(Bay Area Skyline - 2012)

Many years ago, during the dot.com era, I moved to the Bay Area. I moved in August of 2000. 

The move was inspired and encouraged by a good friend and working actor from NYC, Lannie Morita. She was from the Bay Area and thought it would be a good place for me. She was a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in LA.

I had just finished graduate school and was considering Boston, NYC or San Francisco. The Bay Area won for two simple reasons: best job offer and weather. 

Unfortunately I didn't realize the Bay Area actually had a winter and so was slightly unprepared for the move once the winter set in. The job front was taken care of before I moved.

My new job was working for a real estate appraisal company that was turning into an internet appraisal service, Mortgage Ramp.com. It was actually a division of GM. 

These were the days when business plans written on the back of napkins got funding. The biggest requirement at the time for a business seemed to be having a .com at the end of the business name. This was pre-Facebook. 

Once I settled in to the Bay Area I began looking for a hobby. At a friend's suggestion I started exploring improv theater. 

Returning to theater after having been away for about eight years was exciting. Improv provided a path that was easy to fit together with my work at the time.

One class led to another, the Flying Apple improv troupe at Fort Mason led to meeting other improvisors and eventually to meeting Skip Evans.

It was February of 2002. By that time I had left the real estate gig and had become a Web Usability Analyst on the ScoreCard team at Giga Information Group. I was literally getting paid to surf the Web and rate Web sites.

Skip got a bunch of improv actors together in downtown Oakland on 40th Street to discuss founding an improv theater. Many people at Pan think Skip is a myth, or a facade. I assure you there was, and is a improviser named Skip Evans.

Skip performed with Dad's Garage in Atlanta. He later moved to New York and taught improv for actors and eventually moved to Oakland.

Skip got bunch of acting and improv enthusiasts together and from this group eventually emerged the yet unnamed improv theater group that became Pan Theater.

We eventually found rehearsal space at 21 Grand Art Gallery in Oakland. The people at 21 Grand were amazingly supportive of us and our projects. Their space was originally at 21 Grand in the area now known as Uptown Oakland. They later moved but kept 21 Grand as a name.

Skip eventually left the Oakland and moved to parts unknown. We thank him for getting us together in Oakland. We were a bunch of improv actors both experienced and less experienced. 

He helped bring us together in Oakland. During those days the Big City improv troupe also was performing in Oakland. They were the Oakland Playhouse troupe at the time.

They eventually moved to San Francisco. We stayed in Oakland though did perform in San Francisco for a time at the Blue Bear School of Music.

These were the days before the San Francisco Improv Festival.

As time progressed the group Skip founded, the unnamed group, picked a name. Pan - for the Greek god of theater (or so we thought) or as others in the group said: Pick A Name Theater or Pan Theater for short.

Pan is actually the god of Shepherds but we still liked the name.

During shows we use to let the audience pick the name of our group for the evening.

Thank you Skip. We appreciate you’re getting us all together. We're still around going on ten years.

Notes:
The Flying Apple Improv Group at Fort Mason eventually became the Blue Blanket Improv Troupe. They are still performing on a regular basis.

Big City Improv

Performs short form in SF.

Pan has maintained its Oakland routes. We've moved from the 94607 area code to the 94612 area code. At the time of this post we are a half a block from where the 21 Grand Art Gallery started.

The 21 Grand lost its lease and is currently an online and virtual organization.

Giga Information Group eventually became profitable and was purchased by Forrester Research. I got laid off after the merger and returned to school to work on an MA in Drama at San Francisco State University.

Author:
David Alger, Producer: Pan Theater.