into the woods
Kitsap Forest Theater celebrates 100 years
Words by Michael C. Moore
Anne Shirley (Becca Gray) talks Matthew Cuthbert’s (Walt Foster) ear off in the 2022 production of Anne of Green Gables. (Photo: Gala Lindvall)
Guy Caridi knows the kind of magic that can happen at the Kitsap Forest Theater. He knows how the rustic amphitheater, set amid a bucolic forest of evergreens and rhododendrons, can almost become another character in the show.
“One that I will always remember was during Wizard of Oz in 2002,” says the veteran choreographer, dancer and actor. “The weather was cloudy and a bit drizzly. During the poppy scene, Gail Foster as Glinda was singing, ‘You’re out of the woods, you’re out of the dark, you’re out of the night, step into the sun, step into the light.’
“Right on cue,” Caridi continues, “the clouds parted for a moment and the sun shone on the whole theater. The audience went wild.” That’s the kind of magic that Forest Theater patrons—as well as casts and crews—have been experiencing for a century. The venerable venue, established and maintained by the Seattle-based Mountaineers Club, is hosting its 100th season of live, al fresco theater events this summer.
The Mountaineers Players’ first public performance, Robin of Sherwood, took place in 1923. But the outdoorsman’s group first discovered the site in 1909, during a camping trip on the property of Edward Paschall and his family.
A few years later, the Seattle group acquired an adjacent parcel of land, on which they cleared trails and patches for camping.
Without electricity and other modern conveniences, the Mountaineers entertained each other with increasingly elaborate storytelling and skits. They went public with their performances in 1923, and have offered performances each summer since, interrupted only by World War II (1943-46) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020).
The amphitheater is now the focal point of a 460-acre rhododendron preserve just off the Seabeck Highway, which didn’t exist back when the Mountaineers began their expeditions. They took a mosquito-fleet ferry from Seattle to Chico and hiked in.
The annual theater productions there have become a tradition not just for the Mountaineers, but for patrons from around Kitsap and across the Puget Sound—now an easy day trip.
Throughout its evolution, what’s now known as the Kitsap Forest Theater has been fueled by families. The shows—all musicals for the last several decades, expanding from one to two productions each summer starting in 2007—are family fare, and the casts and crews fielded by the Mountaineers are built from families.
“One of the special things about Kitsap Forest Theater is the multigenerational aspect,” says Craig Schieber, who first appeared on the Mountaineers’ dirt stage in 1994 and has directed 23 shows there since. “I have had the good fortune to work with families over the years, and watched kids grow up and start their own families. I have had three generations of a family on stage at one time.”
Jenny Dreessen, who’d been acting at theaters north of Seattle, followed her offspring to the forest for a 2010 production of The Sound of Music.
“My son and daughter both auditioned, so I did, too,” she said. “Then, when they needed men to fill out the cast, we took Jerry (her husband) along, and it became a family affair.”
Chico Creek might occasionally flood the women’s dressing rooms in the spring. Temperatures for the summer shows might threaten triple digits. And there’s always the steep quarter-mile hike from the gate to the amphitheater. But none of it seems to dampen the enthusiasm of either the Mountaineers Players or their patrons. “It’s always amazing, toward the end of the run,” says Jerry Dreessen, “to look up and see the whole theater full of people who’ll sit there in the rain, cheering you on.”
Upcoming shows
The Sound of Music, directed by Trina Fisher Williamson, will open May 28 and run through June 18.
Seussical, The Musical, with Craig Schieber at the helm, will bring characters and stories created by Dr. Seuss to the amphitheater weekend afternoons from July 29 to August 20.
Adult $23/Youth $10, more ticket info here.