Our New Year-Round Home Is Official!

In June of 2023, we obtained Occupancy permission from the City of San Rafael. In September of 2023, our Building Permit was finalled by the City.

Marin Shakespeare Company has created a vibrant Center for Performing Arts, Education, and Social Justice at 514 Fourth Street, in downtown San Rafael, as exceptional as Marin itself. This versatile space will allow us to offer year-round performances, more education programs, and support for our innovative Shakespeare for Social Justice work. It now houses the administrative infrastructure needed to grow and manage our Education and Social Justice endeavors, and our repository of costumes and theatrical properties.

We bought 514 Fourth Street in downtown San Rafael in January of 2017 after a year-and-half in escrow after the City approved a conditional use permit to allow construction of a 165-seat indoor theatre.  In the summer of 2021, the City approved our Building Permit.  Construction began in September of 2021.

There are still many improvements we would like to make to the new Center.  We welcome your continued support.

The Center’s History:

The Center is built on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people.

Many will remember 514 Fourth Street as the Heller’s for Children Store, established in 1963 and have fond memories of shopping for cribs, strollers, and baby supplies at this beloved family business. Herb Heller, a Holocaust survivor, built the business and ran it with his family for 50 years. Now, the building has a new life, providing a new place for the community to share imagination, creativity, stories, discovery, learning and excitement.

514 Fourth Street is located just 5 blocks from the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, and will help revitalize East San Rafael, extending a cultural corridor throughout the City, creating a beloved community gathering place for generations to come.

514 Fourth Street:

165-seat Theatre, 3 quarter thrust.
Lobby / Performance Space



Our Dream:

Marin Shakespeare’s new home will serve generations of audience, actors, and students.

It will be a Center for Shakespeare for Social Justice.
• We envision training programs that will inspire the use of Shakespeare for personal and group growth in prisons, schools and institutions around the country and beyond.
• We envision a center for Returned Citizens to share stories about what it means to have survived incarceration.
• We envision performances, readings, gatherings and discussions about Social Justice that will inspire our community and help us learn about social issues and how the arts add to public discourse.

It will be a Center for Learning and Discovery.
• We envision a place alive with young people learning and growing.
• We envision performing arts classes for all ages.
• We envision a center that supports arts learning in schools with student matinees, student performances, student workshops and more.

It will be a Center for Public Gathering.
• We envision a place where artists of the future can bare their hearts and express their ideas through theatre in ways we can’t even imagine.
• We envision a place where generations of families will laugh, cry, think and engage in meaningful community dialogue.
• We envision a place that exudes creativity, drawing people to it who want to explore, experiment, entertain, and enlighten.
• We envision a place that plays a major role in the growing “cultural corridor” on Fourth Street in San Rafael.

Our new downtown home will have practical value for others as well. Already, we are sharing it with other organizations both free of cost, and as a rental venue.

Upstairs, we have organized 30 years of costumes and props in the large storage area, accessed by a service elevator.  Soon this wonderful inventory will be available, not only for our own performances and classes, but also for rental by individuals, schools and other theatres.

With the support of generous individuals and organizations, this dream has become a reality.  Imagine what the future may hold!

 

Click here for more information about the renovations of the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre.

READ MORE ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN HERE

To find out more about these projects, please email Lesley Currier at lesley@marinshakespeare.org or phone Lesley at 415-499-4485.