Mountain Play Association


The Mountain Play Association is a 5013 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheater on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The stone amphitheater, named for the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway, 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.
The Mountain Play presents one musical a year, in May and June. In 2014, they presented South Pacific, from May 18 through June 15. Past productions have included Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof, and Hair.
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."

History

First performance

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 Mountain Play produced was Abraham and Isaac. Members of the audience hiked the eight miles from Mill Valley or steamed up the mountain on the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway, the "Crookedest Railroad in the World." The Mountain Play Association was formed the following year. Congressman William Kent, who owned the land on the mountain where the amphitheater stood, was one of its vice presidents.

List of performances http://mountainplay.org/about-us/history/past-productions/

Performance DatesYearPlay
Summer2019Grease
May 20, 27, June 3, 9, 10, 172018Mamma Mia
Summer2017Beauty and the Beast
Hair
Summer2016West Side Story
Summer2015Peter Pan
Summer2014South Pacific
Summer2013The Sound of Music
Summer2012The Music Man
Summer2011Hairspray
Summer2010Guys and Dolls
Summer2009Man of La Mancha
Summer2008Wizard of Oz
Summer2007Hair
Summer2006Fiddler on the Roof
Summer2004My Fair Lady
Summer2003Annie
Summer2002Bye Bye Birdie
Summer2001Oliver!
Summer2000A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Summer1999West Side Story
Summer1998Hello Dolly
Summer1997South Pacific
Summer1996My Fair Lady
Summer1995Guys & Dolls
Summer1994Fiddler on the Roof
Summer1993The Music Man
Summer1992Oklahoma!
Summer1991Wizard of Oz
Summer1990Anything Goes
Summer1989Brigadoon
Summer1988South Pacific
Summer1987King & I
Summer1986Peter Pan
Summer1985The Sound of Music
Summer1984Fiddler on the Roof
Summer1983The Music Man
Summer1982Oklahoma!
Summer1981Annie Get Your Gun & Henry V
Summer1980Carnival
Summer1979Indians
Summer1978Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Summer1977Clothes
Summer1976Celebration '76 : American music and dance retrospective
Summer1975Music of America
Summer1974Rough an' Ready
Summer1973Picnic and hike, guest of honor State Senator Peter Behr excerpts from Oklahoma! and Jacques Brel
Summer1972Rough an' Ready
Summer1971Playboy of the Western World
Summer1970Tamalpa
Summer1969The World We Live In
Summer1968Alice Through the Looking Glass
Summer1967Kismet
Summer1966Peer Gynt
Summer1965Rough an' Ready
Summer1964Flamenca
Summer1963Tamalpa
Summer1962Rip of the Mountain
Summer1961Robin Hood
Summer1960Alice in Wonderland
Summer1959The Pied Piper
Summer1958Rough an' Ready
Summer1957Tamalpa
Summer1956The Birds
Summer1955The World We Live In
Summer1954The Tempest
Summer1953Tamalpa
Summer1952Land of Oz
Summer1951A Thousand Years Ago
Summer1950Robin Hood
Summer1949Rough an' Ready
Summer1948If I Were King
Summer1947Alice in Wonderland
Summer1946Tamalpa
1945No play
1944No play
1943No play
1942No play
Summer1941A Thousand Years Ago
Summer1940The World We Live In
Summer1939The Valiant Cossack
Summer1938Tamalpa
Summer1937Thunder in Paradise
Summer1936Androcles and the Lion
Summer1935The World We Live In
Summer1934The Girl of the Golden West
Summer1933The Daughter of Jorio
Summer1932Rob Roy
Summer1931The Trail of the Padres
Summer1930The Sunken Bell
Summer1929Peer Gynt
Summer1928Flamenca
Summer1927The Gods of the Mountain
Summer1926Rip Van Winkle
Summer1925Drake
1924No play
Summer1923Tamalpa
Summer1922The Pied Piper
Summer1921Tamalpa
Summer1920As You Like It
Summer1919Tally-Ho
Summer1918Robin Hood
Summer1917Jeppe-on-the-Hill
Summer1916William Tell
Summer1915Rip Van Winkle
Summer1914Shakuntala
Summer1913Abraham and Isaac

Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheater

In 1916, Kent deeded the theater to the MPA. Twenty years later, MPA turned the theater over to the state park, which then surrounded it, and over the next ten years the Civilian Conservation Corps worked to install the massive serpentine stones that now form the 4000-seat Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheater. The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Since 1977, when Marilyn Smith took over as executive director, the Mountain Play presented Broadway musicals on the mountain.
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.