Tabard Theatre Company

Tabard Theatre is the resident and managing theatre company of Theatre on San Pedro Square, a 150 seat theatre in the historic Farmers Union building in downtown San Jose. We produce a Main Stage Season of six plays and musicals, The Conservatory @ Tabard (our youth education program), TOSPS TUESDAYS (our free Tuesday night music series showcasing local musicians) and Tabard Events (which brings in outside performance groups to our theatre.)  These varied programs provided the community with over 150 performances last year. In addition, we rent, and make our theatre accessible, to dozens of local performing arts groups, civic organizations and business each year.

Established in 2001 by Cathy Spielberger Cassetta, Tabard Theatre was founded with the core values of accessibility, inclusion, and arts engagement. For our first seven years, Tabard performed in churches and community centers as a nomadic theatre company. In April 2008, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency contracted Tabard to become the managing and resident theatre company of Theatre on San Pedro Square.  Tabard branded the venue “The Destination for Arts Discovery” referring to both our productions and the many and varied local artists and organizations invited to use our theatre.  Despite its loss of RDA funding in April 2012, Tabard has thrived by having a permanent home and, this past year, we renewed the lease on the theatre through 2021.

Some of Tabard’s recent accomplishments include our leading actress in last season’s musical “Violet”, being named best actress in a musical at the Theatre Bay Area Awards. This season, our world premiere production of Swift Justice was so popular with the community that it sold out the run before opening night.  Also this season, our world premiere production of Homeward Bound: An Orphan Train Journey attracted the attention of the National Orphan Train Museum in Concordia, Kansas who, because of the play, decided to hold its West Coast Conference in San Jose coinciding with the show’s opening weekend.

This past year, The Conservatory @ Tabard, established two off-site after-school theatre programs.  Working to realize our mission to serve, “children in low-income areas”, we took our education program beyond Theatre on San Pedro Square and formed alliances with Empire Gardens Elementary School in east-central San Jose and The Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley.  We are now running after-school theatre programs at Empire Gardens and at the Smythe and Alum Rock Boys & Girls Clubs in east San Jose. These programs are offered free of charge to students grades K through 5 who, otherwise, would have no exposure to theatre. 

As the resident and managing theatre company at Theatre on San Pedro Square, Tabard makes its charming an unique theatre space available to numerous performing arts groups, local artists and businesses throughout the year. Theatre on San Pedro Square continues to be the Swing Stage each year for San Jose Jazz's Summer Jazz Festival.  Non-profits are supported by Tabard with reduced rental fees of up to 50%.

Also, as part of its mission, Tabard donates a portion of its concession proceeds from each of our productions to a local nonprofit organization that is thematically related to the show.