Marin’s 111-year-old Mountain Play goes on hiatus

Audiences have watched Mountain Play performances at Mount Tamalpais State Park for more than a century.

Cast members performed musicals, comedies and Shakespeare classics almost every late spring or early summer since 1913. The home stage is the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, which has nearly 4,000 seats and sits almost 2,000 feet above sea level.

A few Mountain Play seasons were canceled during the hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak of 1924; World War II, when the Army used the theater grounds; and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, financial challenges and a drop in attendance since the pandemic have prompted organizers to cancel plans for the 2025 production. The Mountain Play Association is using the hiatus to focus on fundraising and reimagining what the Mountain Play should become.

“We want this organization to be around for another hundred years,” said Eileen Grady, the Mountain Play’s executive director and artistic producer. “It’s an absolutely treasured and beloved tradition.”

She added that her nonprofit will seek comments from the community on what the future should be.

“We need to evolve in this new world and we certainly don’t want to let go of any of the things that are beautiful, wonderful, magical and working,” Grady said. “I think it’s important to ask the community what those things are. It’s more than just what type of shows that you want to see, it’s what you truly want that experience to be.”

The plan is to begin the process at the Mountain Play Association’s annual gala on Nov. 9 at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon. Following the gala, the nonprofit will look at using focus groups and surveys, Grady said.

“What I’d say for everybody is to stay tuned, because we’re not disappearing, we’re not closing the doors,” she said. “We’re excited to be able to sit down, take a deep breath and listen to the community.”

Elisabeth Ptak, author of “Marin’s Mountain Play, 100 Years of Theatre on Mount Tamalpais,” interviewed the Mountain Play’s cast and crew members who were involved in productions over the years.

“They all agreed: Creating theater in that exhilaratingly beautiful location, among the coastal oaks and Douglas fir trees, is an extraordinary experience,” Ptak said. “The show must go on.”

Steven Price, executive producer of the Ross Valley Players, recalls the Mountain Play being a part of life in Marin County where he grew up. He worked with Grady to co-produce musicals at the Barn Theater in Ross.

“My impression is that the pandemic and fire danger and weather and people’s habits have changed things so that it’s just too much trouble to get up on Mount Tam for a show,” Price said.

Lesley Currier, managing director of the Marin Shakespeare Co., said that she’s saddened but not surprised by the Mountain Play’s hiatus. She noted that many Bay Area theater companies have been struggling after returning to production after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Marin Shakespeare Co. itself needs to raise more funds to keep going, Currier said.

“I just encourage anyone who thinks they like live theater to give it a try, whatever theater it is,” she said. “Go to the theater and see a play, and remember what it’s like to sit with other warm bodies in a space and watch talented human beings telling deep, thoughtful and moving stories.”

Sara Pearson, co-president of the Mountain Play Association board, recalled attending a Mountain Play performance for the first time in 1999, when she saw a production of “West Side Story.” She added that she was sorry it took her so long to discover the Mountain Play.

Pearson said attending performances is a tradition for families in Marin County.

“But now, there is a whole new population in Marin of families who are kind of transplant-y and didn’t grow up here,” Pearson said. “I think it’s been an interesting challenge for the Mountain Play to reach those potential audiences and teach them about this treasure that we have in this county on top of the mountain.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also changed theater habits. Pearson said that since the Mountain Play returned to the stage in 2022, audience sizes have been less than half of what they were before the pandemic.

“Regardless of the wonderful shows we put up in the last three years, it may be that we can’t expect to have 3,500 people up there any more for a particular day,” she said. “Our position is that we go and figure out what the future will be like.”

Pearson said old traditions will remain.

“The tradition of gathering on the mountain with the community, the tradition of bringing theater to the next generation, those things are never going to end,” she said.