The Beginning
In 1959, Margaret Moseley and Sheila B. Hyman had a dream for a little theater in the new city of Pacifica. Through the PBR (Parks, Beaches, and Recreation), a meeting was arranged at the Sea Bowl coffee shop, where 10 residents showed up and the dream became a reality. The group called themselves the Pacifica Players and their first play was “The Tender Trap” followed by “The Drunkards” performed at the Firehouse the same year. In 1965, Sydney Clark and others met to organize The Spindrift Playhouse. Without a playhouse or a realistic hope for one, the group rehearsed for their first production “No Exit” in the Clark living room and performed the show at the Pacifica Library meeting room. A few years later the Pacifica Players and the Spindrift Playhouse combined to become the Pacifica Spindrift Players, lovingly referred to as PSP.

The Building
The building, which is now the Pacifica Spindrift Players Theatre, was originally a Baptist Church located where Cabrillo School is today. It was purchased for fifty dollars by the City of Pacifica and on October 31, 1962, and it was moved on rollers up Crespi Drive to its current site at Oddstad Park. Initially, the building was used as a Community Center for childcare and senior recreation activities, as well as a home for the Pacifica Spindrift Players. The main hall was used for senior lunches and children’s activities in addition to plays—for every performance, the tables had to be folded up and the three-seat wooden folding chairs set out for the audience. When the Community Center moved to its current location (former site of the telephone building on Crespi Drive), the old church building was extensively remodeled.

Following the earthquake of 1989 which damaged ACT’s Geary Theatre in San Francisco, PSP volunteers purchased and refurbished ninety-eight real theatre seats from ACT, and then built raked risers to accommodate the new seats. In 2013 and 2014, the Rotary Club of Pacifica took the PSP building under their wings as a special project. Thanks to their hard work, the outside of building was given a fresh coat of paint and new shingling on the roof. In 2021, PSP received a generous grant from the Sam Mazza Foundation and will be using the funds to install a new energy-efficient lighting system.

Volunteers through the Rotary Club of Pacifica help make PSP look brand new!

Today
The tentative beginnings of theatre in Pacifica, originally housed in a garage, a library room, and school multipurpose room, now resides in its own “playhouse” theatre! Pacifica Spindrift Players is a non-profit organization committed to providing quality live community theatre to Pacifica and the Bay Area. PSP offers opportunities for adults and young people to learn and develop the art of live theatre through play production experience. We present revivals of traditional plays and musicals, as well as diverse, contemporary theatre for the 21st century. PSP supports our local community by loaning theatre equipment, props, and costumes to local school drama departments and other community theatres, and by supporting The Spindrift School of Performing Arts—Pacifica’s only non-profit performing arts school that trains and inspires students of all ages in the performing arts.