Firehouse Arts Center

4444 Railroad Ave. Pleasanton, CA 94566

The City of Pleasanton owns and runs the Firehouse Arts Center. It houses a live entertainment theater with 220 seats (music, theatre, movies, comedy) as well as a 2000 sq. Two wide classrooms and ft. gallery. The facility’s operating hours are: Wednesday-Friday, 12:00-5:00 and Saturday, 11:00-3:00. Tickets for all performances can be purchased online at: www.firehousearts.org or by calling: (925) 931-4848, or during open hours in person at the Box Office.

Ideal for smaller performances

 Over the past few years, we have been to the small theater many times, and we have always had a great experience. The process of buying tickets online is easy, and the tickets for the bay area are actually very reasonable. In the auditorium there are only about 200 seats, including several balconies. . Their website says that the balconies might have obstructed access, but the usher said that’s not true, and that it’s almost completely a perfect view. Well, at the intermission we went up to the balcony and addressed there are seats available with the customer. A few seats are partially blocked by a post. If you’re short in height and if you are seating on the back of the balcony, you might have a hard time getting a great view.  So keep in mind when you order tickets that the upper balconies have some areas that are not perfect place for viewing. Our advice would be, pay a few more dollars and avoid this kind of problem. The seats are reasonably comfortable, and not too much squished together. It provides reasonable amount of legroom. You won’t feel that you are too close to your neighbor. There is a parking lot at the back of the theater, which is really convenient. We only had to walk about 3 minutes to the auditorium. Of course today it was raining, so it was 3 minutes long. But here’s the really great feature about this theater: Not only do they sell beer and wine, but you’re allowed to bring it inside the auditorium! Of course we took this opportunity right away.  Beer is $5 and wine is $8.

 So all in all, this is such a wonderful experience in a cozy little theater in downtown Pleasanton.  The concert here was a delightful experience, at a bargain-basement price! Anyone would also love to see a Shakespeare play here.