The Forest Theater Guild is a local non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting the performing arts in our community through our community theater endeavors while promoting mentoring of the theater arts for our local youth.

The purpose of the Forest Theater Guild is to uphold our heritage and the integrity of Carmel's historic Forest Theater through stewardship and preservation of its unique character. Further, the mission of the Guild is to present quality performing arts and foster the growth and appreciation of the dramatic arts among the community using local talent with an emphasis on youth. Our programs offer participants training at our historic theater, gaining hands-on experience next to our professional staff, and becoming involved with our live plays, films, and events.

Originally founded in 1910 by Herbert Heron as the Forest Theater Society, the current organization, now known as 'Forest Theater Guild's' mission is to present quality performing arts and to foster growth and appreciation of the dramatic and allied arts among the broad community utilizing community talent with emphasis on youth. The purpose of the Forest Theater Guild is to uphold the heritage and integrity of Carmel's historic Outdoor Forest Theater through stewardship, preservation of its unique character, and enhancement of the use of the theater property to promote community theater, films and events that support our mission of community theater and art. The oldest outdoor theater west of the Rockies, the Forest Theater was built in 1910 by Herbert Heron and Carmel's Bohemians to provide an open-air theater where plays could be produced by “locals, who would also have the fun doing the acting, directing, lighting, costuming, and staging." (Personal letters of Herbert Heron). The Guild continues this tradition and the shared vision that community theater is an essential societal value in our current culture and continues to encourage arts for our youth and betterment of our society.

Annual Productions at the Forest Theater

Each year, the Forest Theater Guild presents quality productions annually at the historic Outdoor Forest Theater in Carmel, California. Past Productions Include: "Big the Musical"(2017), "Pippin and Man of LaMancha"(2017) with Paraphrase, "The Borrowers"(2016), "Addams Family"(2016) with Paraphrase Productions“Hamlet" (2013), “Snow White" (2013), “James and the Giant Peach" (2012), “Cyrano de Bergerac" (2012), “Peter and the Wolf" (2011), “Once Upon A Mattress" in collaboration with MPC Drama (2011), “Alice In Wonderland" (2010), and “Treasure Island" (2010).
Films in the Forest

The annual Films in the Forest series “Films in the Forest" features classic films on the big screen. Our 2018 schedule will be announced soon on this website with links to purchase or sponsor a film event.

With recent renovations to make the facility we call home more user friendly and safe, we have been able to begin producing full length plays, musicals and special events again starting in the summer of 2016. There is still much to be done but, it will be one step at a time. We began a new program in 2017, Project Equal Access, which brings sign language interpreters to the theater for at least on performance of each production. The assisted listen device system was updated to provide a better experience for hearing impaired. We look forward to partnering with Paraphrase productions again for the third year in 2018...the youngest production company learning from the oldest. Paraphrase has definitely grown it's wings and it is a theatrical benefit for the Monterey Peninsula, for both the audience and the participants, having added it's own theatrical training classes. We began Carmel POPS! in 2017 and look forward to expanding this program that features the best of local talent from all performing arts disciplines...our hope is to make this an annual event to close the season. In 2017 we were pleased to bring back live orchestration to accompany the theatrical performances. This year we will be partnering with the Monterey County Theater Alliance to give prospective technicians a chance to learn and practice their craft. With the cancellation of many college theater classes, we have found that the Monterey Peninsula could benefit from a larger pool of qualified technicians for all technical aspects of theater(light, sound etc). We will be continuing our "Young Entrepreneurs Program" that teaches the business aspects of running a theater, from concessions and ticketing to marketing, front of house and patron logistics, etc. All in all, 2018 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for the Guild with Into the Woods scheduled as the first full length live performance followed by Hunchback of Notre Dame and Sweeney Todd in collaboration with Paraphrase. Trying a concurrent run of the last two, on alternate nights, we are looking to provide an excellent weekend ticket for guest both locally and from out of the area to enjoy a theater filled weekend. We will continue our partnership with the local Junior college to provide theater appreciation classes and are looking at a partnership with local film commission to bring student film makers back to the theater as well as a possible reuniting of the partnership with the Carmel Film Festival that we had prior to the closure of the theater for the necessary upgrades. There are a number of long time programs that will be modified to fit our current demographic in a more useful way.