Downtown San José’s 3Below Theaters and Café will see its last days of business end on April 26.
The musical theatre is just short 0.5 miles northeast from San José State campus, where it has been in business for eight years, according to a March 18 article published on The Mercury News.
The owners of the 3Below Theaters Shannon and Scott Guggenheim released a statement on March 17 on the theaters’ website and social media pages revealing the soon-to-be closure of their business with little details.
“We have explored every possible way to persevere, but a combination of immense challenges and unresolved issues related to the facility ultimately make it impossible to continue,” the statement said.
3Below Theaters offers four different programs at its location with each house focusing on a different films and theater related program.
The Playhouse with musicals and plays, the Arthouse that plays first run, independent, documentary, international and feature films, the Clubhouse offering monthly youth and family events and the Schoolhouse teaching educational theater arts for teens, adults and youth.
Barnaby Dallas, the director of production for film and theatre at San José State, said the soon-to-be closure of the theater came as a surprise.
“We’re very involved with the Cinequest Film Festival,” Dallas said. “So we have students who have films in it and we would go there and we were there last year and I noticed that Cinequest wasn’t in there this year and I didn’t realize it was closing, it was really a bummer.”
The theater gave a home to professional musical theater, theater spaces for young audiences, performing arts classes and community engagement opportunities for the city of San José, according to the 3Below webpage.
Dallas said theaters like this are important to have in reach for students on campus.
“Giving students the opportunity to experience wider culture, it’s sort of an independent cinema, you know, so it’s not just mainstream stuff it’s kind of like films you wouldn’t just go to a multiplex and see,” Dallas said.
The theater typically features old movies that don’t play in theaters anymore.
Movies played in the past have been Hamnet, School of Rock, Crazy Rich Asians, La La Land, Superbad and more, according to the 3Below Instagram page.
San José State alumnus Erik Martinez Gonzalez, a program and marketing coordinator at Watsonville Film Festival, said he isn’t surprised about the theater’s closure.
“While I can’t say I’m completely surprised because many third spaces have struggled since the pandemic, which I witnessed firsthand as a student, it still feels like a significant loss,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a reminder that these spaces only survive when communities show up for them.”
During the pandemic, the local theater moved screenings and live performances outside to the rooftop, according to a Mercury News article.
Outdoors movies, live theater and smaller Oscar-praised indie flicks and programmed Hollywood classics were shown in efforts to regain an audience for the theater. The efforts helped keep the 3Below Theater alive, but the audience was never the same as it was pre-pandemic, according to the same article.
San José resident Stephanie Khodorkovsky, who works as an quality analyst, said it’s sad to see San José lose these types of businesses.
“I swear I’m not a dramatic person, but I literally teared up. Places like 3Below is what made me fall in love with downtown San José and move here,” Khodorkovsky said. “Another place like that was Tabard Theatre, which is also closed now, again not to be dramatic, but it seems the heart of our city is slowly losing its pulse.”
The Tabard Theatre was a performing arts center in San Pedro Square that offered comedy shows, musicals and live concert performances that closed down in April of 2023, according to 2023 San José Inside article.
“In the coming weeks, we hope the community will join us to celebrate everything that was created here,” the Guggenheims said in their statement.
The theater’s last film event occurred March 8, showcasing Oscar-winning short films, according to its Instagram post.
The 3Below Theater will show final live performances of the musical “The Bardy Bunch” from March 26 through April 26, according to the 3Below webpage.
“If 3Below has meant something to you, we invite you to attend a performance, share your favorite 3Below memories and help celebrate the artists, stories and community that made this theater special with one last hoorah,” the statement said.
