It was founded in 1972 as the Shorter Players by Chris Silva, Robert Woodruff and Carl Lumbly.

In October 1981 the company was staging David Edgar's The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs[2] when their space in the basement of the Trinity Methodist Church burned in an arson attack.

[3]: 33  Eustis had seen Kushner's play A Bright Room Called Day in New York.

[3]: 34  With help from a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts,[3]: 34  it eventually turned into Angels in America, two three-and-a-half hour plays with no songs.

[4] Due to rising costs and the 2013 diversion of San Francisco's hotel tax fund away from the arts[5] the company closed on 5 July 2017.