News update: Monday, April 7, 2025. 

• The San Miguel Playhouse is now registered as a fully certified 501 (c) (3) organization in the United States.

• Architectural plans have been presented allowing for an enlargement of the floor-to-ceiling space. If approved by Protección Civil, and structurally feasible, it will allow for building a mezzanine with many additional seats.

• Permits are in the process of being acquired, financed by a successful fundraising event held in January.

• A line-item budget was introduced at the fundraiser and is available on our website.

• The building is being modeled for pristine acoustics, with the intention of creating not only a theater but an ideal chamber music recital hall.

• The theater organization has put a down payment on a quality Steinway grand.

• Partnerships have been struck with several prestigious performing arts organizations and professionals, to assure the highest quality content year round at the new theater.

This last bullet item is perhaps the most exciting, but the next-to-last item, regarding the Steinway piano, requires the most immediate attention. If the new theater is to be, as planned, the home of first-rate year-round chamber music, it is essential to have a quality acoustic grand piano. Recently, a fine instrument, a six-foot Steinway, was offered to The San Miguel Play House, A.C., at a special price of $14,000 US. The Playhouse Asamblea General has already contributed $2,000 as a down payment, so the balance needed to complete the purchase is $12,000. A Playhouse committee member who is also the classical music editor for Billboard magazine tested the piano and found it highly satisfactory.

We have created a GoFundMe campaign to complete the purchase of the piano, and it is linked with our U.S. bank account — meaning donors to that campaign can be given tax receipts. Please click the photo of the Steinway in question, and it will take you directly to the campaign.

Now, let’s expand on the bullet points.

The 501 (c) (3) organization in the United States is registered as The Newell Institute for Bilingual Theater. We chose this name for two reasons. First, to honor the memory of our founder, Jim Newell, who died in July 2022 at the age of 81. Second, because one of the distinguishing features of the former Playhouse, and now a part of our new bylaws, is to use supertitles whenever possible to make our productions accessible to both native Spanish and native English speakers. Contributions to the Newell Institute can be made with card or PayPal account from our DONATION page. Because we are a U.S. tax-exempt organization, we met the qualifications for the no-fee PayPal Giving Fund; 100 percent of donations to the Newell Institute go toward remodeling, re-outfitting, and finally reopening the Playhouse at its new location. Newell Institute donors can be provided with tax receipts. We can also receive donations by check; if that is your preferred method, please write us at info@sanmiguelplayhouse.com.

The creative partnerships that have recently been struck between the Playhouse and performing arts organizations and professionals from other cities are outlined in detail on our PARTNERS page. San Miguel is a significant cultural and touristic city. The committee has been building relationships with future content providers, in cities as far-flung as Los Angeles and Tbilisi, Georgia. We are fortunate to have a good deal of local theatrical and musical talent as a baseline for content. Our goal for the new theater is consistent high quality events of all kinds — theater, music, dance, film, conferences, and so forth — and we have already begun to reach out.

Our theater partners include Jon Tracy, Artistic Director of the Marin Shakespeare Company in San Rafael, California, who has joined our advisory board; and David Sakvarelidze, Artistic Director, Sokhumi State Drama Theater in Tbilisi, one of the most important and innovative theater directors in Eastern Europe. Several more theater partnerships are in the offing. Our music partners now include two renowned string players who are also educators, cellist Jonah Kim and violinist Paulina Derbez; and opera director and stage designer Ragnar Conde, whose chamber opera amalgam of monodramas by Poulenc and Richard Strauss was one of the highlights of the final season at the original Playhouse.

The committee is equally fortunate to be working with two outstanding architects, Fernando Cervantes and Javier Lascurain, and acoustic engineer Andrea Lascurain, who is also a concert pianist. Using figures provided by Cervantes, Andrea Lascurain, and the committee’s skilled accountant, Carina Garcia, a tentative LINE-ITEM BUDGET was drafted and presented at the January fundraiser at Casa Papaya. This document will be regularly updated as we proceed. One valuable service not listed in the budget — not listed because it being donated — is the expertise of landscape designers Linda Speer Luck and Markus Luck, whose prestigious client list includes the Matilda Hotel.

It is a stale expression to say that when one door closes another opens, yet somehow apt when speaking about the Playhouse. The building in Independencia that served us well for a decade literally closed its doors to us in the spring of 2023 when the structure was put up for sale. While that building, a former salon de fiestas, had many favorable qualities, we believe the new building will serve us better. It is a sturdier structure that can be soundproofed, and is in a neighborhood with many nearby restaurants and coffee shops, and more available parking.

Another door seemed to have closed when the San Miguel Chamber Music Festival, a summer institution that had lasted 45 years, ceased operating last year. The reason so much emphasis is being placed on acoustics at the new Playhouse, with the aid of an acoustic designer who is herself a concert musician, is that our goal is to make our venue the ideal chamber music recital hall. It is also why our partnership with music professionals such as Jonah Kim and Paulina Derbez is crucial. In place of a summer festival, we hope to have superb chamber music all year, with the greatest possible variety — not only string quartets and piano trios, but lieder, chamber opera, dramatic works such as Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat and Saint-Saëns’ Carnaval des animaux, and classical music programs designed for young audiences. (Another standout production at the former Playhouse was the children’s opera Las luciérnagas no vuelan, coproduced by Libros para Todos.) 

We will continually update this page, and report our progress in our email newsletter (please SUBSCRIBE if you do not already receive it).

Below are two photos showing the building that will be our new theater, and an artist rendering of how the façade might look when completed.