The Mountain Play skipped 2025. For an institution that has gathered Marin residents on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais since 1913, a missed year is a significant pause. The 2026 production — The Wizard of Oz at Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre — is the return, and if you haven't been in a few years, or are going for the first time, the details that separate a great day from a frustrating one are worth knowing before you buy tickets.
Most people plan this wrong. They treat it as a show with a start time. It is closer to a full-day outing: you are going up a mountain, sitting on stone seating for two-plus hours, ideally arriving with a real picnic. The logistics — shuttle, parking, seating tier, which date to choose — matter more than at a typical outdoor concert. And the four June performances have meaningfully different characters. Picking without knowing the difference means leaving something on the table.
Why This Year Carries More Weight
The Mountain Play Association spent the 2025 season off the mountain, doing community research and major fundraising before committing to the return. The result is a production with a fully assembled creative team. Dyan McBride directs; Jon Gallo handles music direction; Meredith Joelle Charlson choreographs; Andrea Bechert designed the set; Bethany Deal designed the costumes. The show uses the MGM film score, which means the songs Marin residents have known since childhood are the ones on stage.
This is the production's 113th year. Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre on East Ridgecrest Boulevard inside Mount Tamalpais State Park is one of the more unusual theater venues in Northern California: open sky, stone seating carved into the hillside, and fog possible at any point regardless of what the forecast says down in Mill Valley or San Anselmo. The physical setting is part of the experience and also part of what requires preparation.
One detail worth knowing: Marin Mommies, who cover this event closely each year, noted that families who go annually were specifically excited about the return after missing 2025. If you're in that category, it's worth re-reading the logistics before this June. Some specifics around shuttles, carry-down service, and the opening-day pricing have nuances that are easy to forget across a gap year.
The Four Performances Are Built Differently
All four shows start at 1pm at Cushing Memorial. That is where the similarity ends. Each date has a specific character, and the right one depends on who you're bringing and what you're optimizing for.
June 7 — Opening Day Youth ages 4 to 25 get in free. Children 3 and under are always free at every performance, but the opening-day policy extends the free tier significantly upward. If you are bringing older kids, teenagers, or younger adults, the financial case for this date is clear. Shuttle youth fares are also waived on opening day. General adult tickets are $50; reserved seating, which includes a cushioned stadium seat and priority shuttle exit access, starts at $65.
June 13 — Sing-Along Saturday This is a Saturday and the only sing-along performance of the 2026 season. The crowd energy is different; it is a participatory format. Worth knowing if that is appealing, worth skipping if you want a quieter afternoon on the hill.
June 14 — Standard Sunday No special programming. If you missed opening weekend and the sing-along format is not what you want, this is the clean option.
June 21 — Picnic Contest The Mountain Play closes its 2026 season with a formal picnic contest. Marin residents who have been going for years treat the picnic as seriously as the show itself. This date formalizes what already happens on every performance day — but if you are the type to bring a proper spread, June 21 gives you a reason to go all in.
Getting Up the Mountain Is Its Own Logistics Problem
There is no parking inside the amphitheatre grounds. Parking at the old Air Force base runs $40 booked in advance, $50 at the gate — and then you still need the shuttle up to the theater from that lot. For most people coming from Mill Valley, Fairfax, or San Anselmo, the better approach is to skip the car entirely.
Eco-friendly shuttles run from two pickup points: Tamalpais High School and the Shoreline lot. Both start at 9:30am. Adult fare is $10; youth is $5. The return shuttle after the show is complimentary. On opening day, youth ride free in both directions.
The practical payoff of taking the shuttle is that you arrive with your hands free. You can bring a full picnic without managing a long carry from a remote parking lot across uneven hillside terrain. The Mountain Play also offers a carry-down service for bulky items at the end of the show, and will arrange pickup in downtown Mill Valley for people who do not want to haul gear the full way back down the trail. That combination — shuttle up, carry-down service, Mill Valley pickup — makes a heavily loaded picnic day feasible in a way that driving yourself does not.
If you are coming from Novato or farther north and driving is the only option, plan for the Air Force base lot and arrive with time to spare. The lots fill before the shuttle crowds thin out.
The Picnic Is Not Decoration
The stone seating at Cushing Memorial gets cold. Mountain weather in June in Marin does not track what the forecast says at sea level. Layers, sun protection, and water are a baseline. A cushion matters more than most first-timers expect — reserved seating includes padding, and rentals are available at the venue, but bringing your own means one fewer thing to sort out on arrival.
On food: Lagunitas beer and wine are available on-site, and pre-ordered box lunches can be arranged in advance through the Mountain Play. But what Marin residents who have been doing this for decades actually do is bring something worth eating before the show starts. Blankets, a real spread, an early arrival to stake out position in the shaded upper section — this is the pattern. The June 21 picnic contest adds a formal structure to what is already the unofficial culture of every performance date.
General seating is first come, first served across both sun-exposed and shaded upper sections of the amphitheatre. If you care about shade on a clear June afternoon, reserved seating or arriving well before 1pm are the two ways to secure it.
The Practical Summary
Tickets and shuttle reservations are available at mountainplay.org. A $3.75 state park access fee applies per ticket, plus a per-order platform fee. The full four-date schedule: June 7 (opening day), June 13 (Sing-Along Saturday), June 14, June 21 (picnic contest). All shows at 1pm, Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mount Tamalpais State Park.
The year off was long enough that the operational details bear reviewing. The shuttle pickup points, the carry-down service, the opening-day youth policy, the reserved-seating tier — none of it is hard to navigate once you know it. The residents who have the best day on the mountain are almost always the ones who sorted this out before they drove to the trailhead.
If you're thinking about Marin as more than a day trip — as a place to actually live — Aviva Kamler works with buyers and sellers across the county and brings the kind of local knowledge that only comes from being here. Request a personalized home valuation to start the conversation.
