Theatricum Botanicum

The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, named for the English botanist John Parkinson's herbal, Theatrum Botanicum (1640), is an open-air theater founded in Topanga Canyon, near Santa Monica, California by Will Geer in 1973. In the 1950s Will Geer was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He had to sell his large Santa Monica home and move his family to a small plot in the canyon where they could grow their own produce. Geer's friend Woody Guthrie had a small shack on the property. They unintentionally founded what became an artists' colony. Since its founding in 1973, the Geer family has continued to operate the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Geer's former wife, Herta Ware, helped develop the outdoor summer theatre and continued to appear in plays there after her husband's death in 1978. The company features Shakespeare, as well as modern and contemporary authors. The theater, set in the natural amphitheater of a mountain canyon, is also used for occasional concerts.

Will Geer combined his acting and botanical careers at the Theatricum, by making sure that every plant mentioned in Shakespeare was grown there. Geer`s ashes are at the site along with a bust in his likeness. As well Herta Ware`s ashes are there.

The beginnings of the Theatricum Botanicum stretch back to the early 1950s when Will Geer, one of the many actors victimized by the McCarthy Era Blacklisting, opened a theatre for Blacklisted actors and folk singers on his Topanga property. He also cultivated a large garden and, unable to find work in Hollywood, Will and his family earned a living by selling vegetables, fruit, herbs, and theatre. With the advent of television's The Waltons and subsequent popularity of Will's portrayal of Grandpa, in 1973 Will Geer re-gathered his family (who were now working actors at theatres across the country) and together they formed a non-profit corporation, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Audiences flocked to free workshop performances of Shakespeare, folk plays, and concerts featuring such well-known artists as Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Della Reese & Burl Ives, among others.

...
Wikipedia