part of the fun throughout the day.
“In many ways, it will look like a
Mountain Play day,” Pearson says.
However, she adds, “Just by adding
one new show, we’ve reached out to
a whole new group of people. We
want everyone to come and enjoy
the Mountain Play. Our culture has
always been, and will always be,
really deeply rooted in how we can
include people.”
Beauty and the Beast
Face painting is part of the pre-show entertainment at the Mountain Play.
The anniversary celebration will be
more refined than the gathering in
1967, but it will retain the spirit of
that seminal year with live bands
and a concert version of Hair,
the daring and irreverent rock
musical from the late 1960s, on the
Main Stage in the afternoon. The
performance, with Jeff Wiesen as
director, David Möschler as musical
director and choreography by Zoe
Swenson-Graham, will include the
entire playlist of songs, but none of
the famed nudity. “The main thing
is the songs,” says Sara Pearson,
executive director of the Mountain
Play, who explains that daytime
lighting isn’t conducive to bare
bodies on stage, and the concert
Daniel Rubio portrays the Beast in
Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’.
12 MARIN ARTS & CULTURE
version doesn’t include the staging.
Rather, to meet the challenge of
doing two different shows on the
same stage on consecutive days, the
performance will take place on the
Beauty and the Beast set, and the
hippies will take over the castle.
The grove that usually serves as a
play area for the Mountain Play
will serve as a second stage for live
music, stiltwalkers, face-painting
and food and drink, and will be
Disney’s Beauty
and the Beast
is the more
traditional family
fare that the
Mountain Play’s
audiences love
and expect.
It’s an old and familiar story put to
music with a moral that’s subtle, but
will resonate with young audiences.
Ultimately, Pearson observes, it’s a
tale of the strength of character it
takes to see the value of a person,
even though it’s hidden. “The lesson
that you learn is that it’s important to
look beneath the surface to see who’s
really in there,” she says, adding that
The Amphitheatre on Mt. Tam
The Mountain Play’s first show took place in 1913. The outdoor
theater was popular at the time, and it was a success from the outset,
with 1,200 people taking the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway’s gravity
car to travel up the mountain from Mill Valley to see Abraham and
Isaac, a 14th century mystery play, and scenes from Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night. In 1916, William Kent, who owned the land, gave it
to the Mountain Play Association, which turned it over to California
State Parks in 1936. In the 1930s, with the aid of Works Progress
Administration (WPA) funding, the Civilian Conservation Corps began
a 10-year project to install the huge serpentine boulders that serve as
seating. Emerson Knight was the designer, and he based his plans on an
ancient Greek amphitheater, while taking into account the mountain
environment. The amphitheater is named for one of hikers in a group
that happened upon the spot in 1912 and decided it was a good place
to put on a play.
The Mountain Play’s history is preserved in the Anne T. Kent California
Room at the Civic Center Library.