B-2 opens July 5

The new theatre, known informally as “B-2,” is part of the same complex as the well-established B Street Theatre. The metal-exterior building that houses the new stage was used at one time for TV production. The B Street Theatre leased the space about two years ago and began using the big, bare room as rehearsal space for B Street shows.

Producing Artistic Director Buck Busfield had hoped to open B-2 more than a year ago, but the process of securing the necessary permits and making the required improvements has taken longer than originally anticipated. The city of Sacramento built a courtyard area and made improvements to an outdoor restroom, which will serve adjacent Stanford Park and its baseball diamond in addition to B-2 patrons.

To open the new theatre, the B Street commissioned a new show from Jack Gallagher titled Just the Guy. Gallagher is no stranger to the B Street—his earlier one-man show about fatherhood, Letters to Declan, enjoyed a long initial run, as well as a revival, at the theater during the latter half of the ’90s.

The opening of B-2, which seats about 100, will give the B Street the flexibility to extend the run of popular shows and bring in one-man shows from outside the area, while still being able to open a new show on the original stage. B-2 will also host occasional presentations by the Fantasy Theatre, the youth theater company that was launched by founder Tim Busfield a few years before the B Street was organized in the early ’90s.

Observant patrons may recognize the seating in the new theater. When the seats in the B Street Theatre were upgraded about a year ago, the old wooden chairs weren’t thrown away; they were stored, and have now been deployed in B-2.