Toward a new history of
Sledgehammer_  (1985 -     )

With special thanks to all the actors, designers, directors, writers, and artisans who brought their talent, savvy, craft, flesh, and passion to over 23 years and 2100 performances.

In 2008, Sledgehammer Theatre took a hiatus to regroup, restructure, and recharge. Our production of Happy Days, by Samuel Beckett, opened May 15th at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center's, and marked the first production of Sledgehammer’s new era, sans “Theatre” in our company name.

Sledgehammer_  stakes our claim as a cultural force, rather than an exclusively a theater-making organization. Our future work will take many forms including our new blog The.Post.Sledgehammer_ which will feature online commentary, reporting, short fiction, poetry, and more. We will also continue to bring you powerful carefully crafted productions. For those of you who have already been sledgehammered, you know you are going to get some of the most vibrant and surprising live theater in Southern California.

Please join us as we reboot to create a new home and presence in 2014 and beyond.

"...the company hit the bleak landscape of San Diego's low-chic galleries and loft-culture desperadoes, mostly hidden from view in that white-collar Navy town. They produced in storefronts, a parking garage, a 20,000 square foot industrial space, a canyon, literally dodging the fire marshal at every step."

Ferdinand Lewis, American Theater, March 1995, "How to Sledgehammer Theatre" as part of the "The Bad Boys of San Diego Theatre" issue.

"...living helter-skelter, Sledgehammer survived by tenacity, bravado and street smarts. Like ornery alley cats, they outlived fires, eviction, casting calamities and other natural disasters. More miraculously, Sledgehammer slowly won the hard-earned esteem of Southern California's critical establishment...a Sledgehammer cult emerged. One Friday night preview of their world premiere of Mac Wellman's 7 Blowjobs turned into a happening as excitement buzzed the crowd as at a rock concert. The Wellman production played to sold out houses and went in to an extended run of several months. Moreover, the author (and the press) praised the production for its nasty comic brio and blistering precision."

Allan Havis, TheatreForum, 1991