The Civic Theatre opened in 1967, and seats 2,967.  It is the performing home of the San Diego Opera, Broadway/San Diego and regularly hosts performances of the California Ballet, presentations by La Jolla Music Society, touring orchestras and dance companies, Broadway musicals and plays, concerts, film presentations, lectures, etc.  It has also served as a community gathering place for inaugurations, governmental addresses, religious services, political activities, lectures, educational presentations, and corporate meetings.

For two years starting in 2002, MCH was engaged to study and assist in preparation of documents to substantially renovate the Hall, its Rehearsal Room and lobby Areas.  Generally, the hall’s acoustics were fair, but suffered from absence of good sidewall and ceiling shaping.  Recommendations culminated in adjustments to eliminate the awkward trapping and feedback of acoustical energy from the existing east and west Entry Vestibules.  The dihedral corners created by the new shelves at existing sidewalls will redirect or ‘kick’ desirable sound energy down and across the seating area.  Reshaped loge and balcony fascias will diffuse incident sound energy and prevent discrete echoes.  New ceiling reflectors will uniformly direct sound energy to the main orchestra seating as well as to balconies.  Additionally, designs were developed to eliminate excessive HVAC noise plaguing both this and the Rehearsal space space.  The project has been on hold since the mid-2000s while the City attends to more pressing financial issues.

Reference: Don Telford, CEO  San Diego Theatres