MISSION
The mission of EXIT Theatre is to develop theater artists by providing opportunities to perform. Our focus is on providing open access opportunities for all theater artists so they can develop and experiment. We do this by commissioning, developing and producing new plays; providing production support and low cost theater rentals to small companies; hosting theaters and playwrights-in-residence; and by producing the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the largest grass roots theater festival in the Bay Area.
We operate five storefront theaters, with a total of 300 seats, in the Tenderloin district of downtown San Francisco. Our theaters range in size from 25 seats to 80 seats and annually host 100 independent theater companies.
EXIT Theatre was founded on Eddy Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood in 1983 when a group of method actors and retired vaudevillians came together under artistic director Christina Augello to perform a new play in the lobby of a residential hotel and passed the hat for funding. The local alternative press has named EXIT Theatre “Best Local Venue”, “Best (3,000 miles) Off-Broadway Theater”, “Best Off-Beat Theatre” and the artistic director has been named “Best Producer” and “Working Woman of the Year.”