Chanticleers Moves Forward with Makeover, New Artistic Director

Chanticleers Theatre's current repairs will be done in time to start its new season on March 2.

Chanticleer Theatre's new artistic director, Christine Plowright.

Chanticleers Theatre in Castro Valley Community Park has been dark since December but is finishing an exterior makeover in time to reopen on March 2, along with its newly named Artistic Director, Christine Plowright.

After the massive storms of 2022 knocked down trees onto the theatre, the building had been declared structurally safe but damaged. Work crews cleared the wreckage and installed a new roof last summer. Hayward Area Parks & Recreation District (HARD) decided the timing was right to upgrade the 92-seat playhouse this winter. 

After “The Man Who Saved Christmas” closed on December 17, workers installed a new foundation and a French drain all around the building. Termite work will be needed, perhaps requiring tenting, Plowright said.

“We’re getting painted outside, too,” Plowright told the Forum. “We just don’t know what color yet.”

Much of the cost is being paid by HARD, which Chanticleers rents its building from, using funds from a bond issue that passed several years ago. The remainder comes from a series of fundraisers hosted by the nonprofit.

“I can’t say enough good things about HARD,” Plowright said.

She added, "We think we raised enough ourselves to put in a new floor."

Plowright, who had served for six months as interim artistic director before taking the permanent position, returned to Chanticleers years after first getting involved with them while she was still in high school here.

She’d gone to see some Castro Valley High School friends audition for “All About Eve” when director George Felker III asked if she could help out as his assistant. She did and ended up also playing “The Girl on The Phone,” slightly offstage but visible to the audience.

She’d been interested in theater since attending Canyon Middle School, but her work with Felker set her on a career in theater. That took her from Cal State East Bay to Hayward’s Little Theater and later to San Francisco, doing mostly stage managing. It was COVID that brought her back to Castro Valley.

She soon recontacted Chanticleers, and when the former director left not long after, she was offered the interim artistic director position.

One lasting impression growing up in Castro Valley gave her was the need to share everybody’s stories. Her best friend, and frequent theater companion, growing up, was Chinese American, and she doesn’t think her friend ever saw someone who looked like her portrayed on stage at the time.

“At Chanticleers, we want to share stories of all of our communities, to tell a different story that more of our neighbors can see,” Plowright said. “We also want to nurture new talent.”

The 2024 season includes “Yellow Face,” written by Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang and directed by Max Chang, who is making his directing debut at Chanticleers. Also on the schedule this spring is “Just My Type,” an original production written by Chanticleers actors Charlotte Jacobs and Michael Sally with music and lyrics by Rita Abrams.  If you’re craving horror, there’s a production of “Dracula” coming in October, Plowright said.

The season also includes four one-man performances by San Leandro resident Brian Copeland, starting with “Not A Genuine Black Man,” to reopen the theater on March 2. 

Plowright said the theater will also offer a summer camp for kids and storytelling workshops for adults.

For more information on the theater group, go to www.Chanticleers.org.