Theatre Rhinoceros

Theatre Rhinoceros holds the title of the longest-running professional queer theater in the world. It began its life in 1977 inside a leather bar in the South of Market district called The Black and Blue. The founders, Allan B. Estes Junior and Lanny Baugniet, started the company with a goal of staging productions that reflected the realities and joys of gay and lesbian life at a time when such stories were largely absent from mainstream stages. Their debut production was a play titled The West Street Gang.