Magic Theatre (San Francisco, CA)

The Magic Theatre was founded in 1967 in Berkeley, California, with a production of Eugene Ionesco's, "The Lesson." The production was run by a group of University of California students, headed by John Lion, who had an interest in the newly emerging avant-garde European playwrights, such as Ionesco, Genet, and Beckett. The students had no idea of starting a theatre, but with the success of "The Lesson" the company moved into the Steppenwolf Bar on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, and began producing plays as the Magic Theatre, a name adopted from Hesse's novel, Steppenwolf.

From the description of Magic Theatre scripts, 1966-2007. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 476360928