Antioch’s Campanil Theatre requests donations to stay open through 2026

Julian Reynoso l Contra Costa Youth Journalism

On a chilly afternoon in Antioch’s Rivertown district on the coast of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, several residents gathered to watch a string quintet that is a part of the Bellarosa Strings group playing Beatles music.

The location? El Campanil Theatre, a historic building and center for the arts that has remained an Antioch fixture for nearly a century. As El Campanil nears its 100th birthday, though, its future remains uncertain.

With ticket revenue not providing enough to fund the theater’s operation, it has sought donations from multiple sources, including a recent push from individual donors through the theater’s “Keep the Arts Alive in Antioch” campaign. The theater hopes to receive $50,000 from donors to continue operations through this year.

Audience members can choose one of 640 seats, including wheelchair and companion seating, spread among three floors. Before the string show began, theater representatives stepped onstage to address the audience.

“Thank you from all of us here at the El Campanil for keeping the arts alive in Antioch,” said Sharon Sobel Idul, El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation’s president.

El Campanil Theatre opened Nov. 1, 1928, and at the time was called “the most pretentious building in Contra Costa County” in news reports, according to the theater’s website. It was used for vaudeville shows and film screenings in the 1920s and ’30s and scored appearances throughout the decades by stars including Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers and Donald O’Connor, many of whom left their autographs on the dressing room wall.

In the Feb. 2, 1929, issue of Motion Picture News, the theater is described as having a decorative scheme of high order: “It is planned to make a theater where people will feel invited to seek entertainment, where the atmosphere is restful, where the colors represent gaiety and happiness,” the article states.

The theater has been used for many purposes during its history, hosting everything from movies to church services. Throughout that time, though, El Campanil deteriorated without proper maintenance.

Talk around town in 2001 about renovating the theater resulted in the creation of El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to revitalizing and maintaining the theater as a local center for the performing arts. Volunteers began fundraising to turn that dream into reality.

“Out of nowhere, Calpine Corporation conducted a community outreach project and gave us $500,000, which was exactly the amount we projected needing to get things off the ground,” Rick Carraher, El Campanil’s former executive director, told a local news outlet in 2018.

Carraher was part of the original Rivertown Renaissance project, which included El Campanil’s restoration foundation. He was the owner of the popular Rick’s on Second cafe and president of the Rivertown Business Association. Rivertown was once Antioch’s popular downtown business center, its history going back to 1872. As crime grew in the area, though, fewer customers frequented the city’s downtown and businesses closed.

Revitalizing the historic Riverside downtown area has been a goal in Antioch ever since, with mixed success, but local businesses still thrive in the district. Just across the street from El Campanil are eateries such as Guadalajara Taqueria and Sweets on Second.

Since its grand reopening in 2004, El Campanil has served as a venue for the performing arts in Rivertown and has been headed by El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation. The Bellarosa Strings show (bellarosasq.com) is just one of many that have been performed at the theater in recent years. The audience buzzed with excitement during intermission from the band’s musical history of The Beatles.

“My favorite part so far is the viola and cello, but I’m a bit biased because I used to play orchestra,” said Amaru Trinidad, 14, of Antioch, a student at the city’s Dozier-Libbey Medical High School.

Trinidad said the show was the first orchestra event he had attended at El Campanil but not the first time he had visited the theater. He said he’s attended many times and mentioned the theater’s annual holiday production of “The Nutcracker” as a highlight. The sentiment of familiarity seemed to be shared among most visitors, who seemed comfortable within the walls of their local theater.

For many, it has served as a site of entertainment for their entire lives. In recent years, however, funding has become a concern for the theater’s continued operations. Although the theater presents its own shows, such as the recent Bellarosa Strings performance, it’s also often rented to third parties.

When this happens, the theater doesn’t earn much from ticket revenue. With tickets and rent not providing enough funds for continued operations, the El Campanil has turned to other sources of funding to stay afloat.

“We’ve had some financial problems in the past,” Sobel Idul said. “We’ve had to get more creative to keep funding.”

She described the funding as “multipronged,” which rings true to the theater’s range of funding sources. As a nonprofit, El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation has always been supported by donations from companies and charitable organizations.

As of last October, the foundation has sought donations from individuals through their aforementioned “Keep the Arts Alive in Antioch” campaign. Donors can offer one-time or monthly donations, and monthly donors can earn free tickets for El Campanil-presented shows (visit giving.classy.org/campaign/730308/donate online to donate).

“We need sustainability to maintain operations, and receiving this support will allow us to continue improving and rebuilding our practices effectively,” theater Executive Director Joshua Price told a local news outlet in October. “If we are to reach our goal, this would propel us into 2026, allowing us to continue being a downtown anchor and keeping the arts alive in Antioch.”

Despite falling short of their $50,000 fundraising goal so far, the theater has raised enough to continue operating for part of 2026. From there, theater officials plan on continuing to find funding partners and improving marketing.

As the strings show drew to a close after the band finished playing songs, including “Here Comes the Sun” and “Hey Jude,” the audience roared with applause. The energy followed the crowd outside, where the sun was beginning to set in Antioch.

Many people gathered to speak about the show. Kathy, who didn’t provide her last name, said she is a frequent Campanil visitor and has been attended its events for decades. She spoke about not only how fabulous the show was but also the importance El Campanil holds in Antioch as a center for live music, dance and theater.

“This is a gem of a community,” Kathy said. “There’s a lot of people in Antioch who only commute to work and don’t realize what’s here.”

Contra Costa Youth Journalism is a collaborative effort involving educational institutions and professional news organizations dedicated to expanding opportunities for Contra Costa County high school students to inform Contra Costa County residents about relevant local news.