Press Information and Photos

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Adapted for the Stage by John Fisher
Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street (between Front and Battery) Map It!

Previews: August 26 – August 28 @ 8 pm and Sunday August 29 @ 3 pm
Opening Night: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 @ 8 pm (Wine Reception to follow)
Performances: Thursday, September 2nd – Sunday, September 19th
     Wednesday - Saturday @ 8 pm
     Sundays, 9/5, 9/12 and 9/19 @ 3 pm

Oscar Wilde’s electrifying novel comes to the stage in this dynamic World Premiere adaptation. Using words, movement, and music this new performance keeps Wilde’s story in its own time but highlights the relevance of his fable to our own.

Wilde’s story of vanity, ambition and lust rocked his world with its frank portrayal of the lives of artists and libertines.

This production will utilize a cinematic and “surprise element” technique in its narrative, creating a dreamscape of possibility even as it tells Wilde’s story.

Creative Team: Stephen Chun, John Fisher, Aaron Martinsen, Celia Maurice, Gloria McDonald, Lia Metz, Anthony Powers, Adam Simpson, Christine U'Ren, Jef Valentine, and Maryssa Wanlass.

Tickets available now at :

Season Press Release and Photos

Subscription Order Form

Announcing our 2010-2011 Season!

Subscribe Now and Save! 

We’re on the road again! We enjoyed our theatre roaming in 09-10 so much we’re doing it again. So hop on board for another season of adventure.  

We begin the “On the Road Again” season at the lovely Eureka Theatre for our World Premiere stage version of Oscar Wilde’s scintillating The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Then we ring in the New Year in the traditional Rhino way with The Marga Gomez New Year’s Eve Spectacular, at our old friend the Victoria Theatre.

2011 kicks off with the SF Premiere of Stephen (Sweeney Todd) Sondheim’s Marry Me a Little back at the Eureka.

Then we have some spring madness with Suzanne Westenhoefer: The Totally Inappropriate Tour at the Victoria.

And we wrap up the season with Executive Director John Fisher's own adventure-comedy Fighting Mac! at the Thick House Theatre on Potrero Hill.

More details on production dates are available on The Season page.

This is our Thirty-Third Anniversary Season and we’re thrilled to take you on another road trip around the city at subscription prices that can’t be beat. This season also heralds the return of the Rhino Subscriber Card that makes your visits to our shows easier than ever. (See order form for details.)

And please consider a tax-deductible contribution to The Rhino. Your generous donations have kept us the longest running queer theatre on the planet. THANK YOU!

Enjoy the summer and we’ll see you at the theatre.

2010 Benefit Spectacular

At the Eureka Theatre
May 25, 2010 at 8 pm  

Our annual benefit boasted the best in queer talent plus free drinks, free food, and a big old Rhino celebration.

A special event that supported this glorious theatre in one of its new digs: The Eureka Theatre.

Starring : Leanne Borghesi, Laurie Bushman, Connie Champagne, Dave Dobrusky, Jennifer Ekman, Mike Finn, David Goodwin, Sara Hauter, Kim Larsen, Matthew Martin, Jim McCunn, Sara Moore, Tom Orr, Deborah Russo, Brain Yates Sharber, Dan Strauss, Jef Valentine and Enrique Vallejo.

See the Slide Show

(photos by David Wilson)

Download details and a donation form

Feed the Rhino

We're thirty-two and going strong thanks to your support!

As the longest-running and only GLAAD-Award-winning gay and lesbian theatre in the nation, we'd like to celebrate by raising thirty-two thousand dollars to celebrate thirty-two fabulous years.

Join in as a contributor to San Francisco's top quality, path-making, queer theatre. Help us continue to make history.

Give online by clicking on picture at the very top left corner of this web page. That's the photo where Marga Gomez is telling you to GIVE! (Or, ignore Marga and go directly to Pay Pal by clicking here.)

Get more details and give by check, stock, or credit card by downloading more information and a donation form.

All Theatre Rhinoceros donors are invited to special open rehearsals of our shows and donors of $1,000.00 or more will be recognized as “Honorary Producers” of a show of their choice. All donations are tax deductible and are acknowledged in our programs, unless otherwise requested.

Please contact Executive Director John Fisher at 552-4100 for additional information.

Press Information

Bronstein At Large's Comments

Leah Garchik Covers Us
(search for "Rhinoceros" in the column)

Our secession is in Variety

Best Theatrical Act of Political Defiance

The debacle surrounding Proposition 8 — the state's Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage — particularly outraged the local performing arts community, many of whose members are gay.

After the election, Theatre Rhino, America's longest-running queer theater company, declared itself "an extraterritorial state that recognizes, encourages, and condones same-sex marriage."

According to the company's artistic director, John Fisher, Theatre Rhino decided to symbolically secede from the Golden State "to create a safe/legal space for Married Same-Sex couples in the State of California."

The company marked the decision with a special secession ceremony at its base in the heart of the Mission on November 21, following a performance of the show One Hundred Years of Queer Theatre.

Fisher later conceded that the whole thing was a publicity stunt, but not for the theater. "It's a publicity stunt for same-sex marriage," he said.

— SF Weekly
More at SF Weekly.com

Proclamation:

For thirty-one years our Mainstage has been a space of hallowed ground for Same-sex couples and it cannot continue as such if it does not recognize Same-sex Marriage.

In recognition of the thousands of queer lives portrayed on our stage and the thousands upon thousands of queer people who have inspired, witnessed and been inspired by those lives, our Mainstage must secede from the State of California.

The Board of Theatre Rhinoceros and I therefore declare our Mainstage seceded ground and proclaim our theatre an extraterritorial state that recognizes, encourages and condones Same-sex marriage.

A “plaque of secession and proclamation” will be unveiled on Friday, November 21, 2008 at 10 pm, immediately following the performance of 100 Years of Queer Theatre.

Come and raise a glass in recognition of this event and the eventual triumph of same-sex marriage over the forces of repression, exclusion and intolerance. Admission is free and open to the public.

— John Fisher

Foundations Supporting Theatre Rhinoceros

Theatre Rhinoceros is funded by the generosity of the following organizations:

San Francisco Grants for the Arts

The The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The San Francisco Art Commission

The Dramatists Guild

The Zellerbach Family Foundation

The James Hormel Foundation

The Horizons Foundation

The Bob Ross Foundation

The Walmart Foundation