Lou Spisto

From The Old Globe’s beginning during the 1935 Pacific International Exposition to the ways our scenic designers incorporate the park landscape in settings on our outdoor Shakespeare Festival stage, being in Balboa Park has played a large role in the Globe’s growth into the sixth largest regional theater in the country.

Being part of the unique concentration of cultural resources that exists in Balboa Park — and being close to Downtown — allows us to be both San Diego’s hometown theater and a destination for visitors from around the country and the world. It has encouraged us to see our mission in broad terms, not just as an entertainment venue but as a cultural institution like our museum neighbors, with a responsibility both to preserve the theatrical past and to help create the American theater of the future. As a result, The Old Globe offers more programming and a more varied repertoire than any theatre in the country.

As our name implies, The Old Globe is renowned for the Summer Shakespeare Festival and for revivals like our current production of Clare Booth Luce’s 1930s classic “The Women.”  It is a big part of our artistic mission to keep great plays of the past alive — and in their original forms.

But we also are home to the newest and most innovative work being produced in American theater. On our second stage is the world premiere of Itamar Moses’ “Back Back Back,” which takes a look at steroid use in professional baseball from the player’s perspective. Moses is one of the country’s most sought-after young playwrights and his language in this play is as insightful and entertaining as he has proven he can be.

Drama is a great medium for exploring controversial issues, since it brings characters with different points of view into conflict, and we constantly seek out plays like this that provoke thought even as they entertain.

The Old Globe also is one of the country’s foremost originators of new musicals for the Broadway stage and next summer will see our 21st Broadway-bound production, one of our most ambitious ever. The legendary Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who created scores of Motown hits, are reuniting to write the music for “The First Wives Club, a New Musical,” based on the best-selling novel and blockbuster film.

The Old Globe would not be the theater it is anywhere else, and we hope it’s also true to say that San Diego would be a different place without the Globe.

Lou Spisto is executive producer for The Old Globe.