"Our company's survived 20 years—it's old enough to vote and be drafted," King jokes. "It's gone through its teenage years. We've gone through all those pangs that you feel when you're raising a kid, and it's a phenomenal feeling to realize that 20 years later, we're still going. We never thought it would last this long."

In 1980, a well-received production of David Mamet's American Buffalo, which King and his actor friends staged in a loft above downtown San Jose's Eulipia restaurant, helped plant the seeds for the Stage Company. The San Jose Repertory Company, later known as the San José Repertory Theatre, was so impressed with King's staging of American Buffalo that its members promised to give King a second stage focusing on edgier off-Broadway plays like Mamet's works. When the second stage didn't materialize as promised, King went ahead and co-founded the San Jose Stage Company with partner Bobby Pellerin.

In the past two decades, the company has become acclaimed for its productions of works like John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Anthony Clarvoe's The Living and the musical comedy Angry Housewives, about middle-aged housewives who form a punk-rock band.

King's wife, Stage Company Executive Director Kathleen King, once saw a production of Angry Housewives in Santa Cruz, and she enjoyed it so much she persuaded the Stage Company to produce it in 1989. Angry Housewives ended up becoming the longest-running play in San Jose stage history, with its 28-month run. According to Randall King, the musical "saved our butts."

Times for mid-size theaters like the Stage Company have always been hard, but according to King, they've gotten harder and much more competitive.

"Because of the lack of really good material, everyone's competing for that show that doesn't have a huge cast, has a very topical and important theme and has a power and punch," says King, who adds that the mid-size theater scene "used to be a cakewalk, but now it's a wrestling match."

To keep itself from getting into a WWF-style smackdown, the company has put on the annual "Monday Night Live" fundraiser, in which South Bay politicians and officials like San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith appear onstage and poke fun at themselves in Saturday Night Live­style sketches. The show, which began in 1993, raises between $60,000 and $80,000 each year.

"Over the years, it went from being something that only a few people wanted to participate in to something that sells out to the rafters. People are wondering who's going to get to be the guest host this year. It's really a night for the actors, where we get to pretend in a weird way that we're Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. It's live. We don't get to rehearse. We never know what's going to happen. Neither does the audience. It's turned into a hoot," King says.

According to King, a lot has changed in the Bay Area mid-size theater scene since he formed the Stage Company. He lists as an example the recent decrease in funds from corporate sponsors of theater groups.

"It's always a struggle, and we have to work around the clock to keep this boat afloat. It doesn't matter where it's leaking—it's just leaking," King says. "I'm only saying that because I saw The Perfect Storm last night, and I said, 'My God, I feel like that all the time! We're keeping the boat rolling, and we're going down.' But we bobbed back up and survived."