The Pasadena Playhouse is an historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.

Beginning around 1912, the period known as the Little Theatre Movement developed in cities and towns across the United States. The artistic community that founded the Pasadena Playhouse was started in 1916 when actor-director Gilmor Brown began producing a series of plays at a renovated burlesque theatre with his troupe "The Gilmore Brown Players". Brown established the Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena in 1917 that would later become the Pasadena Playhouse Association, which necessitated a new venue for productions.

The community theatre organization quickly grew and in May 1924, the citizens of Pasadena raised funds to build a new theatre in the city center at 39 South El Molino Avenue. Completed in 1925, the theater was designed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style by Pasadena artist and architect Elmer Grey.

August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each is set in a different decade, depicting the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.

Wilson's maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children, to Sudeten-German immigrant baker/pastry cook, Frederick August Kittel, Sr. and Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning woman, from North Carolina. Wilson's mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson would go on to write under his mother's surname. The economically depressed neighborhood in which he was raised was inhabited predominantly by black Americans, and Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson's mother divorced and married David Bedford in the 1950s and the family moved from the Hill District to the then predominantly white working class neighborhood of Hazelwood, where they encountered racial hostility; bricks were thrown through a window at their new home. They were soon forced out of their house and on to their next home.

Dawnn Lewis (born August 13, 1961) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her roles on sitcoms such as A Different World and in the first season of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.

She co-wrote the theme song to A Different World. In A Different World, Lewis appeared for the first five of the six season run as "Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor" (1987–1992). Although her character was married to one of the main characters on A Different World, her character disappeared from "A Different World" without explanation, like Chuck Cunningham of Happy Days. Lewis appeared in a special week long segment of A Different World called the Hillman College Reunion airing on Nick At Nite, along with Lisa Bonet, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, and Sinbad.

In Hangin' with Mr. Cooper Lewis appeared in the first of the five seasons as "Robin Dumars" (1992). She didn't appear on the two shows concurrently - she left A Different World to star in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. She and Holly Robinson Peete, along with R&B quartet En Vogue, performed the theme song for Season 1 of Mr. Cooper.

Ashley Spencer Argota (born January 9, 1993) is an American actress,singer,and student. She is best known for role as Lulu in the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP. She currently co-stars as Kelly Peckinpaw in Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures on Nickelodeon.

Argota was born in Redlands, California. She is of Filipino descent. She began her professional career as contestant on the Arsenio Hall-hosted Star Search on CBS in 2003. She began acting at the age of 14. In 2007, she starred in an independent film titled Schooled. She also appeared in a Nickelodeon celebrity-episode of the series BrainSurge during which she lost during a Sudden Death round to Jerry Trainor. She appeared again in 2011 with other various Nickelodeon celebrities and won.

As a singer, she has released two independent albums Dreams Come True (2006) and Ashley (2008).

Argota is currently attending New York University, majoring in nursing.

Adam Silver is the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the National Basketball Association. He has held this post since July 2006. On 25 February 2012, he was endorsed by David Stern to be the next NBA Commissioner.

According to his NBA 101 information page, Silver has been with the league for over 14 years. He oversees NBA Entertainment - which comprises all the NBA's business units, including television and merchandising - as well as the NBA's international business ventures. The Global Media Properties and Marketing Partnerships division of the league also fall under Silver, as well as advertising sales.

Silver was an executive producer of the IMAX movie "Michael Jordan to the Max," as well as the TNT documentary, Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray? He also worked on the production side of "Like Mike" and "Year of the Yao."

In 2003, Silver was named to TIME Magazine and CNN's list of Global Business Influentials; he has also been named to The Sporting News' "100 Most Powerful People in Sports" on multiple occasions.