Marin’s Mountain Play launching $100K fundraising push

The Mountain Play Association has launched a $100,000 match fundraising challenge to help keep the tradition of more than a century of mountaintop performances alive.

In October, organizers placed the Mountain Play’s 2025 stage production on hiatus after experiencing six years of financial challenges and attendance that fell since the pandemic. They are now gathering ideas from the public on how to sustain it in the future.

“We’ve been around for 112 years, we don’t intend on going anywhere,” executive director Eileen Grady said. “The community does not want the Mountain Play to go away, and so we’re listening and asking for community support.”

Mountain Play Board President Sara Pearson said they are seeking to match a donation made by a small group of “legacy supporters.” Such supporters include Marin nonprofits Harbor Point Charitable Foundation and the Fred Gellert Family Foundation.

“They just stepped up to the plate and saw the need,” Pearson said.

The nonprofit is using its hiatus to look inward and listen to community supporters to help decide their future plans, she said. One consistent suggestion from supporters is to keep the Mountain Play at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Pearson and Grady pointed to the ongoing challenge of diminishing attendance for theater productions, music festivals and other artistic performances across the country. Grady noted last year’s closure of the 50-year-old California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda. She said that the public’s habit of leaving their homes for entertainment has changed since the pandemic as many now opt for streaming services.

“At some point, I think we’re all going to be hungry to gather together again,” Grady said. “I’m hoping we’re going to see a turnaround.”

Rising production costs also have been an ongoing dilemma for Mountain Play. Pearson said that costs for set construction materials doubled in the past 10 years. Labor costs also rose. Pearson said that her organizations always paid people who worked in productions.

“We’re a community theater, but we always hold ourselves to a professional standard,” she said.

Other costs such as transporting audience members to the amphitheater also arose. Pearson recalled a busing cost of $75,000 when she was the Mountain Play’s executive director. The recent cost is $125,000, she said.

Pearson noted the Mountain Play’s history of adapting to changes. She said they used to perform pageants and morality plays before dedicating themselves to musicals in the 1970s.

“I’m not afraid of pivoting,” Pearson said. “We’re responding to what the new world wants.”

This spring and summer, the Mountain Play Association plans to host two benefits that will include musical performances. A May 1 benefit at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, and a June 15 celebration, called, “Tradition” at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater are planned.

“It’s just a wonderful, giant, musical community picnic,” Grady said about the June 15 party at the mountain.

To donate, visit Mountainplay.org.