned, Williams said. Tickets to the remaining shows are available at www.tabardtheatre.org.
Cathy Spielberger Cassetta founded Tabard in 2001, aiming to create something new for Bay Area theater audiences. The main season shows were appropriate for all ages and Tabard partnered with local nonprofits for each show that would receive some of the money from concessions. For its first seven seasons, it was a nomadic company — moving from venue to venue for different shows — but it finally found a home in 2008 at the 150-seat Theatre on San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose.
In addition to its regular shows, Tabard hosted more than 100 productions every year, including cabaret shows, jazz acts, fundraisers and comedy nights. It also served as the Swing Stage for San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest, hosted youth theater camps in the summer and brought theater education to schools.
The venue was renamed Tabard Theatre in 2018, and Williams succeeded the retiring Cassetta in January 2020 — just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down theaters around the Bay Area and the nation. While Tabard was a pioneer in livestreaming productions — and even provided on-demand versions of shows — audiences didn’t return to a sustainable level after COVID-19 restrictions were eased.
“We thank everyone who has supported us over the past two decades,” Williams said, “and particularly through this very challenging last three years.”