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Mount Tamalpais Mountain Theater Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre | |
![]() The Mountain Play stage set up for a presentation of the musical Annie in 2003. | |
Location | Mount Tamalpais State Park, 3801 Panoramic Hwy., Mill Valley, Marin County, California, United States |
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Coordinates | 37°54′45″N122°36′30″W / 37.91258°N 122.60844°W |
Built | 1930s |
Architect | Emerson Knight |
Website | www |
NRHP reference No. | 14001234 |
Added to NRHP | February 2, 2015 |
The Mountain Play Association (MPA, or Mountain Play) is a 501(c)3 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheater (formerly the Mount Tamalpais Mountain Theater) within Mount Tamalpais State Park on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, United States. The stone amphitheater, named for the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, [1] is at an elevation of 2,000 feet and has 4,000 seats.
The organization was founded in 1913, and is a member of Theatre Bay Area and the North Bay Theatre Group. John C. Catlin became the first president of the Mountain Play Association. He financed the first play in the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre in 1913. [2] [3] The Mountain Play presents one musical a year, in May and June. The mission statement of the Mountain Play Association reads, "The Mountain Play Association’s mission is to produce an annual, spectacular, outdoor theatrical experience that nurtures an appreciation of Mt. Tamalpais, involves and strengthens the community, and builds on decades of tradition."
The theater group venue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 2, 2015, for architecture and cultural history. [4]
The organization was founded in 1913, and is a member of Theatre Bay Area and the North Bay Theatre Group. The venue was named for Sidney B. Cushing, the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway. [1] Prior to the 1930s and the construction of the open air amphitheatre, the audience sat on a bowl-shaped lawn. [5] The venue is located just below the 2,571-foot East Peak. [1]
One of the oldest non-profit theater companies in the area, the Mountain Play staged its first theatrical performances in the natural amphitheater on top of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County in 1913. The first performance was financed by politician John C. Catlin, the first president of the Mountain Play Association. [3] Congressman William Kent, who owned the land on the mountain where the amphitheater stood, was one of its vice presidents. Garnet Holme served as the theatre director, from 1913 until his death in 1929. [6] [7]
The first Mountain Play produced was Abraham and Isaac . [8] Members of the audience hiked the eight miles from Mill Valley, or steamed up the mountain on the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway, once billed as the "Crookedest Railroad in the World." [9]
Performance Dates | Year | Play(s) | Notes [10] |
---|---|---|---|
May 21, 28; June 4, 10, 11, 18 | 2023 | Into the Woods | [11] |
May 22, 29; June 5, 11, 12, 19 | 2022 | Hello, Dolly! | [12] [13] |
2021 | No play (theater closed for COVID-19 safety) | [14] [7] | |
2020 | |||
Summer | 2019 | Grease | |
May 20, 27, June 3, 9, 10, 17 | 2018 | Mamma Mia | [15] |
Summer | 2017 | Beauty and the Beast, and Hair | [16] [17] |
Summer | 2016 | West Side Story | |
Summer | 2015 | Peter Pan | |
Summer | 2014 | South Pacific | |
Summer | 2013 | The Sound of Music (100th anniversary) | [8] |
Summer | 2012 | The Music Man | |
Summer | 2011 | Hairspray | |
Summer | 2010 | Guys and Dolls | [18] |
Summer | 2009 | Man of La Mancha | |
Summer | 2008 | Wizard of Oz | |
Summer | 2007 | Hair | [19] |
Summer | 2006 | Fiddler on the Roof | |
Summer | 2005 | Oklahoma! | |
Summer | 2004 | My Fair Lady | |
Summer | 2003 | Annie | |
Summer | 2002 | Bye Bye Birdie | |
Summer | 2001 | Oliver! | |
Summer | 2000 | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | |
Summer | 1999 | West Side Story | |
Summer | 1998 | Hello, Dolly! | |
Summer | 1997 | South Pacific | |
Summer | 1996 | My Fair Lady | |
Summer | 1995 | Guys & Dolls | |
Summer | 1994 | Fiddler on the Roof | |
Summer | 1993 | The Music Man | |
Summer | 1992 | Oklahoma! | |
Summer | 1991 | Wizard of Oz | |
Summer | 1990 | Anything Goes | |
Summer | 1989 | Brigadoon | |
Summer | 1988 | South Pacific | |
Summer | 1987 | King & I (75th Anniversary) | |
Summer | 1986 | Peter Pan | |
Summer | 1985 | The Sound of Music | |
Summer | 1984 | Fiddler on the Roof | |
Summer | 1983 | The Music Man | |
Summer | 1982 | Oklahoma! | |
Summer | 1981 | Annie Get Your Gun & Henry V | |
Summer | 1980 | Carnival | |
Summer | 1979 | Indians | |
Summer | 1978 | Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | |
Summer | 1977 | Clothes | |
Summer | 1976 | Celebration '76 : American music and dance retrospective | |
Summer | 1975 | Music of America | |
Summer | 1974 | Rough an' Ready | |
Summer | 1973 | Picnic and hike, guest of honor State Senator Peter Behr excerpts from Oklahoma! and Jacques Brel | |
Summer | 1972 | Rough an' Ready | |
Summer | 1971 | Playboy of the Western World | |
Summer | 1970 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1969 | The World We Live In | |
Summer | 1968 | Alice Through the Looking Glass | |
Summer | 1967 | Kismet | |
Summer | 1966 | Peer Gynt | |
Summer | 1965 | Rough an' Ready | |
Summer | 1964 | Flamenca | |
Summer | 1963 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1962 | Rip of the Mountain | |
Summer | 1961 | Robin Hood | |
Summer | 1960 | Alice in Wonderland | |
Summer | 1959 | The Pied Piper | |
Summer | 1958 | Rough an' Ready | |
Summer | 1957 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1956 | The Birds | |
Summer | 1955 | The World We Live In | |
Summer | 1954 | The Tempest | |
Summer | 1953 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1952 | Land of Oz | |
Summer | 1951 | A Thousand Years Ago | |
Summer | 1950 | Robin Hood | |
Summer | 1949 | Rough an' Ready | |
Summer | 1948 | If I Were King | |
Summer | 1947 | Alice in Wonderland | |
Summer | 1946 | Tamalpa | |
1945 | No play because the grounds were in use by U.S. Army | [7] | |
1944 | |||
1943 | |||
1942 | |||
Summer | 1941 | A Thousand Years Ago | |
Summer | 1940 | The World We Live In | |
Summer | 1939 | The Valiant Cossack | |
Summer | 1938 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1937 | Thunder in Paradise | |
Summer | 1936 | Androcles and the Lion | |
Summer | 1935 | The World We Live In (from Ross Valley Players) | |
Summer | 1934 | The Girl of the Golden West | |
Summer | 1933 | The Daughter of Jorio | |
Summer | 1932 | Rob Roy | |
Summer | 1931 | The Trail of the Padres | |
Summer | 1930 | The Sunken Bell | |
Summer | 1929 | Peer Gynt | |
Summer | 1928 | Flamenca | |
Summer | 1927 | The Gods of the Mountain | |
Summer | 1926 | Rip Van Winkle | |
Summer | 1925 | Drake | |
1924 | No play due to hoof and mouth disease epidemic | [7] | |
Summer | 1923 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1922 | The Pied Piper | |
Summer | 1921 | Tamalpa | |
Summer | 1920 | As You Like It | |
Summer | 1919 | Tally-Ho | |
Summer | 1918 | Robin Hood and The Three Kings | [5] |
Summer | 1917 | Jeppe-on-the-Hill | |
Summer | 1916 | William Tell | |
May | 1915 | Rip Van Winkle | [20] |
May | 1914 | Shakuntala | [21] |
Summer | 1913 | Abraham and Isaac | [8] |
In 1916, Kent deeded the theater to the MPA. Twenty years later, MPA turned the theater over to the Mount Tamalpais State Park, which then surrounded it. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to install the massive serpentine stones that now form the 4000-seat Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheater. [1] [22]
In 1930, the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway stopped running. [7] It was the site of the KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival, a historic rock music festival in June 1967. [1]
Since 1977, when Marilyn Smith took over as executive director, the Mountain Play presented Broadway musicals on the mountain. [7] In 2014, they presented South Pacific , from May 18 through June 15. Past productions have included Hairspray , Fiddler on the Roof , and Hair .
In 1980, the Mountain Play introduced sign language interpretation at its May performances on Mt. Tamalpais. In the early 1980s, special accommodations were developed for patrons with wheelchairs, including the grading of a path to the theater and the construction of a shaded wheelchair platform. In 1993, the Mountain Play expanded its 10-year-old programs for the visually impaired to include professional describers who provide simultaneous audio description. Equipment was upgraded in 1997, which enables users to sit anywhere in the theater rather than in a specially designated area.
A "Day on the Mountain" outreach program was introduced in 1993 to introduce low-income/at-risk children both to musical theater and to Mt. Tamalpais. Working with Bay Area social service agencies, the Mountain Play provides tickets and transportation to the show, pre-performance workshops and guided nature hikes on the mountain. Since 1995, the Mountain Play has also presented an annual performance at the Redwoods retirement center in Mill Valley for an audience of elderly patrons who can no longer make it up to the mountain.
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about 14 miles (23 km) north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and 52 miles (84 km) from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census.
Muir Beach is a census designated place (CDP), unincorporated community, and beach on the Pacific Ocean. The community is located 16.5 miles (26.6 km) northwest of San Francisco in western Marin County, California, United States. Unlike many other entities in the area, it is not named directly in honor of conservationist John Muir; instead, it was named after Muir Woods National Monument to capitalize on the latter's popularity. The population was 304 at the 2020 census. The community itself flanks the northwest side of the beach.
Stinson Beach is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, on the west coast of the United States. Stinson Beach is located 2.5 miles (4 km) east-southeast of Bolinas, at an elevation of 26 feet (8 m). The population of the Stinson Beach CDP was 541 at the 2020 census.
Strawberry is a census-designated place (CDP) and an unincorporated district of Marin County, California, United States. It shares a ZIP code (94941) with Mill Valley and falls within its school districts; however, it is considered within the sphere of influence of the town of Tiburon. It is largely separated from Mill Valley by U.S. Route 101. Its population was 5,447 at the 2020 census.
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 11,492 at the 2020 census.
Muir Woods National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service and named after naturalist John Muir. It is located on Mount Tamalpais near the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County, California. The Monument is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and is 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco. It protects 554 acres (224 ha), of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old growth coast redwood forests, one of a few such stands remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mount Tamalpais, known locally as Mount Tam, is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin Municipal Water District watershed, and National Park Service land, such as Muir Woods.
A gravity railroad or gravity railway is a railroad on a slope that allows cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The speed of the cars is controlled by a braking mechanism on one or more cars on the train. The cars are then hauled back up the slope using animal power, a locomotive or a stationary engine and a cable, a chain or one or more wide, flat iron bands. A much later example in California used 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge steam engines to pull gravity cars back to the summit of Mt. Tamalpais.
Mount Tamalpais State Park is a California state park, located in Marin County, California. The primary feature of the park is the 2,571 feet (784 m) Mount Tamalpais. The park contains mostly redwood and oak forests. The mountain itself covers around 25,000 acres (100 km2). There are about 60 miles (97 km) of hiking trails, which are connected to a larger, 200-mile (320 km) network of trails in neighboring public lands. The park received 564,000 visitors as of 2003. Muir Woods National Monument is surrounded by the state park.
Tamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost 2,500 feet (760 m) above Mill Valley.
The Marin Hills are a series of steep high ridges and peaks in southern Marin County. They are a part of the long Pacific Coast Ranges mountain system. The centerpoint of these hills is the 2,571 foot Mount Tamalpais near Mill Valley. The hills are bordered to the north by the Santa Rosa Plain and Laguna de Santa Rosa; to the east by San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay; to the south by Golden Gate Strait; and to the west by the San Andreas Fault, running through Tomales Bay, Olema Valley, Bolinas Lagoon, and Stinson Beach. Parts of the hills are protected for their scenic beauty by Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The many ridges and peaks of these hills form a dramatic backdrop to the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco skyline, and several towns around Richardson Bay when viewed from the south.
The Tamalpais Union High School District or TUHSD provides high school education to students residing in ten elementary districts in central and southern Marin County, California and parts of West Marin. The headquarters are on the property of Redwood High School in Larkspur, California.
The Mill Valley School District is located 13 miles north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California. The district has 5 elementary schools and 1 middle school with an enrollment of approximately 3,200 students in grades K through 8. Four of the schools are located within the City of Mill Valley, while two are located in the adjacent unincorporated areas of Strawberry and Tamalpais Valley.
Mount Tamalpais and the surrounding areas in Marin County, California are recognized as the birthplace of the modern mountain biking industry. Other Northern California hill-adjacent suburban areas had small cohorts.
The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival was an event held June 10 and 11, 1967, at the 4,000-seat Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre high on the south face of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. Although 20,000 tickets were reported to have been sold for the event, as many as 40,000 people may have actually attended the two-day concert, which was the first of a series of San Francisco–area cultural events known as the Summer of Love. The Fantasy Fair was influenced by the popular Renaissance Pleasure Faire and became a prototype for large scale multi-act outdoor rock music events now known as rock festivals.
The Mount Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway was a scenic tourist railway operating between Mill Valley and the east peak of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, covering a distance of 8.19 miles (13.18 km), with a 2.88-mile (4.63 km) spur line to the Muir Woods. The railroad was incorporated in January 1896, and closed in the summer of 1930. Originally planned as a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge electric trolley line, the railroad was powered by a succession of geared steam locomotives. Billed as the "Crookedest Railroad in the World", the line was renowned for its steep and serpentine route, winding through picturesque terrain to a mountaintop tavern providing first-class hospitality and panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite its popularity, the railway met its demise following a fire in 1929, and dwindling ridership when the automobile could finally drive to Tamalpais' summit.
Tamalpais Valley is an unincorporated community in Marin County, California.
The California Alpine Club (CAC) is an all-volunteer, outdoors-oriented social group centered in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas that organizes hiking, skiing, member dinners, and wilderness trips. Club members also manage the California Alpine Club Foundation, which gives grants to California-based wilderness preservation, conservation, outdoor recreation, and education projects.
The Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, also known as the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre or simply the Mountain Theatre, is a 4,000-seat open-air venue in Mount Tamalpais State Park, in Marin County, California, United States.
John Conyngham Catlin was an American lawyer and politician. He practiced law for more than thirty years, in Sacramento, San Francisco, and for a short time in Alaska. He was a former mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1932-1934, and served on the Carmel City Council in 1934.