ON A CHILLY AFTERNOON in Antioch’s Rivertown district on the coast of the Delta, a group of residents gathered to watch a string quintet that is a part of Bellarosa Strings play music by The Beatles.
The location was the El Campanil Theatre, a historic building and center for the arts that has remained a fixture in the Antioch community for nearly a century. But as the El Campanil nears its 100th birthday, the theater’s 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 2026.
The El Campanil, a Spanish name meaning “the bell tower,” has the titular bell hanging in an alcove in front of the building, along with classic theater panels describing upcoming events. The inside is similarly ornate: the lobby is bathed in red and gold, with red the primary color of the patterned carpeting and the tops of the pillars lining the walls in gold. Guests gather here before shows, chatting and ordering drinks at the bar.
The stage is similarly well decorated and much larger than one may believe from the outside. It includes a mix of old and new as a decades-old mural depicting two nude women in a classically painted design hangs on the wall between two pairs of speakers attached to the ceiling. Three small balconies line the walls on either side.
Audience members can choose one of 640 seats, including wheelchair and companion seating, spread among three floors. Before the string show began, representatives for the theater stepped on the stage 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, president of the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation.
A ‘most pretentious’ landmark
The El Campanil Theatre opened on Nov. 1, 1928, and at the time it 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 gayety and happiness,” the article states.
The theater has been used for many purposes during its history, hosting everything from movies to church services. But throughout that time, the El Campanil deteriorated without proper maintenance.
Talk around town in 2001 about renovating the theater resulted in the creation of the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing and maintaining the theater as a local center for the performing arts. Volunteers began raising funds 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, former executive director of the El Campanil, told the Brentwood Press in 2018.
Carraher was part of the original Rivertown Renaissance project, which included the El Campanil restoration foundation. He was the owner of the popular Rick’s on Second cafe and president of the Rivertown Business Association. Rivertown was once the popular business center of Antioch, its history going back to 1872.
But as crime grew in the area, fewer customers frequented the downtown area, and businesses shut down.
At the heart of Rivertown’s revival
Revitalizing the historic Rivertown 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 the El Campanil are eateries such as Guadalajara Taqueria and Sweets on Second.
Since its grand reopening in 2004, the El Campanil Theatre has served as a venue for the performing arts in Rivertown and has been headed by the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation. The Bellarosa Strings show 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, a 14-year-old resident of the Antioch area and student at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch.
“We’ve had some financial problems in the past. We’ve had to get more creative to keep funding.”
Sharon Sobel Idul, president of the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation
The show was the first orchestra event he had attended at the El Campanil, but it wasn’t 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 Bellarosa Strings performance on Jan. 25, 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.”
Courting individual donors
She described the funding as “multi-pronged,” which rings true to the variety of funding sources the theater uses. As a nonprofit, the El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation has always been supported by donations from companies and charitable organizations. As of October 2025, the foundation has begun seeking donations from individual donors through their “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.
“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 Contra Costa News in October 2025. “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 El Campanil 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, is a frequent visitor to the El Campanil and has been attending events at the theater for decades. She spoke about not only how fabulous the show was, but also the importance the 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.”
Julian Reynoso is an 11th grader at Liberty High School in Brentwood and a CCYJ reporter. He is a layout editor of the school’s newspaper, The Lion’s Roar.
This story originally appeared in CCSpin.