At Stages Theatre Company, we know the many benefits of theatre and its ability to break down barriers, and grow empathy. The Open Door Program allows Stages to expand the wonderful gift of theatre to families that might not be able to experience it otherwise. Families that have an economic barrier that doesn’t allow them to bring their whole family to the theatre to see a show, or young people who want to be a part of theatre and want to have an arts education experience but may not have the funds to take a class.
Through the Open Door Program, Stages brings the umbrella of theatre and open it up to everyone in our community. The program strives to breakdown ALL barriers to participation in theatre arts programming on-stage and in the classroom.
Programs supported by Open Door include:
- Ticket Subsidies
- Tuition Assistance
- In-School Residency Support
- Open Captioned Performances
- ASL Interpreted Performances
- Audio Described Performances
- Sensory Friendly Performances
- CAST Program for Youth with ASD tuition subsidies and classroom support
- Transportation Subsidies
- One Pay What You Can performance for each production
- Dedicated performance to St. Jude Theatre of Dreams Fundraiser
- Dedicated seating for Hope Kids at each Preview Performance
Last year, Stages Theatre Company served 11,595 individuals through the Open Door Program totaling $136,329!
In addition to subsidies, Stages offers Pay What You Can performances for each of our productions. Patrons can reserve tickets for Pay What You Can performances at no cost and on the day of the performance, patrons make a donation of any amount on their way into the theatre.
Our Pay What You Can performance for our next production “The Dot” is on Sunday, January 19, 2020, 4:00 PM. For more information, visit our accessibility page HERE.
One of the programs supported by the Open Door Program is Stage’s sensory-friendly performances and the CAST (creative, accepting, sensory-friendly theatre) education program for youth with Autism. At any given sensory-friendly performance, which Open Door also provides subsidized tickets for, there will be families that say “this is the only thing that I can take my entire family to do together- Stages is a safe place for us!” This is exactly what the productions at Stages Theatre Company strive for and to have the ability to do that for communities that don’t necessarily feel that is a special opportunity.
Upcoming sensory-friendly performances include:
The Dot: Saturday, January 25, 2020, 10:00 AM
Iron Hearted Violet: Saturday, March 14, 2020, 10:00 AM
The Day You Begin: Saturday, April 25, 2020, 10:00 AM
The Open Door program is at the heart of the mission at Stages Theatre Company. It is so much about what we do and who we are! We have only now started to see the full impact of what the Open Door program can accomplish and it only grows from here. There continues to be more need, and more demand, and we can’t wait to be able to fill that.
