Report of the Playhouse Rebuilding Committee, July 8, 2025
Since the last update in April, the Playhouse Rebuilding Committee – consisting of the board of directors of The San Miguel Playhouse A.C. and one associate – has made excellent progress. The project of the Committee is the reopening of the San Miguel Playhouse at its new location. There are three major news items to report:
• The Committee has approved preliminary architectural plans for the interior of the never-occupied building in Col. La Luz that will become the new San Miguel Playhouse. There will be a ground floor and a mezzanine, allowing for at least 110 designated seats, along with spaces for wheelchairs and overflow seats.
• The chief architect selected for the project, Fernando Cervantes, has begun the process of acquiring necessary permits to commence construction of the building’s interior and remodeling of the exterior.
• Entirely from donations, the Playhouse has acquired a Steinway grand, recently tried out by keyboard virtuoso Osmar Aquino, who pronounced it “an incredible piano.”
The interior design
The building that will become the new performance space is an open rectangle constructed only a few years ago with no specific occupant in mind, and never occupied. Below are two images of the exterior – the unmarked white building. There is a large open lot behind the building that may potentially be made available for additional parking. The address of the building is Blvrd de la Conspiración 13-D, across the street from the entrance to the Tianguis (Tuesday market), and a short walk around the corner from the Plaza La Luciernaga shopping mall.
By permission of the building owner, the roof pitch will be increased to allow for balcony space. Below are renderings of the proposed interior.
The piano
As reported in April, at the start of the fundraising drive to acquire a piano for the Playhouse, a high-quality acoustic grand piano, preferably a Steinway, was deemed essential.
The new venue is being modeled acoustically as not only an exemplary theater space, but also an ideal chamber music recital hall – an asset that does not now exist in San Miguel. It is the aim of the Playhouse board and associate members to feature superb chamber music year-round at the performance space; to reinstate the Steinway Series (benefit concerts for Libros para Todos); and to provide a sought-after venue for the San Miguel MetOpera Trust.
The fundraising drive for the piano was a success, and the piano is currently being housed in the music studio of a Playhouse associate, awaiting relocation to the new theater. The piano will have no commercial use until it is moved to the Playhouse for ticketed events.
The Committee was able to acquire the piano with a campaign that met its target in less than a month. The donors were private individuals and two organizations, San Miguel Playreaders and Music Mission.
This superior quality Steinway, pictured below, was purchased from the estate of the late cellist Gilberto Munguia (1937 – 2019), who had kept a home in San Miguel. Munguia was an international concert artist, and at one time a member of the Don Shirley Trio, depicted in the movie Green Book. Munguia personally selected this instrument for his home.
Join in the effort
If you visit the DONATE page on the home page of this website, you will find an alphabetical list of donors who have to date contributed to rebuilding project and the purchase of the piano.
The Committee continues to seek donations, and the speed at which the new venue will have its grand opening largely depends on the generosity of individuals and organizations. On the above-mentioned DONATE page, you will find three donation buttons – the first two if you require a tax receipt (the choice depends on the method of payment), and the third if no tax receipt is desired. A LINE-ITEM budget, frequently updated, appears on this website, to particularize how donations are being spent.
Another way you can join in the effort is to invite friends to visit the sanmiguelplayhouse.com website, and ask them subscribe to our newsletter (there is a red button on the home page for that purpose). If you prefer, you can copy and paste this subscription link and forward it to friends:
https://sanmiguelplayhouse.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=2ad97b144aae5126de14dfa33&id=56d57f0b9b