The History of the Zephyr Theatre

The Zephyr Theatre, originally called the Horseshoe Stage, opened on January 5th, 1956 at a time when intimate performance bases were scarce. It has been a working stage ever since, hosting plays, musicals, readings, workshops, live comedy, and performance based classes. For more than 50 years, the Zephyr has been a mainstay of the Los Angeles theater scene and has hosted writers and performers at every level of achievement, from Oscar and Emmy award winners to new playwrights. The Zephyr Theatre is owned by producer and artistic director, Lee Sankowich.

Lee Sankowich - Producing Artistic Director

After serving sixteen years as Artistic Director of the Marin Theatre Company, Lee resigned in 2006 to return to producing and directing independently. Among the forty-five plays he directed at Marin, there were two estate-sanctioned world premieres of previously unproduced plays by Tennessee Williams. His career began with a jump start with his successful productions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which ran for two and a half years in New York, five and a half years in San Francisco, a year and a half in Boston, and in Israel. Since then he has worked in Regional Theatres across the country including Baltimore Center Stage, The Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, Florida Stage, GEVA, Jewish Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, Center Rep, San Jose Stage, Theatreworks, Pittsburgh Public Theatre where he was a Resident Director, and was an Associate Professor of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. Among his several awards, he has been the recipient of four San Francisco Bay Area Drama Critics Awards for Direction. Lee currently owns and operates out of the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, where he recently directed Low Hanging Fruit.

Racquel Lehrman - General Manager

Racquel Lehrman is the founder and managing director of Theatre Planners. Theatre Planners is a complete theatre production service company from start to finish. Racquel is also the proud owner of The Lounge Theatres in Hollywood in the heart of Theatre Row. She graduated from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and lived in NY for over eight years producing theatre.