First, TheatreFirst was closing. Then, on a last-ditch hope, it seemed like it might be saved.

But now the small, 30-year-old Berkeley company plans to cease operations for good, at the end of September, the company announced Friday, Aug. 18.

Co-Artistic Directors Victoria Erville and Stephanie Prentice, who have been on the job since March, initially had intentions to shutter in June, citing a near-tripling of rent, from $565 to $1,500, at the Live Oak Theater, which TheatreFirst leases from the city of Berkeley. After receiving the new rent estimate, Erville told the city’s Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Department that her company couldn’t afford the increase and that she’d likely have to close.

“On one hand we pay a working wage to all actors and technicians,” she wrote in a June 23 email forwarded to the Chronicle. “On the other hand we have audience members that keep asking for $5 tickets,” adding, “Stephanie and I inherited a company that was struggling, and in truth I’m getting tired of fighting to make it work each month with almost no support.”

Molly Sokhom, an employee with the department, wrote back: “It would be sad if you could not continue.”

But after TheatreFirst declared its first plans to close, and the Chronicle wrote to Berkeley city officials, Communications Director Matthai K. Chakko walked back the parks department’s previous statement.

“There appears to be some misunderstanding based on informal discussions,” he said, adding that the parks department should not have given that $1,500 estimate in June, even though TheatreFirst already had a season planned.

Chakko also noted that the city gave emergency aid to its arts organizations twice during the pandemic, with TheatreFirst receiving $24,000 in 2020 and $26,000 in 2022.

In early July, TheatreFirst readied to resume lease negotiations, expressing cautious optimism that it might not have to close after all. But now those hopes are dashed.

“We are unable to find a sustainable financial future for our small company,” Prentice and Erville said in a joint statement.

The two declined to be interviewed by the Chronicle.

On Monday, Aug. 21, Chakko confirmed the city is now seeking a new tenant.

Brendan Simon,who preceded Erville and Prentice at TheatreFirst’s helm, expressed grief.

“The void in the arts ecosystem will be felt by many,” he said. “Today, I especially mourn the loss of an incredibly special artistic home where female-bodied, BIPOC and LGBTQIA2+ people were heard and celebrated.”

Jon Tracy,Simon’s forerunner, noted that “TheatreFirst was many different companies over the years, and each iteration will have a special place in the Bay Area’s theater history.” He offered shoutouts to those who led the company over the years, who also include Clive Chafer, Dylan Russell and Michael Storm: “Each attempted to make art happen, which is always a revolutionary act.”

The company joins a rapidly growing list of local theaters that have shut their doors amid stubbornly slow pandemic recovery, which has meant rising costs, attendance at many companies still lagging far behind 2019 numbers and many practitioners leaving the Bay Area or the industry.Exit Theatreclosed its Eddy Street venue in December;PianoFighthosted its last public event in March; andBay Area Children’s Theatreclosed in May, after unveiling anemergency fundraising campaignjust weeks earlier.

TheatreFirst was best known for an array of initiatives that helped rewrite industry standards regionwide, many instituted by Tracy. In 2016, it setracial and gender quotasfor its board and all hires. In 2018, it created an across-the-board$15 hourly wage,a rarity in an industry where even veterans might get paid a stipend of a few hundred dollars for months of work; that wage included high schoolers cast in shows and auditioning actors who weren’t cast yet (or might not be). In 2020, Tracy stepped aside with the explicit goal of building apipeline for leaders of colorin his wake; Prentice and Erville were the second generation of that effort.

The company’s final project is a reading of “W.M.B.,” staged Friday-Sunday, Aug. 25-27. “W.M.B.” imagines a dystopian (yet not too distant) virus-ravaged world in which rich pregnant women pay to isolate themselves in contagion-free corporate cloisters while the have-nots suffer outside and revolution brews.

Previously, Marisela Treviño Orta’s script was to have been the first full production in the company’s 2023-24 season, followed by a piece byColman Domingoand then a festival for female playwrights of color.

Oakland playwrightCleavon Smith,谁说TheatreFirst”的地方给我吗a chance to develop as a writer,” is adamant that the company’s closing doesn’t mean it failed.

“We fail them, plain and simple,” he said. “We fail them by not supporting them.”

Reach Lily Janiak:ljaniak@sfchronicle.com