Its non-professional, community beginnings and the tremendous amount of local support for the project led George Bernard Shaw to dub Pasadena "the Athens of the West", likening the enterprise to the ancient Festival Dionysia.

The college trained notable talents such as Raymond Burr, Victor Mature, Ernest Borgnine, Eleanor Parker, Charles Bronson, Ray Vasquez, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Sally Struthers,[5] Jamie Farr,[6] Mako,[7] Robert Rockwell, and others.

[10] Due to changes in Actors' Equity Association laws, and the opening of drama departments in many schools and universities across the country, the College of Theatre Arts shut down in 1969.

Saddled with millions of dollars' worth of debt from earlier unforeseen expenditures during the theatre's restoration, the Playhouse's operators struggled with balancing interest and loan repayments with increasing running costs.

[3] On January 29, 2010, the Los Angeles Times announced that, due to financial difficulties, the theatre would close on February 7 after its run of the musical Camelot and cancel the remaining 2010 season.

[21] After less than four months, on July 7, 2010, it emerged from bankruptcy after a multimillion-dollar anonymous matching fund contribution toward operating costs and judicially approved debt cancellation.

[18] The Pasadena Playhouse also reduced paid staff to essential upper level administration, keeping the Artistic Director Sheldon Epps as coordinator for the rest of the planned consolidation.

Director Epps announced through an interview with the LA Times that the shake-up was intended to put the theatre back on solid financial footing and ensure the Playhouse's survival into the future.