Mission, Vision & Organizational Overview
STAGES St. Louis is committed to preserving and advancing the art form of Musical Theatre through excellence in performance and education.
STAGES employs the best Musical Theatre artists available regionally and nationally for all productions. By holding auditions in St. Louis and New York, STAGES is able to attract not only Broadway talent, but also further its commitment to support professional St. Louis actors, providing nearly 450 union work weeks annually. In addition to being the top regional employer of local union actors, STAGES educates thousands of students each year at its Performing Arts Academy, the region’s only year-round arts school with a comprehensive curriculum run by a professional theatre company.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
DEI Statement:
STAGES St. Louis strives to cultivate an inclusive environment which welcomes differences of ethnicity, religion, sexuality, income or any other divisions with generosity and openness among its artists, audiences, leaders, and community. Through support and understanding of our differences, we are able to recognize our commonalities.
Core Values:
Excellence: by holding ourselves to the highest standards.
Education: by creating arts enthusiasts through active participation.
Community: by programming the arts with community involvement in mind.
Diversity: by providing arts access to traditionally underserved communities.
Our History: Experience The Story
STAGES St. Louis is the region’s foremost not-for-profit company committed to preserving and advancing the art form of Musical Theatre through excellence in performance and education. In 2024, STAGES celebrates its 38th Season of producing Broadway-quality theatre, presenting 140 performances from June through October to nearly 50,000 patrons.
STAGES employs the best Musical Theatre artists available regionally and nationally for all productions. By holding auditions in St. Louis and New York, STAGES is able to attract not only Broadway talent, but also further its commitment to support professional St. Louis actors and artists, providing nearly 450 union work weeks annually. In addition to being the top regional employer of local union actors, STAGES educates thousands of students each year at its Performing Arts Academy, the region’s only year-round arts school with a comprehensive curriculum run by a professional theatre company.
STAGES opened in 1987 with a budget of $50,000 and a part-time seasonal staff of eight. Today, the company employs a full-time staff of 25 overseeing a budget of $5 million. During the performance season, an additional 150 actors and crew members bring the productions to life. To date, STAGES professionals have produced 112 shows, with nearly 3,700 performances, playing to more than one million patrons. The STAGES audience includes patrons from a spectrum of ages and socio-economic levels from more than 238 cities located in 30 states. Audience members represent over 160 zip codes from the state of Missouri alone. All productions are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities and each season STAGES provides hundreds of complimentary tickets to underserved populations, including low-income seniors.
In April of 2013, the STAGES Performing Arts Academy and the administrative offices relocated to a new 22,000-square-foot-facility in Chesterfield, which is enabling STAGES to meet a growing need for arts education programs in a larger, more flexible state-of-the-art facility. The Kent Center for Theatre Arts includes a performance hall with flexible seating to be used for mainstage rehearsals, dance classes, educational presentations, donor and community events, and special performances.
STAGES’ record of excellence is evidenced by multiple awards and grants. The spectacular shows and incredible talent from STAGES’ 36th Season received an 12 awards from BroadwayWorld St. Louis, and 19 nominations for St. Louis Theatre Circle awards. Adding to this remarkable array of awards, STAGES also was honored by the Missouri Arts Council with a prestigious 2016 Missouri Arts Award in the category of Arts Organization, the highest award an arts organization can receive in the state of Missouri. STAGES received the Arts & Education Council’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2008. In 2009, STAGES was elevated to the top funding level of Established Institutions by the Missouri Arts Council. STAGES is an ongoing, multi-year recipient of operating support from the Regional Arts Commission and receives funding from the Arts & Education Council, as well as from more than 40 corporations and foundations.