Stage Lights are Back On at Camp Rose Theater

The Camp Rose Theater was nicely profiled in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat over the weekend,  just in time for the opening of their latest production, “Dial M for Murder.”

It’s a perfect Camp Rose play: a claustrophobic mystery, hinging on subtleties in script and performance. But unlike the Alfred Hitchcock film version of the stage play by Frederick Knott,  there are no 3-D glasses required: It’s all on stage about 30 feet away, tops.

The Camp Rose Theater is a secret institution of our town you won’t find in the pages of Travel & Leisure or Fodor’s, but it’s long been one of the things that makes life in Healdsburg something special.

For years the Camp Rose Players were directed by Jane Moore, the quietly charismatic owner of the Arts & Crafts home on South Fitch Mountain Road. She and her husband purchased the home in 1971, and started producing plays in 1976. They later divorced, by the theater—with its 30 seats in a walk-in understory of the house – endured. It staged over 100 plays under Moore’s direction.

Many of the local Raven Players are graduates of Camp Rose, and opening night at the Raven’s latest stage play often turns in an unofficial “Camp Rose night” for attending talent.

The 1954 Hitchcock version of “Dial M for Murder” starred Ray Milland, Grace Kelley and Robert Cummings. The Camp Rose Players for this show are Jan Anderson, John Guilfoy, Kate Mintun, Darryl Webb, and Warren Weston

Current director of the Camp Rose Theater is Suzanne Webb, one of Jane’s two daughters who still live in Healdsburg. Moore died last year, at the age of 77.

Webb also direct the last production her mother had selected, "Cash On Delivery," in October of last year.

For this reporter, Camp Rose and Healdsburg are forever linked in the same breath, the same mental construct, tied by the same synapses. I came to the beach at Camp Rose on my first visit to Healdsburg in 1978, for five years in the 1990s I lived on S. Fitch Mountain across the street, and my wife Karen and I were married in the Camp Rose Theater in 2006.

Any visit to the Camp Rose Players is not only a willing step into theatrical intimacy and neighborhood warmth, will always be a tribute to Jane Moore, and the independent spirit that survives still in Healdsburg.

The Camp Rose Players production ofdirected by Susan Webb, will be staged on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from March 29-April 21. Tickets are $12.

Friday and Saturday night shows begin at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees start at 2 p.m. For more details visit camproseplayers.com, or email camproseplayers@yahoo.com, or call 473.0616.