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Maryland State Theater - Center Stage

[photo, Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore, Maryland] Center Stage
700 North Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 332-0033
e-mail: info@centerstage.org
web:www.centerstage.org/

In 1978, Center Stage was named the State Theater of Maryland (Chapter 1003, Acts of 1978; Code General Provisions Article, sec. 7-319(a)). It is a nonprofit resident professional theater. (Resident theaters invite artists to perform or design costumes and sets for their productions while living in theater-provided housing for the duration of their performance schedules.) One of approximately 70 resident theaters nationwide, Center Stage has an annual operating budget of about $6.7 million and employs some 100 artists and administrators year-round.

Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore, Maryland, 2004. Photo courtesy of Center Stage.

[photo, Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore, Maryland] Center Stage offers a six-play season of classics, music theater, new works, play readings, and cabaret series. More than 100,000 people per year attend. Productions are performed on one of two stages (the 541-seat Pearlstone Theater, and the smaller Head Theater) whose sets and props are made in Center Stage's own shops. At performances of the 2015-2016 season, audiences will see six plays, but also play labs; third spaces (plays performed in other locales); Center Stage Digital; and special engagements. Several of these performance will be held at Towson University's Center for the Arts while Center Stage undergoes renovation starting in January 2016.

Located in downtown Baltimore, Center Stage was founded in 1963. Performances originally were held at a Preston Street fraternal hall. In 1965, Center Stage became a nonprofit regional theater and moved in the 1970s to a former Oriole cafeteria on North Avenue. A devastating fire in 1974 destroyed the theater at 11 East North Avenue. From the destruction, Center Stage rebounded by acquiring and partially renovating an old building (once part of Loyola High School and College) on Calvert Street. There, at its present location, the theater reopened its regular season in 1975.

Center Stage, 700 North Calvert St., Baltimore, Maryland. Photo by Richard Anderson, courtesy of Center Stage.

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