Pan Theater Training Troupe - Pan 2012

We’re not the Fox and we’re not the Paramount – We are Oakland’s Improv Theater. 

We have regular performances. Typically 50 weeks a year. Every week we get the theater space ready for shows, put the posters up and put the sign board out on Ogawa Plaza.

We’re not as large as the Fox and you’ll walk by Pan on your way to the Paramount. We are just off Broadway. Pan is only 30 seconds from BART.

Pan used to be in the same building as the Psychic and the Nursing School. Typically when people call, we say – the building with the blue awnings.

The person taking tickets may very well be one of Pan’s directors, or the producer for the theater. Or the ticket person for the night might be a local lawyer, zookeeper, photographer, or school administrator by day and improv actor by night.

The audiences vary. Sometimes we have standing room only. 

Sometimes there are more performers than audience members. Other times we have a half or two-thirds full house.

Audience members come from Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities.

The size of the audience doesn’t always equate with how engaged they are with the show. 

Sometimes the smaller audiences are much more engaged and sometimes the larger audiences are much more subdued.

Some audience members have never seen live improv before, some are veterans of improv. 

Current and former students often visit. Those considering taking an improv class often come brining along a significant other or a group of friends.

We have been performing in Oakland since February of 2002. We have performed at numerous theaters including the EGYPT in East Oakland, the 21 Grand Art Gallery, and the Blue Bear Black Box, at the Blue Bear School of Music. 

Our theater has been in Ogawa Plaza for a little over three years. We have put on literally hundreds of shows at our current location over past few years.

Cast members have come, and cast members have gone. We’ve had as many as five performing troupes to as few as a single performing group. People have loved us for being in Oakland and others have complained about being in Oakland.

Pan has been described as: improv by the people for the people, theater boot camp, “where neurons fire faster, and Oakland’s improv theater. We’re fairly mellow. 

Sometimes we provide free cookies or brownies before a show. Several of our cast members are bakers.

You can also get postcards for our shows and other local shows and events at our check in table. Several of our sponsors have their cards out. They support us and we support them. 

Currently there are cards for Quizitter, Sam Willard Photography, the Thumbtack Bugle and the Playwrights Foundation. We also have cards for Pan’s classes and shows.

If you are not going to the Fox or Paramount this week but want to go to Uptown…here is my suggestion: Get dinner or drinks at Luca’s (one block from Pan) and then come see a show. Bring a friend or three. We’ll be at 120 Frank Ogawa Plaza in the 94612. 

So, if you are looking for something to do in Oakland, come check out a show. We’re not the Fox Theater, we’re not the Paramount but we’ve been offering shows longer than both the Fox and Paramount have been reopened.