La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Center

The new Mandell Weiss Center for the Performing Arts brings campus and community together, housing both the UCSD Department of Theater and the nationally acclaimed La Jolla Playhouse.

The theater is an art form that has consistently interested La Jolla residents and visitors alike. Native son Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer envisioned an ambitious summer theater which opened in 1947 with an outstanding production of Night Must Fall starring Dame May Whitty. Since its initial season, audiences filled the hard wooden seats of the La Jolla High auditorium for first-class plays produced, directed and acted by famous personalities. James Mason, Joseph Cotten, Celeste Holm, David Niven and Olivia de Haviland are but a few of the stars who appeared week after week and drew national attention to La Jolla. The Playhouse flourished as one of the leading summer theaters in America until it temporarily suspended operations in the sixties while plans for building a world-class theater emerged.

Through the vision, vitality an benevolence of community leaders, groups and the university the 500-seat Mandell Weiss Center opened its doors in 1982 with the most advanced technical facilities available. In its new home, the La Jolla Playhouse has garnered numerous awards of excellence, including coveted Tony Awards for its extraordinary Broadway production of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It offers La Jolla residents theatrical excellence few American cities can match.