About Theatre 40

Beginning in 1964 a group of actors gathered at the home of Susan French to read the works of William Shakespeare. The address was 40 Haldeman Road in Santa Monica Canyon. Thus the name, Theatre 40.

By 1965, the group led by Susan and John Houlton, vice-consul of the British Consulate General, decided to become more ambitious and produce the plays they had been reading. Theatre 40’s first production was The Winter’s Tale. In 1966, we produced Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice in MacArthur Park. This was Los Angeles’ first Shakespeare in the park. Soon after this achievement, we began our association with the Beverly Hills Unified School District by producing our plays at the Horace Mann School auditorium. In 1969, we strengthened our relationship with the school district by creating a theatre appreciation course for their adult education program. When Actors’ Equity Association started waiver theatre, we lost our theatre, as it was much too large for the waiver audience size, and for almost a year we were homeless. At this point, Beverly Hills High School offered a large storeroom to us if we could turn it into a theatre. This was in 1974. Click here for more on Theatre 40.