Former Pasadena Playhouse Executive Director Lars Hansen Dies at 60

Dan Bacalzo

Los Angeles

February 01, 2010

Lars Hansen

Lars Hansen, the Executive Director of Pasadena Playhouse from 1988 to 1999, died on Sunday, January 31,due to complications from liver cancer. He was 60 years old.

At Pasadena Playhouse, he produced more than 150 plays and musicals, including four which moved to Broadway: Mail, Accomplice, Solitary Confinement, and Twilight of the Golds.

Hansen was also former President of Theatre League Alliance (now LA Stage Alliance); Executive Director, Office of Cultural Relations, for the University of Southern California; publisher of LA Stage Magazine; Musical Director and Executive Director of Long Beach Civic Light Opera; Executive Director for California Music Theatre in Pasadena; Business Manager for New York City's Playwrights Horizons; and Administrative Director of American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia, among other arts-related positions.

He is survived by his partner, Anthony John Amendola, his brother Ralph J. Hansen, his sister-in-law Rebecca Robinson, his mother-in-law Anna Amendola, his sister-in-law Dominica Lawson, brother-in-law Richard Lawson, and nephew Christopher Lawson.

In lieu of flowers, tax deductable donations may be made in the memory of Lars Hansen to The Palm Springs Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 171, Palm Springs, CA 92263.