Oakland Theater Project to Open Permanent Home in Uptown Oakland

Oakland Theater Project has announced plans to transform 1743 San Pablo Ave. (the former home of The New Parish and Sweet Jimmie's) in Oakland's Uptown Arts and Entertainment District into a new performing arts center, creating a permanent home for the acclaimed theater company and an affordable professional performance, rehearsal, and creative hub for musicians and arts organizations throughout Oakland and beyond.

The move marks a major step for Oakland Theater Project, which has gained significant visibility in recent years, earning strong reviews and a growing reputation for ambitious, artistically adventurous work.

Oakland Theater Project will redesign the location into a fully equipped, accessible performing arts center capable of supporting Oakland Theater Project's own productions, as well as presenting work by a wide range of Bay Area theater, music, and dance artists and organizations. To make this next chapter possible, Oakland Theater Project is in the process of acquiring the property, two buildings combined on one parcel, and has signed a 10-year lease with a pre-negotiated option to purchase. The nonprofit's leadership is in conversation with civic and philanthropic leaders across Oakland about the partnership that will make ownership possible, and welcomes conversations with those who want to be a part of it.

“Building a permanent home for the arts in the heart of Oakland is a dream nearly 15 years in the making,” said Oakland Theater Project Co-Founder and Managing Director Colin Mandlin. “We are honored to continue the legacy of performance and community that this building has hosted for the last 50 years and serve the many Oakland artists that have had to travel to Berkeley or San Francisco to find suitable performance spaces. Our work at Oakland Theater Project is a love letter to the city we call home and seeks to celebrate and further the long-standing history of risk-taking and innovation by social and cultural leaders. We want Oakland artists to perform in Oakland and be at the forefront of revitalizing downtown Oakland. By investing in the people and ideas that make this city a cultural destination, we will create jobs, stimulate spending, and attract visitors from all over the Bay Area.”

“As what it means to be human emerges as one of the defining questions of our time, theater asks us to gather, pay attention to one another, and recognize each other's full humanity,” said Oakland Theater Project Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director Michael Moran. “We watch theaters close and in-person gathering decline at our peril. Oakland Theater Project building a permanent home for artists and community is critically important. It will give our community a place to keep practicing the essential human act of coming together.”

With the goal of becoming a marquee performing arts destination, Oakland Theater Project envisions the building as a year-round cultural gathering place that increases civic pride and strengthens the social fabric of Oakland and its many diverse communities. This performing arts center will help fill the void for more affordable mid-sized performance spaces in Oakland and comes with the technical and business support structures tailored for independent local artists. In addition to mainstage productions, the new home will allow Oakland Theater Project to expand community-building programs that currently include literary salons, film and book clubs, speaker series, adult classes, and youth education programs, while creating opportunities for smaller-scale multidisciplinary performances, film screenings, dinners, and other events

To facilitate some of the multidisciplinary performing arts programming, Oakland Theater Project will bring on board a local presenting music partner alongside collaborations with other dance and performing arts organizations.

“Oakland's cultural legacy depends on artists having room to create what comes next,” said City of Oakland Cultural Affairs Manager Lyz Luke. “Small and mid-sized spaces are critical to that: places where emerging talent can find an audience, artists can experiment, and work can be bold before it's commercially proven. Oakland Theater Project's new home is an investment in the creative edge that makes this city legendary.”

“The arts are part of the fabric of Oakland,” adds Congresswoman Lateefah Simon. “Our artists carry the memory of this town and make room for the people coming up behind them, and Oakland deserves more spaces where that work is out loud and in the open.'

Plans for the approximately 13,000-square-foot property include a range of performance and gathering spaces, including a main theatre, a second smaller studio theater, backstage spaces and an expanded marquee lobby, bar and outdoor courtyard. The flexible studio theater is envisioned to operate concurrently and can accommodate intimate performances, special events, community programming, and rentals.

The renovation of the building is currently envisioned in two phases, allowing Oakland Theater Project to begin activating the building while continuing to raise funds for more substantial improvements.

The first phase will focus on preparing the venue for audiences and performances in 2027, with planned improvements including new mechanical systems; upgraded theatrical power, lighting, and audiovisual infrastructure; flexible staging and seating; renovated public spaces; and improvements to the building's performance and support areas.

A future second phase would undertake a more extensive transformation of the main theatre, including significant modifications to the existing mezzanine and the creation of a more permanent three-sided thrust stage and balcony configuration, ultimately increasing the venue's seated event capacity to approximately 200 seats while preserving the ability to host standing room only events and an unusually close relationship between performers and audiences for both.