Mayer Theatre Turns 50

It’s been 50 years since the Mayer Theatre opened its doors with a production of A Man for All Seasons. In the years since, the 500-seat theater has hosted annual convocations, dance recitals, and play performances, as well as more than its fair share of famous guests.

Performances continued despite COVID quarantines, moving online. The arts returned to their rightful home as restrictions lifted. The show, after all, must go on.

In celebration of its golden anniversary, Santa Clara Magazine is looking back on the theater’s storied history.

Hollywood Connection

The theater is named after Louis B. Mayer, the man behind the second M in film and television production giant MGM. He’s shown here with actress Joan Crawford.

The Mayer Foundation donated $500,000 toward the theater’s construction. Funds from the annual Golden Circle fundraiser covered the rest of the construction bill.

Play Ball, Not Playbill

In the 1880s, a ballfield known as the Yard was located where the theater stands today.

The Original EGOT

On hand for the Mayer Theatre opening was actress Helen Hayes. The honorary degree she received was one of many awards the “First Lady of American Theater” earned throughout her career. She was the very first EGOT—a winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.

Lifeboat

Before theater productions moved into the newly opened theater, a warehouse across the Alameda known as The Lifeboat, was home to the University’s plays.

The Lifeboat was always intended to be a temporary home for the performing arts, having replaced a theater on the second floor of College Hall, which students called “The Ship” (pictured).

Great Debate

In 2005, Kirk Hanson, senior fellow of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and former executive director of the Center, hosted a Mexican presidential debate in the theater—the first such event in Northern California.

Representatives of the three major political parties answered questions crafted by the Ethics Center with input from faculty, staff, and members of the local Mexican community.

Read the SCM article from the time.

Bold-Name Visitors

The theater has been home to generations of Broncos who took the stage and their famous visitors. Fess Parker, who played both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, actor Patrick Stewart, dancer and art director Bill T. Jones, and actor and activist BD Wong are among those who have graced the Mayer Theatre.

As SCU’s 2021-22 Frank Sinatra Chair in the Performing Arts, Wong (pictured) directed a student-written play that was rehearsed and performed in Mayer.

Read a Q&A with Wong in SCM.

Dress-Maker

For 44 years, Professor Emerita Barbara Murray ’73 had a hand in nearly every dress, pair of slacks, and button worn by performers at Mayer Theatre. As resident costume designer, she created her own fashions or supervised student designers for all theater productions.