 Pichel's first work in musical theatre was as a technical director for the theater of the San Francisco Bohemian Club; he also helped with the annual summer pageant, held at the elite Bohemian Grove, in which up to 300 of its wealthy, influential members from finance and government participate.With this expertise, he was also hired by Wallace Rice as the main narrator in Rice's ambitious pageant play, "Primavera, the Masque of Santa Barbara" in 1920.He founded the Berkeley Playhouse in 1923 and served as its director until 1926.