Lakewood Threater Company

Lakewood Theatre Company began in November, 1952, when a group of Lake Oswego residents decided that their community was not complete without a theatre and decided to organize what was known as the Oswego Players. From that first production of Blithe Spirit, the players performed in junior and senior high schools and halls throughout the Lake Oswego area, having no permanent home during its first nine years. In 1961, a fund drive was launched that led to the purchase of a vacant Methodist church on Greenwood Road. Beginning with Arsenic and Old Lace, the company, then known as Lake Oswego Community Theatre, staged more than 110 productions there before they outgrew the facility. By then the I00 seat theatre was continuously sold out, the building provided no room for class and rehearsal space, and off-stage storage was extremely limited. When the Lakewood School became available in 1979, an advisory task force determined that acquiring the building would encourage people to learn, teach, display and, above all, participate in the arts. With this in mind, the Lakewood Theatre Company nonprofit corporation decided to expand its purposes and became the Lakewood Center for the Arts. In the fall of 1990 the theatre company changed its name from Lake Oswego Community Theatre to Lakewood Theatre Company. The name change was instituted to more closely identify the theatre with the programs at the Center and its mission of providing high quality entertainment and education. In November, 2003 Lakewood completed a $3 million dollar project to build a new stage house for Lakewood Theatre Company. The new auditorium features 220 seats with none further than 35 feet from the stage, a new stage house with fly lofts, traps and a new hearing-assisted sound system. Theatre programs now enjoy an average 85-90% sell out rate, mostly from pre-sold subscription packages. Source: www.lakewood-center.org