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ranchandcoast.com 74 AUGUST 2025 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE HENRY 6, AS YOU LIKE IT, CELEBRATING COMMUNITY VOICES: PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICH SOUBLET II Celebrating 90 Years of e Old Globe e venerable Balboa Park venue prepares to take a birthday bow M odeled after Shakespeare's Old Globe in London, e Old Globe eatre in Balboa Park was built in 1935 as part of the California Pacific International Exposition, a fair to promote San Diego and support its economy during the Great Depression. At the exposition, the theater hosted 50-minute abridged versions of Shakespeare plays, and with the performance of Henry 6 last year, e Old Globe became only the eleventh theater in the country to produce every play in the Shakespeare canon. As the late Darlene G. Davies noted ten years ago in Ranch & Coast's comprehensive series marking the theater's 80th anniversary, performance is "for the moment." But the Globe has become a permanent fixture of San Diego, now comprising a three-theater complex known as the Conrad Prebys eatre Center. As Davies also noted, the history of e Old Globe "has been an extraordinary journey," and the events of the ten years since her series was published are no exception. 2015-2025 One of the biggest developments at the Globe over the last decade has been the launch of a community-based program called Arts Engagement. "is is something new to e Old Globe," says Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, who has been the theater's artistic director since 2013. "Ten years ago, we got a multimillion-dollar grant to begin community-based work, and a decade later that has become central to both the Globe's activities and identity." e creation of an arts engagement program is what brought Edelstein to San Diego from New York City, where he had been working for e Public eater, producing the renowned Shakespeare in the Park. Not coincidentally, in 2016, shortly after Edelstein's arrival, the Globe received a $5 million gift from Andrew Viterbi to create e Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund. When Edelstein got to San Diego, he immediately set to work looking for ways the Globe could make an impact on the greater BY BILL ABRAMS detour culture