Forest Theater

The Forest Theater is an outdoor amphitheater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Founded in 1910, it is one of the oldest outdoor theaters west of the Rocky Mountains. The facility hosts events produced by the Forest Theater Guild, Pacific Repertory Theatre (PacRep), Monterey Symphony and other arts organizations, and films and civic events. It also includes a smaller indoor theatre and a school.

Herbert Heron helped to build, and began to produce, plays at the theater beginning in 1910. These included original and contemporary works and classic ones, such as Shakespeare plays. Another early playwright and director was Mary Austin. Between 1915 and 1924, the theater staged 50 plays and musicals. In 1924, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, which purchased the land, formed the Forest Theater Corporation to produce the plays. During the Great Depression, the theater accumulated debt. With repairs needed, in 1937, the Club deeded the theater to the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea to obtain Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds for renovations. The WPA rebuilt the theater and created an indoor facility beneath the outdoor stage.

The site re-opened in 1942 as The Carmel Shakespeare Festival, with Heron as its director. Except for the World War II years of 1943–44 and 1946, productions continued. In 1949, Heron and villagers started the Forest Theater Guild, a community organization to produce plays and help the city maintain the theater. In 1958, the city council instituted an Arts Commission to operate the theater. Heron continued to direct, write and star. The Guild disbanded, and Forest Theater ceased most operations, in 1961. The city used the site for such purposes as Boy Scout camps. From 1968 to 2010, Marcia Hovick's Children's Experimental Theatre (CET) leased the indoor theater to train young people. In 1969, Hovick formed the Staff Players Repertory Company to stage classic drama in the Indoor Forest Theater. In 1971, a second Forest Theater Guild was established and soon began to produce summer musicals and community plays on the outdoor stage.

In 1984, PacRep started producing classics, children's theater and musicals on the outdoor stage. PacRep reactivated the Carmel Shakespeare Festival in 1990 and continued to stage productions every September and October, expanding into August in 2000. Over the last decades of the 20th century, the Forest Theater Guild also produced over 20 plays. In 1997, the Guild began Films in the Forest, a film series. In 2011, after CET ceased operations, the school was leased to PacRep for its School of Dramatic Arts. In 2014, Forest Theater was closed for renovations. In 2016, the theater began performances again, but in 2019, the site's manager cancelled the Guild's 12-week theatre season, offering only 12 dates for film presentations. In 2021, the theater reopened with a seven-week season produced by PacRep. The next year, PacRep became the manager of the facility.