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North Texas Giving Day is an important day in our community! We each get to get up, reach deep, and give to the many essential non-profits in our area who do so much to enrich our lives.

Here's our page on the Communities Foundation of Texas Giving Day website: https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/stage-west

Matching Funds!
We have secured a dollar for dollar match with a goal of $35,000.00 from a generous private donor. HELP MAKE THAT MONEY OURS!

 

The 41st season includes a wide range of plays from beloved classics to hot, new contemporary plays being showcased all around the nation. Every gift to Stage West makes an impact on our ability to create great live programming that engages, entertains and challenges our community's citizens and tourists to the area. The greatest need is always towards our general operations. Without those dollars, there can be no lights, staff, facility, etc to make the creation of plays possible. We run on a "belt-tightened" budget with each dollar carefully accounted for. All of us at Stage West are proud to be producing in-the-black for over a decade now and to continue that financially responsible commitment to our donors and audiences.

Your donation supports our upcoming 41st Season of live theatre and educational programming. Stage West serves upwards of 25,000 community members each year and employs over a hundred local artists each season. We consider diversity - with the goal of a wide representation of the many cultures and communities within our region - a top priority. Thought-provoking programming that prompts people to explore outside of their comfort zone while encouraging tolerance and open conversation is at the forefront of season selection process. Beyond that, we want to entertain within a shared environment that brings people from all walks of life together. 

In addition to our regular programming, Stage West runs over a dozen community outreach programs each year including the Festival of the Kid, the K-12 Neighborhood Play Contest, M.A.D.E.: An Indoor Arts and Music Festival, an annual collaboration with Bass Hall's Children's Education Program, and much more. Inspiring the next generation to explore the arts is a win-win for everyone.

Stage West is currently in the midst of a $3,250,000 comprehensive campaign to renovation the company's facility - including backstage bathrooms for creative teams and a new flexible black box theatre with audience capacity up to 200. Every dollar that goes to Stage West, now through December 2022, helps fund this campaign and secure/build the theatre's future.

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Call for Artists and Artisans

December 15, 2019

M.A.D.E. for the Holidays! (M.A.D.E. stands for Music, Art, Drinks, and Eats)

SEEKING: A wide variety of artists and artisans to sell their artwork and goods during the festival. Thirty floor spaces will be available.

When: Sunday, December 15 at Stage West Theatre 821 W. Vickery Blvd, 11am-5pm. First hour is for Stage West subscribers only.

What: A Music-Arts-Drinks-Eats festival inside Stage West Theatre’s 16,000 sqft warehouse performance space.

Cost to Public: Pay What You Can (we kindly suggest $10 per person; kids 12 and under are free.) All admissions are considered donations to Stage West, a 501-C-3 non-profit organization.

Cost to Participate as a Vendor: $75 per space. Spaces are irregular due to the nature of the facility and may range from 6x10 to 10x12 depending on the spot assigned. Special requests are accepted though not guaranteed. Once invited to participate, vendors have 14 business days to secure space by paying the fee by calling the theatre’s box office at 817-784-9378. Fee is non- refundable 30 days prior to event.

How to Apply: by September 15, 2019 please send an email to made [at] stagewest.org.
Email must include:

  • Name of artist and business, if applicable.
  • Contact information – email, phone number.
  • Description of all products to be sold.
  • Minimum of 3 photos of products; business logo if available.
  • Facebook & Instagram handles.

Product samples may be dropped off at 821 W. Vickery Blvd, Fort Worth, 76104, also due by September 15. Offers of space will be made by September 20, 2019. Any spaces that remain open after initial round will be offered by waitlist.

Stage West will be promoting the event all fall leading up to the date. Participants are strongly urged to heavily promote as well so as to broaden the reach of marketing beyond Stage West’s own audience.

Contact: Dana Schultes, Executive Producer dana [at] stagewest.org
817-338-1777 (work) 682-465-4811 (cell)

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Greening Stage West

On July 27, 2019, Stage West will open the regional premiere of Lungs by Duncan Macmillan - a two person play that explores the changing landscape of a couple’s relationship as they grapple with the pros and cons of having a baby and the effects of raising a child in a world with ever-dwindling resources. It is both universal and intimately personal.

In preparing to share this acclaimed new script with our audiences, we have been reflecting on the ways in which we at Stage West can continue to cut down on our environmental footprint.

Below are a list of ways that various aspects of the organization have become green over the past, ways that we plan to be green by the opening of Lungs, and ways that we are looking to further “green” the organization in the future.

Ways We Were Green:
Cafe:

  • no plastic drinking straws or stir sticks (moved to bamboo stir sticks)
  • no plastic cups/drinkware (moved to glassware)
  • no plastic cutlery or flatware (moved to silverware)
  • no plastic dessert plates (moved to proper plates)
  • no styrofoam cups/to-go containers (moved to cardboard/paper)
  • when shopping for the cafe, reusable shopping bags are used instead of store grocery bags

Production:

  • the shop reuses many materials and keeps stock of commonly used items that are in constant reuse and circulation to cut down on cost as well as unnecessary material use
  • proper disposal of paint, metal, etc. to cut down on impact to the environment

Utilities:

  • refillable hand soap dispensers (hand soap is bought in bulk)
  • Stage West does not have city recycling due to cost, so recycling is taken home with staff members

Facilities:

  • water bottle fountain/water fountain combo installed in 2017 bathroom area renovation

Development:

  • for donor gifts/perks and merch, Stage West sourced koozies and tote bags made from 100% recycled materials

Ways We Will Be Green By Opening of Lungs:
Cafe:

  • no individual/single use creamers for coffee (moving to creamer carafe)
  • no individual/single use sugar packets (moving to sugar container)

Production:

  • no paper script for stage management (piloting a new software that allows for a digital calling script)
  • programming Lungs
  • scenic design for Lungs will be comprised of recycled wine bottles and curtains that were already in stock at Stage West

Ways We Hope To Be Green In the Future:
Cafe:

  • looking into options for sustainable table-coverings and napkins

Utilities:

  • looking into greener/more energy efficient options such as solar panels (ideally donated)

Facilities (Post-Renovations):

  • air hand dryers to cut down on use of paper towels
  • area in back of building with small garden, plants, trees, etc.
  • Studio Theatre to be fully LED-friendly

As we are a not-for-profit organization, we would be delighted to accept support and advice from companies or organizations that could help us continue to diminish our carbon footprint. Contact our Executive Producer at dana [at] stagewest.org

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Calling all visual artists

Stage West is accepting art portfolio submissions for its 41st Season gallery spaces.

When:
Selected artists’ work will be displayed in four to six-week spots between October 2019 – September 2020. Between one and four artists will be featured per show during the Stage West 41st season.

What:
Paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, quilts, 3-D wall-friendly art, etc. All work should be framed and/or finished and presented in a professional manner.

Who:
6-18 artists will be selected to be featured throughout the season. Yes, you can submit to be considered again if you have previously shown at Stage West. *

How:
Submit the following to dana [at] stagewest.org (subject: 41st%20Season%20Art) with “41st Season Art” in the subject line. Deadline for submission is September 30, 2019

What to send to Dana:

  • 3-5 images of your work
  • Sizes and Mediums for work being proposed for display
  • A general total of the number of items you would like to display
  • A description of the framing/display method you intend to use – each wall has a built in airplane wire/sliding hook system.

Information about Stage West? Please visit www.stagewest.org or call Dana Schultes at 817-338-1777 or send her an email at dana [at] stagewest.org (subject: 41st%20Season%20Art)

*There is no guarantee of a gallery spot. Submittal rates have averaged 4 artists for every 1 spot available.

File Upload: 
PDF icon artist_search_notice_41st_season.pdf
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Hearing Assistance Available

Stage West is pleased to announce the installation of a new Assisted Listening Device system made possible by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. John and Annie Mason.

Stage West is pleased to announce the installation of a new Assisted Listening Device system made possible by a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs. John and Annie Mason. The system will include 16 receivers and headphones , as well as a handful of T-Coil neckloops which will also be available for those whose hearing aids are set up to receive the transmission. Both things will be available for Stage West’s Main Stage, starting with the first preview of Lungs by Duncan Macmillan on July 25. Upcoming renovations of Stage West’s second space, the Studio, will include the installation of the system in that venue as well.

Interested audience members can reserve headphones or neckloops in advance or request them from box office upon arrival. The devices will be checked out by exchange of drivers license.

The goal of this new system is to elevate the theatre-going experience for any patron who has hearing difficulties. Stage West wishes to acknowledge the assistance of David Lanza in the selection and installation of the system.

“There aren’t enough words to express how grateful we are to be able to offer this system to the hearing-impaired public. Our patrons mean so much to all of us. Every chance to increase their comfort and enjoyment while at the theatre is a delight,” saying Executive Producer Dana Schultes.

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Auditions for our 41st Season!

Auditions are the weekends of July 27, August 3, August 10.  2 plays per weekend. Sign up -here- to get audition notices from Stage West!

ADDITIONAL INFO HERE on our AUDITIONS page

Ada and the Engine Auditions - July 27, 9:00AM-12:00PM and July 28, 6:00PM-10:00PM
Between Riverside & Crazy Auditions - July 27, 9:00AM-12:00PM and July 28, 6:00PM-10:00PM

Ada and the Engine Callbacks - July 29 at 6:00PM
Between Riverside & Crazy Callbacks - July 30 at 6:00PM

The Lifespan of a Fact Auditions - August 3, 9:00AM-12:00PM and August 4, 6:00PM-10:00PM
Church & State Auditions - August 3, 9:00AM-12:00PM and August 4, 6:00PM-10:00PM

The Lifespan of a Fact Callbacks - August 5 at 6:00PM
Church & State Callbacks - August 6 at 6:00PM

The Children Auditions - August 10, 9:00AM-12:00PM and August 11, 6:00PM-10:00PM
Into the Breeches! Auditions - August 10, 9:00AM-12:00PM and August 11, 6:00PM-10:00PM

The Children Callbacks - August 12 at 6:00PM
Into the Breeches! Callbacks - August 13 at 6:00PM

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2019-2020 Season Announcement

The Lifespan of a Fact

by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell
Regional Premiere
November 7 - December 8, 2019
Based on a True-ish Story.
At a prestigious magazine publication, a determined, young employee is about to be given an opportunity. The demanding editor-in-chief is giving him a big assignment: she wants him to fact check a groundbreaking piece by an illustrious, albeit unorthodox author. As the deadline approaches and the lines between accuracy and artistic license blur, boundaries are crossed and the high-stakes world of publishing becomes personal in this brand new comedy of conflict.

“Smart…rib-bustingly funny!” - The Wall Street Journal

 

Ada and the Engine

by Lauren Gunderson
Regional Premiere
January 9 - February 9, 2020
Meet the Woman Who Changed Techn01ogy.
Young and curious mathematician Ada Byron is caught between two worlds. Her mother is pushing for a prestigious marriage to Lord Lovelace, hoping to repair the damage Ada’s father, the late Lord Byron, imposed on the family name. But Ada sees the creative potential in the analytic engines created by her elder friend and scholar Charles Babbage. As pressures mount and feelings grow, these two form a partnership that will change the course of the future.

“Intriguing…the story is pretty irresistible.” - San Francisco Chronicle

 

The Children

by Lucy Kirkwood
Regional Premiere
March 12 - April 12, 2020
Tony Nominee for Best New Play
Where Do Your Loyalties Lie?⁣
In a seaside cottage on the east coast of England, a pair of retired nuclear scientists are startled by the reappearance of a former colleague. As crackers and wine are trotted out, so are remembered stories, old jealousies, and haunting secrets, all leading to the true reason for this sudden visit: a chilling and dangerous plan. The evening will be revelatory and the fallout will be cataclysmic. Brave, humane, and beautifully written, this play confronts the responsibility each generation must face for the way it leaves the world.

“Excellent…both human and humane, keeps you guessing” - Chicago Tribune

 

Church & State

by Jason Odell Williams
Regional Premiere
May 7 - June 7, 2020
The Separation of What Now? ⁣
Three days before his bid for re-election, in the wake of another school shooting, a Republican U.S. Senator has a life-altering crisis of faith, and makes an off-the-cuff comment that sends the entire campaign into a tailspin. His wife and campaign manager try to contain the damage, but in a country where religion influences politics and politics have become a religion, how do you reach the people and stay true to yourself? A timely and fast-paced story that is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and uplifting.

“Crackling… enjoyable, thought-provoking, and humorous. I wish every member of Congress would see it!” —NPR

 

Into the Breeches!

by George Brant
Regional Premiere
July 2 - August 2, 2020
The Show Must Go On!⁣
It’s 1942, and there’s a problem at Oberon Playhouse - with the director and leading men all off at war, it looks like the season will be cancelled. That is until a determined and passionate group of ladies rally the troops at home and set out to put on an all-female production of Shakespeare’s Henry V. An increasingly unexpected team is assembled, with a hilariously desperate array of thoughts and ideas, but united in desire. This delightful and moving backstage comedy examines the power of art to bring us together, even in the hardest of times.

“Brilliant…fresh, witty and thoughtful…a total triumph." - Montgomery Advertiser

 

Between Riverside & Crazy

by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Regional Premiere
August 27 - September 27, 2020
Pulitzer Prize Winner
House of Black and Blue.
Irrepressible ex-cop and recent widower Walter Washington is under a lot of pressure. He’s in an ongoing legal battle, clinging desperately to grievances from the past. Barely holding on to the palatial rent-controlled Manhattan apartment that he shares with his newly paroled son and a ragtag surrogate family who call him “Pops”, he is not ready to accept payout or surrender. But as tensions come to a head in a swirl of demands from family and friends, a final ultimatum from former NYPD colleagues causes “Pops” to draw the line and make some demands of his own. 

“Dizzying…both utterly believable and not to be believed for a second.” - The New York Times

  • 2019-20 Subscriptions

    2019-2020 Full 6 Show Subscription Packages

    Each ticket gives you 1 admission only to each of the 6 shows this season.
    Your tickets will be mailed to you 1-2 weeks after your order is received. | Buy subscription

    Pick 3 Subscriptions 2019-2020

    2019-2020 Pick 3 Packages
    Pick any date listed for any 3 of the shows of the season. (These dates may be exchanged later if need be.) To request your seats, or to make a cafe reservation, please contact the Box Office. 
    Your tickets will be mailed out within a couple of weeks after your order is received. | Buy subscription

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Be a part of our future!

Have you read the news?

Stage West celebrated its 40th anniversary Wednesday with a gala – and the announcement that the Fort Worth theater will be expanding with new performance spaces and a redesigned cafe.  Art & Seek’s Jerome Weeks reports it’ll all cost $3 million – but the theater has already raised more than half of that.  

Keep Reading 

Anyone can help by texting “SetTheStage” to 88793!

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"Stage West Goes Big"

Art&Seek.org
​by Jerome Weeks 
28 Feb 2019

Stage West celebrated its 40th anniversary Wednesday with a gala – and the announcement that the Fort Worth theater will be expanding with new performance spaces and a redesigned cafe. Art & Seek’s Jerome Weeks reports it’ll all cost $3 million – but the theater has already raised more than half of that.

Stage West is about to become a transformative cultural resource in Fort Worth. It’ll be able to foster smaller theaters and music groups by renting spaces to them, and it’ll increase its own revenue possibilities when its current lobby cafe doubles its seating to 125. When the expansion is complete, Stage West will be the only company in Tarrant County with four performance spaces. That includes its main stage with 144 seats and a new, flexible studio space next door that can seat up to 200. There’ll be a tiny rehearsal hall and they’ll all share the current lobby cafe, which can also be used for small shows.

In 1930, the yellow-brick building on West Vickery Boulevard was a bus garage. In 2007, it became the sixth home for Stage West. The company had been bouncing around Fort Worth until the theater’s late founder Jerry Russell settled his theater there. Under his successor, executive director (and Art&Seek Spotlight artist) Dana Schultes, Stage West has almost doubled its budget.

Schultes sees Stage West’s changes in the near future as potentially rippling through Fort Worth’s arts scene:

“The cool thing,” she says, “is that each of the venues is so different from the next. And what that means to me is an oportunity to foster more of an indie arts scene in the area. And it means the community will have more resources for great arts. “

Under Schultes, recent productions including ‘Bootycandy,’ ‘The Nether,’ ‘The Octoroon‘ and ‘A Doll’s House, Pt2’ have undeniably ramped up the theater’s production quality. These have been some of the more daring, highly-praised shows in North Texas the past two season. Last year, Stage West became one of the very rare North Texas theaters to purchase its own home. Yet this new “Setting the Stage for the Future” campaign is actually the theater’s first-ever, community-wide fundraising effort.

The full release:

STAGE WEST CELEBRATES ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY WITH A GALA AND A SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT

(Fort Worth, Texas)  Stage West marked 40 years in the city with a grand dinner and festivities highlighting its many accomplishments, on February 27, at the Fort Worth Club. Since its founding in 1979 the theatre has presented over 300 plays to audiences that totaled more than 650,000 patrons over the years.

The celebration culminated in an announcement that Stage West had just completed the four-month silent phase of a planned, three-year $3 million comprehensive campaign. The surprise declaration was made by former State Senator and the daughter of the theatre’s founder, Jerry Russell, Wendy Davis. She delighted the audience with the news that more than one-half of the goal at $1.68 million had been reached!

The Campaign for Stage West: Setting the Stage for the Future is the culmination of a series of important accomplishments.  The most consequential was the acquisition of its home theatre at 821 West Vickery at the beginning of 2018. The building, which was originally built as a bus garage in 1930, was the sixth site in Fort Worth from which the company produced plays.

Other factors that encouraged the board to conduct a campaign included the doubling of its annual philanthropic income during the last four years. While its annual revenue budget crossed the $1 million mark. Stage West had also built a $200,000 reserve fund, and began an effort to create an endowment named for Jerry Russell.

In addition, the theatre has gained increasing recognition for the quality and challenging nature of its productions. Most recently, TheaterJones’ Mark Lowry named Stage West the outstanding theatre of 2018 based on its productions last season of Octoroon and HIR.

“We have had a nice run of good fortune,” said Dana Schultes, Stage West’s Executive Producer, “and it encourages us to think bigger. Success in this campaign will help Stage West move to a new plateau of excellence leading to our goal of becoming a landmark theatre in our region. Thankfully, we have been most encouraged by the response to the campaign among our board members and the friends we have reached in the first four months of the campaign”.

The focus of the campaign is to refurbish the main space, as well as to create a second theatre, a redesigned rehearsal hall, an expanded café, new dressing rooms for both theatres, and other improvements planned to make the spaces work better. In addition, the $3 million goal includes the monies required for operational needs during the three-year span of the campaign.

The 40th Anniversary Gala hosted 200 supporters, including some who attended Stage West’s initial production of Edward Albee’s A Zoo Story in 1979. The guests were entertained by award-winning magician, Trigg Watson, and by musical medleys arranged by Cherish Robinson from the many shows performed at Stage West. In addition, the evening included a buffet dinner as well as silent and live auctions.

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