Arlene Francis Center for Spirit, Art, and Politics We believe that inherent in our very social nature is a desire for mutual recognition

The Arlene Francis Theater will provide several theatrical spaces for public events supportive of our mission. It is a venue for concerts, films, classes, plays, and other performances that provide insight into our existing social world and ways that it might be transformed. It will link the showing of important films and plays with group discussions that will invite audience members to participate in analyzing the works being presented and to help us envision how another world might be possible. In addition, the theater spaces will serve as home to various performance arts groups who share the Center’s vision and can contribute to building the unique cultural environment to which we aspire ~ to date, this has included the North Bay Film and Art Collective, Alchemidia Theater for the Disabled, and the North Bay Hootenany, among others.

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Our smaller theater seats 75 and is used for films, lectures, poetry readings, concerts and classes offered by the Institute for Spiritual Activism and the wider community. This theater is currently being used for these purposes, having hosted a Global Film Festival as well as many concerts and dances that are a cultural highlight in the North Bay/Sonoma County area. The second performance space—a much larger 350-seat theater with a proscenium stage—awaits renovation of the rear part of the building and is not yet available for this purpose. We welcome donations towards these renovation efforts.

We envision our theaters and the events held there as the energetic center of our project, creating a joyful environment while at the same time creating culture that deepens our community’s insight into the values expressed in our introduction and mission.

In addition to the contributions already mentioned, the Theater will house a Spiritual Activism Film Club focusing on showings and discussions of films uniquely expressive of the Center’s mission,  a Lecture and Film Series celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 1960’s and the breakthrough in consciousness that prefigured and shaped our own vision in designing the Arlene Francis Center, and joint production of performances with the Actors Theatre of San Francisco, a repertory company that performs the work of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee and other classic works of American Theater emphasizing important social and political themes.

Once the two theaters are fully functioning, we expect them to serve as a key social location inspiring all of Northern California. Cultural events centered on important social and spiritual themes will be taking place most nights of the week. Currently, even in this most progressive area of the world, there are few, if any, multi-use cultural and theatrical venues like the Arlene Francis Center for Spirit, Art and Politics. Along with the 6th Street Theater, only a few doors from us, the Arlene Francis Theater should have a significant and uplifting cultural impact on the local Santa Rosa community and, we hope, Sonoma County as a whole.