Lamb’s Players Theatre is a professional, non-profit performing arts organization now in its 38th year.
The company's mission is to tell good stories well and be a theatre that:
- Probes and questions the values and choices of contemporary culture.
- Celebrates the joys, strengths and diverse traditions of family and community.
- Explores the spiritual dimension of life.
- Champions the moral imagination.
Lamb's Players is an artist-directed organization. It was the first theatre in San Diego to establish a full-time, long-term company of actors, directors, playwrights and designers and it continues to maintain the Southwest's only year-round acting ensemble.
In addition to its resident work, the theatre's Educational Outreach performs to tens of thousands of students each year in schools throughout the county.
• Now celebrating its 37th anniversary, with a mainstage season that serves 6,500 Season Subscribers and more than 100,000 patrons each year
• hosts an average of 15,000 patrons attending each production
• is San Diego’s third-largest theatre
• has a staff of 31 and a $4.3 million budget—ranking it as one of the top 50 theatres in the nation.
• has a regular season of five productions from February through November with an additional Christmas production in December.
• maintains the largest Educational Outreach of any San Diego theatre, which performs to more than 40,000 elementary and middle school students yearly throughout the Western United States with its award-winning Critical Issues/Critical Choices program.
• provides internships which afford college students the chance to work alongside theatre professionals.
• is committed to the development of new work, and has produced 34 world premieres and 31 regional premieres
• is one of only a handful of artist-directed theatres in the nation with a year-round, long-term Acting Ensemble—the only one of its kind in the Southwest.
Resident Stage Season
The Theatre’s Resident Stage has a regular Season of 5 productions running February through November. Now in its 31st Season in 2008, the Resident Stage has produced a wide spectrum of material including over 34 world premieres, 31 regional premieres, and over 200 productions from the classics to modern drama to musical comedy. This audience represents an even distribution from throughout San Diego County as well as parts of Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties.
Additional Full Stage Productions
The Theatre also maintains an active production schedule at other San Diego performance spaces, including the Lyceum Theatre in Horton Plaza and the historic Hotel del Coronado.
Educational Outreach
Lamb’s Players S.W.A.T. team (Slightly Wild Accessible Theatre) performs 40-minute educational plays in an assembly format for schools, kindergarten through senior high. With a repertoire each year of seven plays, they perform for students and adults all over Southern California.
Their varied programs include:
• Issues-oriented material from drug and alcohol abuse to teenage sexuality and self esteem.
• Material that promotes the appreciation of Classic Literature and the encouragement of the individual imagination, including an adaptation of Beowulf and the theatrical telling of folktales from around the world.
Along with the performance, teaching guides are made available to introduce and follow up the material presented. Discussions with the cast are often held with students after performances. In addition to being a memorable educational presentation, the S.W.A.T. Team introduces many students to the vibrant, imaginative world of live theatre.
Performing for a wide cross-section of the ethnically diverse students in San Diego County’s 536 schools alone, the S.W.A.T. team performs for over 40,000 people each year.
PlayWork
The company’s PlayWork program introduces new material generated by, or written for, the Resident Ensemble or the S.W.A.T. Team. Included in this script development process is a staged reading followed by a discussion with the audience.
Community Support & Access
The San Diego Performing Arts League currently has a membership of 140 production companies. Lamb’s Players Theatre is the third largest theatre company in this active theatre community.
The Theatre strives to make its performances accessible to the larger community regardless of economic status. Outreach and accessibility programs, both formal and informal, include:
• Discounted tickets – always available to seniors, students and military.
• Sign Language interpreted performances for the hearing impaired.
• Complimentary Performances made available in support of numerous local nonprofit organizations, including:
• Coronado Schools Foundation
• Senior Community Center of San Diego
• Paradise Valley Hospital
• Brandeis University Alumni Library Fund
• Art for the Mentally Challenged
• San Diego Performing Arts League
• Harborview Medical Center Youth Drug Rehab
• The Storefront, shelter for homeless children
• Over 1000 tickets given annually to more than 300 other nonprofit organizations to aid in their fundraising efforts.
• The Theatre regularly provides tickets to the ArtsTix Booth, the local community half-price ticket booth.
• Use of the company’s large costume stock is made available without charge to local schools and community theatre groups.
• The Touring Company S.W.A.T. Team donates six performances annually to schools that cannot afford the booking fee.
• Partnerships have been developed with local civic organizations such as Rotary and Optimist Club, and institutions such as Union Bank, to underwrite performances in inner city schools.
• Dozens of organizations receive complimentary tickets on nights extra seats are available, including:
• The AIDS Foundation
• CRASH (Pregnant Teens)
• Catholic Charities
• The Salvation Army
• ARC (individuals with disability)
• Paradise Valley Psychiatric Hospital
• Other nonprofit theatres
• Lamb’s Players Theatre supports Kids-At-Heart, a work with disadvantaged youth in the inner city, and its Tutor Plus program, a literacy and educational project.
