In 1973, the Pasadena Repertory Theatre won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Director, Gill Dennis, and Best Screenplay, David Storey, for their production of In Celebration.

Later productions included the world premiere of Academy Award nominated (Coal Miner's Daughter) screenwriter Tom Rickman's play Balaam starring Academy Award nominee Elizabeth Hartman (A Patch of Blue), Peter Brandon {Altered States, Another World, Dallas, The Waltons), Howard Whalen, and was the theatrical debut of Ed Harris (The Right Stuff, Jackson Pollock).

The Pasadena Repertory Theatre also hosted the west coast premiere of Tennessee Williams' Kingdom of Earth, which was the retitled Broadway play The Seven Descents of Myrtle.

It was directed by Elizabeth Hartman's husband, Gill Dennis and starred Ed Harris, Marie Peckinpah (née Selland), and Duane Waddell.

The resident acting teacher for the Pasadena Repertory Theatre was Florence MacMichael (Woman Obsessed, Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone, Mr. Ed, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza).

[3] Tenants during parts of that time included notables such as the Latino soul band El Chicano, performance artist Paul McCarthy, Howard the Duck comic book creator Steve Gerber, the writer-director Gill Dennis, who later wrote the Oscar-winning (best actress Reese Witherspoon) biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line, the painter-muralist Betty Dore,[4][5] the painter and long-time preparator of the Norton Simon Museum James Mayner, the director-writer-cinematographer J. Robert Wagoner (Disco Godfather, Black Fantasy), the prominent jazz bass player Herbie Lewis, artist-weavers Margo Farrin and Gail Stephenson, artists Jack McIntosh, Hap Tivey, Paul Waszink, Ron Benom, Milan Tomovich, and dancers Helga deKansky, Pat Turnbull, Collie Valadez, and many other artists.

The remaining tenants immediately organized a final art exhibit titled "The End of the Hotel Carver," that filled the ballroom, the old Blue Room, and most of the vacant spaces throughout the building.