When iconic Bay Area theater group California Shakespeare Theatre, or Cal Shakes, closed after 50 years last October, it was unclear what would happen to the six-acre Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda that had been the group’s home for decades.
But on Wednesday, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which owns the land, approved a 15-year lease to East Bay nonprofit Siesta Valley Foundation to operate there.
The Siesta Valley Bowl, the new name for the venue, will preserve the history of theatrics and expand its offering of live performances, which Siesta Valley Bowl Inc. founder, Tom Romary, said he is excited to explore upon the venue’s reopening in spring of 2026 — whether that means ballet, opera. or punk bands.
“It’s really about bringing arts and culture and building community around that for all the people of the East Bay and the Greater Bay Area, and promoting conservation of a beautiful yet fragile ecosystem,” Romary said. “We think by doing that, it will broaden the use of the facility and the audience.”
Nestled in a grove of Redwoods and Eucalyptus trees in the Oakland Hills, the amphitheater at 100 Gateway Boulevard in Orinda has a 540-person capacity. Cal Shakes was famous for its modern interpretations of Shakespeare plays with updated names like “Romeo y Juliet,” “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain,” and “Lear.” But like many theater companies in the Bay Area, Cal Shakes struggled to regain financial stability after the pandemic.
Despite donations from Cal Shakes alumni like Zendaya and a successful fundraising campaign that raised $350,000 last summer — which helped Cal Shakes return to the park in 2024 — the troupe declared bankruptcy. The venerable group joined many other Bay Area theater companies that have folded since the pandemic, including TheatreFIRST, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, Dragon Theater, Ragged Wing Ensemble, Main Stage West, Perspective Theatre Company, Those Women Productions, Bay Area Musicals and PianoFight.
“It was disappointing and surprising,” said EBMUD Board President Marguerite Young about the loss of Cal Shakes.
“Our hope is that the new provider is able to use the space in a way that is befitting its natural character and for the enjoyment of Bay Area residents across a number of genres,” said Young, who will join the board of the Siesta Valley Foundation as an EBMUD partner. “One of the determining factors for us in the request for proposals is that the entity that takes it on be able to financially sustain it. A handful of theater performances won’t work.”
Romary, an AI tech executive with a love for the Bay Area music scene, had attended theatrical performances at the woodland venue before, but it was after he attended his first concert there, featuring the 90s alt-rock band Big Head Todd and the Monsters, that he imagined the venue could do more.
“I had been to two Shakespeare plays, and I enjoyed them immensely. But I thought, ‘Man, if this place could do more concerts, I think they’d make more money, and I think it would honestly reach more people,” Romary said.
Romary and Campbell Foster co-founded the Siesta Valley Foundation to create a sustainable action plan to preserve the theater. While the nonprofit will focus on conservation, education and nonprofit programming, the for-profit Siesta Valley Bowl Inc. will manage the venue. Foster is proposing around 60 events next year with about 20 concerts, a two-week production by a theatre troupe and a smattering of live arts.
“It’s such an extraordinary venue. It feels like Red Rocks. It feels special. The environment and the natural setting are part of the experience that people come for,” Foster said. “What’s crazy is that nobody knows about it unless you’re in the theater community.”
Romary and Foster hope to share the hidden gem of the Siesta Valley Bowl with a wider Bay Area audience. The diversity of the region’s music scene has had them consider shows for Latin music, jazz, and funk that they hope will ring through the Redwood grove beside Highway 24 late into the night. The duo said they believe the locale should compete with some of the Bay Area’s more famous concert venues in the years to come.
“What’s unique about the Siesta Valley Bowl is there’s nothing other than natural landscape and hillsides and wonderful groves of trees around — and there’s no neighbors,” Romary said, “You really feel like you’re miles away from anything when you’re at Siesta Valley Bowl. That’s what’s special about it. You don’t get that at the Greek.”