Center Stage

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.

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.