An outdoor amphitheater in Inverness that once drew hundreds of people to concerts and operettas but has fallen into disrepair in recent decades will be revitalized to host a Shakespearean comedy this summer.
Sharron Drake, who produced the play “The Heiress” at the Dance Palace Community Center in May, launched a crowdfunding campaign this week to raise $5,000 for the project. She estimates that $3,000 will cover the costs of clearing weeds and fixing the theater, located at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church; $1,000 will fund the six performances of “Much Ado About Nothing”; and another $800 will go toward facilities rentals.
Ms. Drake is looking forward to the production, in which she will play Beatrice. But she also said the project was “sort of the first phase of what we hope will be a more realized performance venue.”
She is holding a work party this Saturday at 10 a.m. to clear weeds and repair the foundation and the benches.
The amphitheater has barely been used for the past 40 years, and it shows. When Ms. Drake and her husband, Matt Gallagher, went looking for it, “We couldn’t find it anywhere,” she said. A woman at the church kindly helped them locate the area. “She sort of pointed to this big mess of weeds and overgrowth,” Ms. Drake said.
Historian Jack Mason built the amphitheater in 1965, and the following year the new Inverness Music Festival, part of the Inverness Fair, organized concerts in the church and the outdoor venue. The festival, run by Woodacre musician Rae McNally, was a booming success: 250 people filled the bench seats and more concert-goes stood on the hillside to watch local musicians and a performance of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio “Creation.”
For the next 10 years, numerous performances took place at the theater. (They were free until 1968, when the music festival started charging a few dollars in admission.) In 1970, attendees watched “The Bartered Bride,” a comic opera set in a Bohemian village in the 1800s. In 1971 they were treated to performances of “Madame Butterfly,” solo recitals, and a Bach mass.
Molly Noble, who spent summers in Inverness as a child, recalled watching a performance of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” “It was pretty magical…as a kid to see something like that in that intimate stage,” Ms. Noble said.
Locals fixed up the amphitheater in 1975, after it went unused for two years as the festival drifted to eastern Marin. But it appears that the amphitheater was last used for the festival in 1976; in 1977 it moved to the Red Barn (now the Green Barn) and Mr. McNally, just 48 years old, died the next year.
West Marin School also hosted graduations at the amphitheater during the 1970s. Only a few rare events have been held there in the last 40 years; realtor Robert Cardwell, for instance, cleared the land himself in 1998 for his wedding.
George Rangtisch, who sits on the church’s vestry, said a declining population of parishioners has contributed to the neglect. “In recent times, we’ve let it get neglected, overgrown. Unfortunately, we didn’t have numbers to deal with it, or the finances, until Sharron came on the scene,” Mr. Rangtisch said.
“We’re really excited about it,” he added. “We’re small in number, but it’s important to connect with the community. We don’t want to be exclusive.”
To donate, visit kickstarter.com/projects/101168817/a-kingdom-for-a-stage-much-ado-about-nothing.