Julian Reynoso l Contra Costa Youth Journalism
On a chilly afternoon in Antioch’s Rivertown district on the banks of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, several residents gathered to watch a string quintet from the Bellarosa Strings group play the music of the Beatles.
Location? El Campanil Theater, a historic building and arts center that has been a fixture of Antioch for almost a century. However, as El Campanil approaches its 100th birthday, its future remains uncertain.
Since ticket revenue does not provide enough to support the theater’s operations, it has sought donations from many sources, including a recent push from individual donors through the theater’s “Keep the Arts Alive in Antiochia” campaign. The theater is hoping to raise $50,000 from sponsors to continue operations this year.
Audience members can choose one of 640 seats, including wheelchair and companion seats, spread across three floors. Before the show started, representatives of the theater entered the stage and spoke to the audience.
“Thank you to all of us here at El Campanil for keeping the arts alive in Antioch,” said Sharon Sobel Idul, president of the El Campanil Theater Preservation Foundation.
El Campanil Theater opened on Nov. 1, 1928, and at the time it was called “the grandest 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 was visited 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 Motion Picture News of February 2, 1929, this theater is described as having a high-quality decoration plan: “It is planned to make a theater where people will feel invited to enjoy themselves, where the atmosphere is peaceful, where the colors represent happiness and joy,” said the article.
The theater has been used for many purposes throughout its history, hosting everything from movies to church services. However, during all that time, El Campanil fell into disrepair without proper maintenance.
Talk around town in 2001 about reviving the theater led to the creation of the El Campanil Theater Preservation Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to restoring and maintaining the theater as a local center for the performing arts. Volunteers started raising money to turn that dream into reality.
“Besides, the Calpine Corporation did a public relations project and gave us $500,000, which is exactly the money we thought we needed to remove things,” said Rick Carraher, former executive director of El Campanil, telling local media in 2018.
Carraher was part of the original Rivertown Renaissance project, which included the restoration of El Campanil. He was the owner of Rick’s on Second cafe and president of the Rivertown Business Association. Rivertown was once a prominent business center of Antioch, its history dating back to 1872. As crime increased in the area, however, fewer customers frequented the downtown area and businesses closed.
Revitalizing the historic downtown Riverside area has been a goal in Antioch since then, with mixed success, but local businesses are still thriving in the district. Across El Campanil street are restaurants like Guadalajara Taqueria and Sweets on Second.
Since reopening in 2004, El Campanil has served as a performing arts center in Rivertown and is managed by the El Campanil Theater Preservation Foundation. The Bellarosa Strings show (bellarosasq.com) is one of many that have been staged at the theater in recent years. The audience was full of excitement during the break from the band’s musical history of The Beatles.
“My favorite part so far is viola and cello, but I like to be a little biased because I used to play in the orchestra,” said Amaru Trinidad, 14, of Antioch, a student at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in this city.
Trinidad said that this performance was the first orchestra performance he attended at El Campanil, but he was not the first to visit this theater. He said he has attended many times and singled out the theater’s annual holiday production of “The Nutcracker” as a highlight. A sense of familiarity seemed to be shared among many visitors, who seemed at ease within the walls of the local theater.
For many, it has served as a hobby for their entire lives. However, in recent years, funding has become a concern for the continuity of theatre. Although the theater presents its own shows, such as the recent performance of the Bellarosa Strings, they are often rented out to third parties.
When this happens, the theater does not make much profit from the ticket revenue. Since tickets and rent do not provide enough money for continued operations, El Campanil has turned to other sources of funds to continue operating.
“We have had financial problems in the past,” said Sobel Idul. “We had to be more productive in order to continue the funding.”
He described the funding as “multi-faceted,” matching the theater’s many sources of funding. As a non-profit organization, the El Campanil Theater Preservation Foundation has been supported by donations from companies and charities.
Since last October, the center has sought donations from the public for their aforementioned “Keep Art Alive in Antioch” campaign. Donors can make one-time or monthly donations, and monthly donors can receive free tickets to shows presented by El Campanil (visit giving.classy.org/campaign/730308/donate online to donate).
“We need to be sustainable in order to remain operational, and receiving this funding will allow us to continue to develop and rebuild our practices more effectively,” said the theater’s Executive Director Joshua Price to a local newspaper in October. “If we’re going to reach our goal, this will get us into 2026, allowing us to continue to be the anchor of the city and keep art alive in Antioch.”
Despite falling short of their $50,000 fundraising goal so far, the theater has raised enough to continue operations through 2026. Since then, theater officials plan to continue to find financial partners and improve marketing.
As the show drew to a close after the band finished playing the songs “Nali Langa” and “Hey Jude,” the audience erupted into applause. Power followed the crowd outside, where the sun was beginning to set in Antioch.
Many people gathered to talk about this show. Kathy, who did not give her last name, said she regularly visits the Campanile and has been attending its events for decades. He talked not only about how great the show was but also about the importance of El Campanil in Antioch as a center for live music, dance and theater.
“This is a community gem,” Kathy said. “Many people in Antioch only go to work and do not understand what is here.”
Contra Costa Youth Journalism is a collaborative effort involving educational institutions and professional news organizations dedicated to increasing opportunities for Contra Costa County high school students to inform Contra Costa County residents about relevant local issues.
