The 545-seat Bruns Amphitheater was created for Cal Shakes 18 years ago to speak to the breathtaking landscape where it was built. Open to the sky and stars, ringed by eucalyptus and oak groves, these rolling golden hills near Orinda have inspired our audiences and artists for nearly two decades.

But years of steady use and seasonal exposure have taken a tremendous toll. Our physical infrastructure is outmoded, insufficient, and urgently in need of attention.

As our company thrives, we find ourselves face-to-face with an enormous challenge: Deteriorating buildings and infrastructure installed 18 years ago—installed when Cal Shakes made the move to Orinda with much of it intended to be temporary—have become increasingly untenable:

• Actors prepare in poorly lit, dilapidated trailers. A single shower serves the entire ensemble, which can be more than a dozen actors in our large Shakespeare productions.

• Crumbling, inadequate restrooms—a mere 18 toilets—must serve more than 550 audience members, actors, and staff at any given performance.
  
  
• Lighting and sound equipment often sits outdoors because of lack of proper storage space.
  
  
• Actors wait to go onstage in a rotting green room that floods at least once each season, and staff spends precious time on extensive cleanup whenever it rains.
  
  
• Wardrobe, scenery, and other production teams lack adequate space to prepare during rehearsals and performances.
  
  
• Human and financial resources are regularly siphoned away from programs to make stopgap repairs.

In order to preserve and sustain the enduring power of the Bruns, we must make permanent improvements.

We have put in place a visionary plan to renovate the Bruns Amphitheater and its surrounding campus. Building for the Future: The Cal Shakes Campaign begins with an $8.2 million first phase intended to rebuild our home in a way that is environmentally sustainable and designed to last. To date we’ve raised over $7.5 million, officially breaking ground in October of 2009. Today, we invite you help us close the gap and ensure a permanent theatrical home for our children and theirs.

Join us as we make this vision a reality. It’s time to act.