Celebrate '100 Years of the Mountain Play" at Library First Friday Event

A century ago, people trekked eight miles up Mt. Tam – or boarded the Gravity Train – to  a play at the Sydney B. Cushing Amphitheater on the northwest face of the mountain.

After that first summer in 1913, the Mountain Play Association was born, and transformed the amphitheater into a 4,000-seat serpentine stone venue that continues to feature renditions of popular Broadway musicals as people from across Marin picnic, hike, relax in the sun, and enjoy quality musical theater on the mountain. 

The Mountain Play is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and the Mill Valley Public Library will host a special First Friday event on April 5 honoring one of the oldest non-profit theater companies in the Bay Area.

The evening features host Jay Manley, American musical theater scholar and 2013 Mountain Play Director, and Sara Pearson, Executive Director of the Mountain Play Association.

“100 Years of the Mountain Play” will be part presentation, part performance, and part retrospective. Following a free wine reception in the library’s main reading room, Manley will discuss the upcoming production of The Sound of Music, Mountain Play performers will sing selections from past shows, and Pearson will speak and show slides of the Mountain Play’s past 100 years. The event will be followed by a question and answer session.

The library will also have a drawing at the event to give away 2 pairs of "good any day" tickets to the Mt. Play. Everyone attending will also go home with a free vintage Mountain Play T-shirt.

Historical photographs and ephemera from 100 years of the Moutain Play's history will also be on display that night and through the end of April in the library's Lower-Level Art Gallery.

IF YOU GO:

• What: “100 Years of the Mountain Play”
• Where: Mill Valley Public Library Main Reader Room
• When: Doors will open to registered guests at 6:30 pm for a free wine reception, which will continue after the show. The doors will open to the non-registered waitline at 6:45 pm if space is available.
• Registration: Entry is free and open to the public, and limited to adults and high school students. To register, call 415-389-4292, x203 or sign up online at http://www.millvalleylibrary.org.

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