About

Cal Shakes serves the Bay Area as a venue and as a foundation of support for the broad spectrum of cultures and art forms that exist here. We are stewards of a unique and beautiful amphitheater and grounds, an integral partner in our communities and schools, and home to a long-established and respected classical theater company. 

Cal Shakes’ Mission is to produce, partner in, and sustain a world-class outdoor venue for the live arts in all of their forms, now and in the future. We welcome everyone who wants to participate in the arts, in community, and in the stewardship of a rare and precious place. 

• We search out and elevate voices across the Bay Area, producing, co-producing, and incubating new works
• We produce new-classics plays at the highest level in keeping with our long Bay Area history
• We offer on-site and in-school education for youth, and educational and professional development opportunities for adults
• We underpin the Bay Area arts community as a central resource for scene building and technical work
• We expand opportunity and professional paths by way of our workforce development programs
• We practice inclusion in our staffing, artist recruitment, Board development and audience outreach
• We engage with deep and diverse sources of new and established “home-grown” talent in our local area
• We never stop learning and reaching for excellence in everything we do

At Cal Shakes, we believe that equity is a practice. Our actions—both onstage and off—can have a positive social impact by exposing oppression, addressing historic injustices, and showing how power can be transformed and shared in different ways. We work to dismantle systemic bias by actively including, reflecting, and creating opportunities for our diverse Bay Area communities. We recognize that this work is ongoing and often imperfect, but we are committed to facilitating respect for the many facets of the human experience.