"The same year, 1925, a movement was started to make a new theater. The old one had very poor accommodations for the audience, which had increased by leaps and bounds, and besides it was not on Mountaineer property. The audience had to sit or stand on ground that was in a decidedly moist condition. There must have been some hidden spring under this spot, for it was never dry at the right time." (Elizabeth Kirkwood, The Mountaineers, (1930)
"The heroism of the audience, who sat with their feet in a bog and batted mosquitos, could not be counted upon indefinitely, and on June 6, 1926 they were led happily down a new trail to a new Forest Theater." (Harriet King Walker, The Mountaineer, 1942)
Bill Darling and the Players' business manager, Claire McGuire, scouted around and found an ideal theater site on Mountaineers property near Chico Creek, a level spot with a gentle sloping hill where the audience could sit and look down on the Players. The Mountaineers felled trees and carved terraces on the slope, lugged in cedar bark from the creek bottom, and under Darling's direction the Forest Theater, much as it is today, grew up among its mighty trees.
"Ferns and mosses surround the stage and are so placed that they look as if nature had planted them there. An arch formed by two cedars outlines the background. The trees were thinned out so that spots of light fall in the proper places and the eyes of the audience are kept in the shade. It is a sloping amphitheatre that will seat several hundred people with plenty of room for expansion. The wings are made of the bark of trees covered with moss." (Elizabeth Kirkwood, The Mountaineers, 1930)
The Mountaineers Forest Theater was formally dedicated by President Meany in 1926 with a production of Rainald and the Red Wolf. A 1931 newspaper described it as "the only real forest theatre in the United States."
"There are other outdoor theaters, to be sure, but non quite like ours, none that seem to have grown up out of the ground as a very part of the virgin forest. For its wings, five or six on a side, tall enough to conceal the actors, were made of upright slabs of cedar bark. The logs cut in clearing the hillside were piled at the back of the stage and covered with earth and banked with ferns to form an upper level. A huge log was maneuvered into place to mark the front of the stage and though it has now returned to dust, the great sword ferns set along it still take the place of footlights. Green mosses were draped over the wings and hug ferns set in every corner and cranny - all to blend with the verdant forest background." (Harriet Walter, The Mountaineer, 1956)
Harriet's comment about the uniqueness of the Kitsap Forest Theater being unique among outdoor theaters continues into the 21st century.
