Monterey Bay Area Performing Arts Guide

All numbers are in the 831 area code unless otherwise noted.

At right — Music Director Max Bragado Darman joined Monterey Symphony in 2004.

THEATER

Carl Cherry Center for the Arts
Fourth St. and Guadalupe, Carmel
(831) 624-7491.
This intimate venue was established in 1949 to support experimental fine arts and sciences. Visiting exhibits, speakers, and an array of theater productions are timely and engaging, with an objective of casting light on contemporary aesthetic and intellectual issues.

Children’s Experimental Theater (CET) and Staff Players Repertory Company
The Indoor Forest Theater, Carmel
(831) 624-1531.
Artistic director Marcia Gambrell Hovick founded CET in 1960 to encourage students in grades kindergarten through 12 to develop creative confidence through theater. Staff Players Repertory Company was founded in 1969 to provide financial support to CET. It is the oldest continually producing theater company in Carmel. Most on-site activities take place at the historical Indoor Forest Theatre in Carmel-by-the-Sea. This cozy 60-seat theater is perfect for presentation of great theater with a personal touch.

Forest Theater Guild
Mountain View and Santa Rita, Carmel
(831) 626-1681.
Mary Austin, author of The Arrowmaker, founded the guild in 1910. She, along with poet/dramatist Herbert Heron and author Michael Williams, shared a vision of an open-air theater where plays could be produced entirely by locals. To this day, local groups produce and perform plays throughout the summer at this beautiful site in the forest of pines and cypress, the oldest outdoor theater west of the Rockies. Come early, bring your own picnic dinner, and dress warmly.

Magic Circle Center for the Arts
8 El Caminito, Carmel Valley
(831) 659-1108.
This performing arts center provides accessible, ongoing, high quality, live entertainment. It presents three comedies, two dramas, and a music concert series annually in an intimate 60-seat theater.

New Wharf Theatre
1 Wharf #2 (at the far end of the wharf), Monterey
(831) 649-2332
This 30-year-old small-venue theater, once dubbed by Greer Garson as “the best little theater in the country,” presents two family musicals each year. One runs for eight weeks in the spring and another runs for nine weeks in the summer.

Pacific Repertory Theatre
(831) 622-0100.
PacRep Theatre produces bold and daring interpretations of the great plays from the world stage — plays that engage, excite, and inspire. These dramatic productions are presented at various locations around the peninsula, including the Golden Bough Playhouse and the Outdoor Forest Theater in Carmel. Enjoy a worldclass theatrical experience.

Western Stage
(831) 375-2111, (831) 755-6816.
Western Stage presents a season of plays and musicals, diverse community outreach, projects for youth, and new works of literature. The productions are presented at the Main Stage and Studio Theatre at Hartnell College, the Cabaret in Oldtown Salinas, and The Sunset Center in Carmel.

MUSIC

Carmel Music Society
(831) 625-9938.
This legendary group brings renowned artists such as Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Pinchas Zukerman, Emanuel Axe, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma to perform in Carmel.

Chamber Music Monterey Bay
(831) 625-2212.
Top chamber ensembles such as the Cleveland, Tokyo, and Juilliard string quartets are featured in this series.

Monterey County Symphony
(831) 624-8511.
The largest classical music organization in Monterey County. Guest artists have included Christopher Parkening, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Wolfgang Basch. The season includes 18 subscription series concerts, chamber/ensemble concerts, recitals, and a free community concert.