Kentfield's Fall Stage Season Fits Into 18 Days on College Avenue

From Dec. 3 to Dec. 20, College of Marin's Kentfield campus at 835 College Ave. has eight performances of a Lanford Wilson play, six free concerts in James Dunn Theatre and two free voice recitals. Every fall-semester performance on the campus's Performing Arts season page falls inside those 18 days. November has no performances listed at all, and the next productions on the page don't arrive until February 2027.

Kentfield is unincorporated, so it has no town hall, no city arts commission and no civic auditorium. For residents, the college's theater and recital hall do that job. This year the semester's whole stage calendar fits into two and a half weeks, so it's worth planning now.

Eighteen days, three stretches

The College of Marin Performing Arts season page lists everything below. The concerts show as free on their Eventbrite reservation pages.

Opening week, Dec. 3 to Dec. 6

• Book of Days by Lanford Wilson, directed by Andrew Eisenman, opens in the Studio Theatre, room PA 32. Shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6, at 2 p.m.
• The COM Jazz Ensemble plays James Dunn Theatre on Friday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m.
• The COM Golden Gate Brass Band presents Alpine Brass! on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 3 p.m.

Second week, Dec. 10 to Dec. 13

• Book of Days runs again Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and closes with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Dec. 13.
• The COM Vocal Jazz Ensemble performs Thursday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m.
• The College of Marin Symphony Orchestra plays Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 7:30 p.m.
• The COM Symphonic Wind Ensemble presents American Masterworks for Band on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 3 p.m.

Closing stretch, Dec. 16 to Dec. 20

• The Beginning Voice Class Recital is Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 2:30 p.m. in Lefort Recital Hall, room PA 72.
• The Advanced Voice Class Recital follows on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 1 p.m. in the same hall.
• Marin Oratorio closes the December run with Vivaldi to Dylan: A Winter Celebration, conducted by Dr. Laura Wiebe, on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 20, at 3 p.m.

Of all of these, the Oratorio program is the one most likely to draw people from outside the music department. According to its Eventbrite page, it pairs Vivaldi's Gloria with Sarah Quartel's Snow Angel and ends with Adam and Matt Podd's gospel arrangement of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released." The listing shows it as free.

When the play and the concerts overlap

The Studio Theatre and James Dunn Theatre are separate rooms, and the schedules above run at the same time on several dates. On four days in the first two stretches, both venues have something on:

1. Friday, Dec. 4. Book of Days and the Jazz Ensemble both start at 7:30 p.m.
2. Saturday, Dec. 5. The Brass Band plays at 3 p.m., and the play starts at 7:30 p.m. the same evening.
3. Thursday, Dec. 10. The play and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble both start at 7:30 p.m.
4. Sunday, Dec. 13. The play's closing matinee starts at 2 p.m., and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble starts an hour later at 3 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 12, adds a fifth overlap, with the play and the Symphony Orchestra both at 7:30 p.m.

These double-booked nights are when the campus is busiest, and they're the nights when the parking rules below matter most. A household that wants both the play and a concert can do it on one trip on Dec. 5 by catching the brass matinee, then dinner, then the 7:30 curtain.

The Book of Days page doesn't list a ticket price. Check the production page before assuming it's free like the concerts.

The parking rule that changes at 5 p.m.

The College of Marin Police parking page has one rule that works differently for afternoon and evening shows. The college notes that parking prices can change by Board policy.

• Lot 12 is free after 5 p.m. That covers every 7:30 p.m. curtain on the calendar.
• Lot 13 is free during the day and closed to parking from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. It's past Lot 12, next to the Physical Education Building. The surface is unpaved gravel with no lights at night, and cars have to park facing the logs or boulders or risk a citation.
• Other lots need a $4 daily permit. You can buy one from machines in the lots. The Lot 6 machine takes cash and cards, and the rest take cards only. You can also buy ahead online at marin.thepermitstore.com after making an account.

That gives one simple rule for December. Use Lot 12 for evening shows. For the 3 p.m. Sunday concerts and the weekday recitals, Lot 13 is the free daytime option, as long as you're out before the 5 p.m. cutoff. If you're staying from the Dec. 5 brass matinee through the 7:30 play, use a paid lot in the afternoon or move the car to Lot 12 after 5.

Why November is quiet

The rest of the fall calendar explains why December is so full. The Performing Arts season page lists no November performances, and the Dance program lists its upcoming dates as TBA.

The Fine Arts Gallery's fall show, Art Through a Different Lens, closed with October. Curated by Evri Kwong, it showed work by neurodivergent artists, and the Marin Independent Journal's gallery listings placed its reception on Oct. 22. No next show has been posted yet.

The one steady thing on campus in November is Community Education. Its Fall 2 noncredit term runs Oct. 19 to Dec. 6. Classes the catalog endorses through ESCOM are recommended for older adults and open to learners of any age. One Kentfield example is a one-morning Chi Walking workshop on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon in Physical Education 22. It's listed at $87 in the Fall 2026 Community Education schedule.

So the public side of campus is mostly classes through November, and then the stages fill up all at once in the first three weeks of December.

A new building meant for gatherings

The college added a new building to this picture in 2026. The David Wain Coon Center for Student Success is a three-story, roughly 86,000-square-foot building on College Avenue. The Marin IJ's news story put its cost at $82 million, and a later IJ editorial cited $86 million. It opened with a ribbon-cutting on Feb. 4, 2026. The Marin Independent Journal's coverage called it a prospective "living room" for the campus and the community and reported an event venue that seats up to 200 people.

A Marin IJ editorial on Feb. 15 said college leaders hope the center becomes a community hub for Marin residents. It also noted the college's long history of hosting public educational, entertainment and arts events. The college's facilities rental page says organizations, clubs and individuals can rent campus facilities with a permit when they aren't in use for school purposes.

The building's first December is the same one described above. That's an early look at whether the campus can draw people beyond its own audience.

Dinner before a 7:30 curtain

For an early meal before an evening show, the newest nearby option is Tipsy Dumpling at 340 Bon Air Center in Greenbrae. According to the Marin IJ, it opened in August. It opens daily at 11:30 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A 5:30 dinner leaves enough time to drive to College Avenue and park in Lot 12 once it goes free at 5 p.m.

Before December, Bon Air Center has a Diwali celebration with Dance with E.N.A. on Friday, Nov. 6, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. That's a good November evening out while the college stages are quiet.

If you'd like to know how Kentfield's December calendar and everyday rhythms show up in the homes along College Avenue and up into Kent Woodlands, Zamira Knows Marin is glad to talk it through. Your next Marin move can start with someone who keeps the Ross Valley calendar close at hand.