Mountain Play 100 Years Book Release Party April 6, 2013

The Mountain Play Association is holding a book release party to celebrate their self-published book: Marin’s Mountain Play – One Hundred Years of Theatre on Mount Tamaplpais. West Marin author Elisabeth Ptak, and Mountain Play Association Executive Director, Sara Pearson, will be on hand to discuss the making of the book, the history of the Mountain Play, and the 100 year anniversary. Books will be available for purchase. The event will include a sing-along of favorites from this year's show, "The Sound of Music," with Mountain Play performers. There will also be ice cream sandwiches to purchase, created by pastry chef and cookbook author Claire Ptak with Bovine Bakery cookies and Straus Family Creamery ice cream. This event is co-sponsored by Point Reyes Books and WildNature Calendars and Cards.

About the Book: In 1913, a trio of intrepid hikers first proposed producing plays in a natural amphitheatre two thousand feet above sea level on Mount Tamalpais. The Mountain Play was born that year and—despite fog, rain, rattlesnakes, heat, cold, bomb threats, and financial worries—the annual shows continue to enchant audiences a century later.

Marin’s Mountain Play, One Hundred Years of Theatre on Mount Tamalpais describes the theatre’s lively history with historic photos accompanied by the delightful and dramatic stories of the people behind the plays—people like playwright Dan Totheroh who concocted a legend about a sleeping lady atop Mount Tam that, for better or worse, has become part of local lore. Like landscape architect Emerson Knight and the Civilian Conservation Corps members who built the theatre’s indigenous stone seating. Like actor John McDill, a towering figure both on stage and in real life. Like director James Dunn who brought his unique combination of sensitivity and ex-Marine sternness to the thirty plays he staged on the mountain. And like producer Marilyn Smith—at just four feet eleven inches, she was tiny in stature, but her ideas were big, and they helped revive the struggling organization which celebrates its one hundredth anniversary this year.

Official Website: http://www.dancepalace.org