As he leads a visitor on a tour of the new home for Dezart Performs, artistic director Michael Shaw can hardly conceal his excitement. Some 17 years after the company’s unlikely origin, a dream is about to come true—and he is savoring every moment.
“Almost 15 years ago, somebody was interviewing me and asked, ‘Where do you want to be in 10 years?’ And I said, ‘Gosh, in 10 years, I would love to have my own broom and my own floor to sweep,’” said Shaw.
It took a few extra years, but on Nov. 13, the Dezart Playhouse will celebrate its grand opening with three nights of gala performances of West Side Story in Concert. The celebration is the culmination of countless hours of planning and fundraising, and sheer determination.
Shaw came to California in the 1980s. “I wanted to be a movie star,” he said. Instead, he started what became his first theater company with three college friends.
Later, Shaw and his husband, Clark Dugger, bought a second home in Palm Springs.
“While we were remodeling our condo here, our designer turned us on to the Backstreet Art District, and we fell in love with one particular space called Dezart One Gallery,” he said. “One of the artists running the gallery wanted to create a salon setting with live performance.”
A young actress named Daniela Ryan was doing a one-woman show in the space. One weekend, Dugger got roped into running the lights for her show.
“At the time, Clark knew nothing about theatrical lighting,” Shaw said. “I went to the show, mostly to see him run lights. I met Daniela that night, and we just bonded. We thought, ‘Do we want to create some theater together?’ And that’s how Dezart Performs was born.”
They stayed in that space for three years, presenting comedy, new works, poetry and improvisational theater. Eventually the gallery closed, and Shaw learned that the Palm Springs Woman’s Club was available.
“We moved in, expanded on some of the existing infrastructure and ran a full four-show season for the next 14 years,” he said.
In recent years, Dezart began selling out virtually every one of its performances. The company needed to grow.
Shaw said he and his board started thinking seriously about finding their own space about five years ago. “Coming out of COVID, we realized that the community still needed us and wanted us,” he said. “We conducted a feasibility study to find out if the community could support a new space for Dezart for the long term. We learned that it could.”
Shaw, Dugger and the Dezart board spent the intervening years looking at spaces they could rent and build out to suit their needs. They went through three potential properties, all of which fell through for one reason or another.
“We were not ready to give up,” said Shaw. “We were about to renew our search when a donor told us he had a friend who said there might be a building in Palm Springs coming on the market.”
And so there was. It was an historic, mid-century building designed by Robson Chambers and Albert Frey to be the home of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
“I had a longstanding wish to turn a church into a theater,”‘ said Shaw. “I grew up in the church, and I find it very transformative. It’s a performance space. Church is performance, and theater is a performance. … We fell in love with the building instantly. As soon as it officially went on the market, we put our bid in, and they accepted it.”
The biggest issue at the time was that Dezart didn’t have the cash on hand to come up with the down payment. They had raised a lot of money, but had more pledges than actual cash. Shaw approached David C. Lee, a longtime friend of the theater who’s best known as the co-creator of Frasier, among multiple other television and stage credits.
“He has been an incredible supporter of Dezart,” said Shaw, “and when the opportunity with the church came about, he asked us what we needed. We told him. And he gave it to us. So, David C. Lee is the reason we were able to get this building.”
Lee made a gift of $500,000, partly as a match, to cover the costs of the down payment and ongoing mortgage payments.
For Dezart Performs to have its own building is especially meaningful for Shaw. “I got to design it with a remarkable planning committee,” he said. “It’s been hours and hours of exhaustive discussions with architects and theater designers and other stakeholders, but I have always had a vision of what I’d like the ‘playground’ to look like.”
The initial phase of the project will include a 123-seat, fully equipped theater, as well as dressing rooms, a rehearsal hall, meeting rooms and an event prep space. The second phase, slated to open for the 2026-2027 season, will introduce new theater seating, indoor and outdoor bars, a box office and upgraded restrooms.
Shaw envisions the playhouse as a place where Dezart Performs can expand its own production capabilities, while also serving as a community center for other artists and organizations to showcase their work, hold meetings and lectures, be part of big events like Modernism Week and the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and more. They’ve already started renting space to other theater companies for their rehearsals, and Shaw also hopes the building will allow Dezart Performs to renew its education efforts.
But first, they have to get the building open.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, opened in what was then its new building in 1957. “And that was the same year West Side Story opened on Broadway and changed musical theater,” Shaw said.
“I have to give a shout-out to our amazing general contractor and all of the subcontractors,” said Shaw, “and a superb design team that includes architect Susan Secoy Jensen, landscape architect JC Miller and TheatreDNA consultant Michael Ferguson. We are doing this in such a short amount of time. The level of skill and expertise on this project blows my mind, and our board has been incredibly supportive.”
One of those board members, Nancy Bleiweiss-Nevil, said she’s thrilled to be a part of Dezart Performs.
“To be performing in our own theater, an historic mid-century modern building, is awesome,” she said. “We are opening doors for our wonderful past patrons and now a whole new group who love and appreciate this glorious architecture”
Shaw chose West Side Story in Concert as Dezart’s first production in its new home, in part, because the First Church of Christ, Scientist, opened in what was then its new building in 1957. “And that was the same year West Side Story opened on Broadway and changed musical theater,” he said.
The new space isn’t big enough to stage some of West Side Story’s major production numbers, sothe next best thing, in Shaw’s mind, was to bring in a great cast and a 15-piece orchestra, do a concert version and make it a gala weekend.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “People are going to come in here and sit in this new space, and at the end of show when the song “Somewhere” is performed, they’re going to hear it fresh and new and unlike any way they’ve ever experienced it. That’s the clincher to this evening for us: ‘There’s a place for us,’ and we need that now more than ever. I want the playhouse to be that place where people want to come and find peace and joy and respite.”
The remainder of the 2025-2026 Dezart Performs schedule includes the recent Tony Award-winner for Best Revival of a Play, Eureka Day, in January; the West Coast premiere of Destroying David in February/March; and the 1995 Tony Award winner for Best Play, Love! Valour! Compassion! in April.
All will be performed on a brand-new stage in Dezart Performs’ glorious new theater. Shaw is delighted. He got his broom.
The new Dezart Playhouse is located at 605 S. Riverside Drive, in Palm Springs. Learn more at dezartperforms.org.
Bravo and congratulations to Michael and company! I look forward to being in your audience!