In the fall of 2019, a general-admission ticket to Little Shop of Horrors at College of Marin cost $25. Seniors paid $20, and youth and COM-affiliated guests paid $15. A year earlier, The River Bride was $20 at the door. Marin Oratorio charged the same $20 for its May 2019 concert. This December, every play, concert and recital in the Performing Arts Building at 835 College Avenue is free. The college's ticket page says drama and music tickets alike go out "on a first-come, first-served basis."
With no price, the only limit is the size of the room. On the Kentfield campus, the rooms range from about 65 seats to 572. Most of December will feel roomy. One production will not.
Seventeen days, three rooms
COM's current season page puts the whole December schedule into a stretch of just over two weeks. Here it is in order, with the room each event uses:
| Date | Event | Room | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 3–13 | Book of Days, eight performances | Studio Theatre, PA 32 | about 65 to 90 |
| Fri., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m. | COM Jazz Ensemble | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
| Sat., Dec. 5, 3 p.m. | COM Golden Gate Brass Band | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
| Thu., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m. | COM Vocal Jazz Ensemble | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
| Sat., Dec. 12, 7:30 p.m. | College of Marin Symphony Orchestra | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
| Sun., Dec. 13, 3 p.m. | COM Symphonic Wind Ensemble | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
| Wed., Dec. 16, 2:30 p.m. | Beginning Voice Class Recital | Lefort Recital Hall, PA72 | 100 |
| Thu., Dec. 17, 1 p.m. | Advanced Voice Class Recital | Lefort Recital Hall, PA72 | 100 |
| Dec. 19, 7:30 p.m., and Dec. 20, 3 p.m. | Marin Oratorio | James Dunn Theatre | 572 |
The seat counts come from COM's facilities page. It lists the James Dunn Theatre at 572 seats, the Warren Lefort Recital Hall at 100, and the Studio Theatre at roughly 65 in a proscenium setup or 90 in the round.
Seven concert performances in the Dunn Theatre add up to about 4,000 seats. The eight performances of Book of Days add up to somewhere between 520 and 720, depending on how the Studio Theatre is set up. In the 65-seat proscenium setup, the play's entire run has fewer seats than one Saturday night of the Symphony Orchestra.
The play in the small room
Book of Days is Lanford Wilson's drama about a small Missouri town. Ruth Hoch, the central character, goes looking for the truth after a murder, through what COM's listing calls "small town jealousies, religion, greed and lies." Andrew Eisenman directs. The production held auditions in the Studio Theatre on August 18.
It runs two weekends, with Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 and Sunday matinees at 2:
- Thursday, December 3, through Saturday, December 5, at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, December 6, at 2 p.m.
- Thursday, December 10, through Saturday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday, December 13, at 2 p.m.
The ticket page says drama seats are first-come, first-served, and that show tickets come through Eventbrite or pa.marin.edu. Anyone hoping to see the play should keep an eye on the Book of Days page and sign up for the department's mailing list, which is linked from the ticket page.
The drama program used the big room earlier this fall. Jane Anderson's Defying Gravity ran in the James Dunn Theatre from October 2 to 18, and the Marin Independent Journal reviewed it on October 8. December's play moves the department into a room that holds about a tenth as many people.
The concerts have room to spare
The Dunn Theatre's 572 seats change the plan for the music side of the month. Here, a reservation is less about getting in and more about letting the department know how many people to expect. The Eventbrite pages for the Jazz Ensemble and the Symphony Orchestra list both concerts as free and offer a "Reserve a spot" button. The Marin Oratorio page also lists its two performances as free, with a "Check availability" button.
Each concert has its own character:
- COM Jazz Ensemble, December 4. The program draws on the band's repertoire from the past five years.
- COM Golden Gate Brass Band, December 5. A Saturday matinee directed by Cayce Carnahan.
- Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble, December 12 and 13. A Saturday-night orchestra concert, then a Sunday-afternoon wind program, on back-to-back days.
- Marin Oratorio, December 19 and 20. Dr. Laura Wiebe conducts "Vivaldi to Dylan: A Winter Celebration," the last public event of the month in the building.
The Oratorio is the only December program with two performances in the big room, and it comes after the campus has otherwise wound down for the term.
When two shows share one building
Book of Days and the Dunn Theatre concerts share the building on several dates. On Friday, December 4, the Jazz Ensemble and the play both start at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, December 12, the Symphony Orchestra and the play do the same. On Sunday, December 13, the play's 2 p.m. matinee is still running when the Symphonic Wind Ensemble starts at 3.
Those are the nights when both audiences arrive at once. The ticket page says parking fees are waived one hour before performances in Lots 2, 3, 4 and 16, which it calls the lots closest to the Performing Arts Building. Each event page has the latest instructions, since lot lists have varied from one listing to the next. The campus police parking regulations require a permit Monday through Saturday except on school holidays, and Sundays are exempt. The parking permits page lists Lot 12 as free after 5 p.m. It lists Lot 13 as free but with no parking from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. and no night lighting, so it won't work for an evening show.
The building sits at the corner of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Laurel Avenue. For neighbors along College Avenue, the walk may beat the hunt for a space on the overlap nights.
The box office isn't there to help on the night. The ticket page says the College of Marin Box Office is closed and no longer staffed. For questions, it lists (415) 485-9555 for drama and dance and (415) 485-9460 for music.
How the theater got here
The 572-seat house carries the name of James Dunn, who founded COM's drama program and taught on the Kentfield campus from 1964 to 2018. In that time he directed more than 100 main-stage shows at the college and more than 150 in the community. College of Marin's notice honoring Dunn quotes one of his lines:
"This is what we do here at College of Marin. We provide a place where people can work to achieve their dreams."
The building has also grown. A modernization project added ADA and life-safety upgrades and a new 9,700-square-foot wing, and the North Bay Business Journal named it Best Education Project of 2012.
Free admission arrived gradually. A February 2023 Contemporary Opera Marin listing advertised "FREE admission and parking." By January 2024, the Music Faculty Recital page called admission free and said donations would support music-student scholarships. Today the policy covers every ensemble on the ticket page, from the Golden Gate Brass Band to Marin Oratorio.
A daytime stop before the evening shows
One more free event fills the hours before curtain. The College of Marin Fine Arts Gallery is showing Jack Scott's "Large Scale Drawings" from November 16 through December 11, open weekdays from noon to 5 p.m. with free admission, according to the MarinArts listing. The show closes the day before the Symphony Orchestra concert. A weekday visit in early December can come before the 7:30 p.m. Jazz Ensemble on the 4th or the Vocal Jazz Ensemble on the 10th.
Taken as a whole, December on the Kentfield campus is mostly an open door: seven concerts in a 572-seat hall, two recitals and a gallery, all free. The exception is the 65-to-90-seat Studio Theatre, where Lanford Wilson's play has eight performances and, in its 65-seat setup, fewer seats in total than a single concert night down the hall. For more on how College Avenue became the center of Kentfield life, our late-summer look at the street picks up the story, and our Kentfield neighborhood page covers the wider area.
At Brannan Palmer Group, we count a free night at the Dunn Theatre a short walk from home as part of what a Kentfield address is worth. If you're curious what yours would bring this winter, we'd be glad to put together a careful, unhurried estimate. Request your complimentary home valuation.
