Regional Theater of the Week: Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, TX

By: David Clarke

BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theatre site on the Internet, is excited to announce a new feature to its comprehensive regional coverage - the Featured Regional Theater of the Week! Each week, BWW will introduce its readers to a regional theater located in one of our (over 130!) coverage cities. By exploring these different venues, their history and showcasing the production seasons, BWW continues its commitment to expand our presence in communities and cities across the United States.

This Week's Featured Regional Theater: Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, Texas

Stages Repertory Theatre is an established and well-known institution in Houston. Now in its 35^th season, the theatre first opened its doors in 1978, when they inhabited the basement of a local brewery. The company consistently illustrates courage, generosity, ingenuity, and intimacy in their celebrated seasons. They are also known for progressing theatre and energizing culture by producing new works, reinterpreting established works, developing talents in all aspects of the field, and taking theatrical risks that you are unlikely to see at other local theatres. Each year their MainStage season includes varied exciting world and regional premieres. Moreover, their current Producing Artistic Director, Kenn McLaughlin, has worked hard to obtain exposure and coverage of the theatre in well-known national publications, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, Vogue, and American Theatre.

In addition to their MainStage plays, Stages also introduces young audiences to the thrilling and enchanting world of live theatre by utilizing a range of educational programs. These programs include creating study guides that are in alignment with the TEKs and STAAR objectives that teachers use in lesson planning, providing reimbursement for bussing and reduced ticket prices to all EarlyStages productions, theatre education residences in partnership with Houston Arts Partners for students in the Houston, Katy, Spring, Cy-Fair and Jersey Village Independent School Districts, various positions in their college internship program, and their intensive Young Actors Conservatory that teaches skills from acting to playwriting, scenic design to costume design, as well as dance, stage combat and voice techniques.

Additionally, they host outreach programs such as Surround to promote discussion about essential ideas and issues, supply insight into other cultures and viewpoints, and help build the next generation of citizens, artists, and audiences. Other programs includes their partnership with the Houston Young Lawyers Association, the Arts 4 All program that is a sizable collaboration between Greater Houston Area School Districts and Houston's leading Arts in Education Organizations born out of a explicit request from area administrators for better methods to access arts educational resources in Houston, a Teacher Advisory Council, and becoming certified as a Continuing Education Provider that offers professional development to Texas teachers.

Currently David Davalos' WITTENBERG is running on the Arena Theater, and it will close on February 17, 2013. Julia Cho's THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE opens tonight, February 6, 2013, and runs until March 3, 2013 in the Yeager Theatre. Soon they will be producing ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE by Ted Swindley in honor of the shows 25^th Anniversary. ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE will run from March 13 to May 5, 2013 with Susan Koozin reprising the roles of Louise and Patsy. Rounding out the season will be productions of Rebecca Gilman's DOLLHOUSE from April 3 to April 28, 2013 and ROAD SHOW by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman from May 22 to June 30, 2013.

To learn more about Stages Repertory Theatre or to purchase tickets to their shows please visit http://stagestheatre.com or call (713) 527 - 0123.

Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett, Stages Repertory Theatre 2012-13

Know of a theater we should feature? Send your suggestion to christina@broadwayworld.com.