Michael Ross joined Center Stage in July as managing director, after serving five seasons in that role at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn.
Ross first made Baltimore his home in 1984 while working with the Baltimore Opera Company. He returned in 1996 as part of the National Arts Stabilization Group.
He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and is an adjunct professor at the Yale University Drama School.
As Center Stage looks to its 40th anniversary next year, Ross discusses local theater, its link to the region’s business community and Center Stage’s latest innovations.
What brought you back to Baltimore and to Center Stage?
I?ve long admired [Artistic Director] Irene Lewis and her work. I?ve attended many shows over the years, vividly remembering Center Stage productions.
I?ve worked in theater a long time, studied theater. While working for the Baltimore Opera, I dreamed of someday running Center Stage.
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What is Center Stage? Is it a regional theater?
I don?t like the words ‘regional theater.’ I mean region of what? I guess you could say we are a theater of this region. I prefer to describe us as a professional nonprofit theater.
Each year, we do six full productions split between our two theaters. We produce our own work — one of about 400 members of Theatre Communications Group [a theater service organization]. We?re really one of the leading theaters nationally.
Who is your audience?
About 40 percent of our audience comes from Baltimore City, another 40 percent from Baltimore County. The remaining 20 percent come from surrounding counties.
What’s your budget? How is it used?
We have a $7.2 million budget for fiscal 2002-2003. Of that $7.2 million, about 55 percent is earned income — ticket sales, concessions. Another 45 percent comes from contributions.
Funding helps us make the kind of theater we do accessible to a broad spectrum of our community. This support allows us to do productions, support artists, work in the community and provide education programs. It also allows prices to remain affordable.
What is the typical cost of putting on a production?
It?s hard to say because of the context of each production. There are real direct costs — like sets. There are institutional costs. It?s hard to understand them when segregated.
Given the economy, and with theater perhaps being seen a luxury expense, are you experiencing many fiscal challenges?
This place has an incredible foundation, but it is not without its challenges. This is a very labor-intensive industry. Our industry hasn?t always been able to take advantage of new technologies. It takes the same number of actors to do a production of Shakespeare as it did 400 years ago.
The economy has been a little tough. A national trend we are seeing is that subscriptions are falling, and people seem to be more interested in single tickets. Fortunately, our subscription and single-ticket sales have been increasing.
Please discuss your fund-raising efforts. How much business and municipal support does Center State receive?
It?s a tough environment to be raising funds for new initiatives. Fund-raising and marketing is hard work — and we spend long hours doing it.
The business community has been great. A number of corporate groups have stepped up, and a number have been longtime supporters.
The city?s arts and culture budget supports our work with city schools. We?re also supported by the state, and Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard, Hartford and Carroll counties.
Why should business support theater?
When business supports the arts, it strengthens the community. It supports creativity and expression.
Some of the hottest communities, in terms of creative new economics, are strong supporters of the arts. Cities like Seattle, Austin, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis are really redefining themselves as cultural places.
This helps attract corporations. It helps them attract talent. People are looking for places where they want to live and bring their families.
Center Stage has been around for nearly 40 years. What are some of your recent innovations?
We have developed what we are calling our “Community Engagement Initiative.” It was made possible by a bequest for a former trustee [Jay Andrus], who wanted to help us build future audiences for Center Stage.
We?ve started with a good deal of qualitative and quantitative research, in order to better understand our relationship with our current audience. We also want to understand the attributes they associate with the experience of coming to Center Stage.
From this, we are launching a brand-identity campaign. In the past, we?ve been quiet and humble. It?s time to toot our own horn a bit about who we are and what we?re doing.
Are Baltimoreans as aware of Center Stage as you’d like them to be?
Theater-goers know us. But we want to help make other people more aware.
Center Stage does everything from Shakespeare to avant-garde performance artists like Carl Hancock Rux. Is that part of your overall vision?
Irene?s vision is for us to be an accessible part of the community. We are eclectic by nature. We?ve done musical, classical and hip-hop plays — a lot of different voices is what we are about.
Baltimore?s population largely is African-American. Is there an expressed commitment to have performances geared toward various minority communities?
It?s a commitment to humanity. What a great place to celebrate other cultures! Live theater teaches us a lot about ourselves and the world — and the world is a very eclectic, diverse place.
Our work has been well-received by African-American audiences. Some of our strongest sales have been for African-American productions.
How do you promote and encourage new artists?
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One, we commission plays. Two, we help develop new plays through our “First Look” play-development series. This series brings playwrights together with actors and directors to work on new plays. And we invite an audience to hear readings of these plays. Third, we produce new work. This year, we are producing two world premieres.
How would you describe Center Stage’s relationship with other local arts organizations?
Terrific, very collegial. Lately, there have been a series of meetings with executive, marketing and development directors for the Vivat! St. Petersburg festival.
We are also working with Arena Players. We?re celebrating 40 years, and they are celebrating their 50th anniversary. We are looking at a cooperative celebration of our work, maybe in February.
I think these relationships are great. I?m a great believer in the theory that more engenders more. I like to use the medical term, continuum of care [laughter]. We have slightly different purposes, but we?re all serving the community.
Talk about some of your community programs.
We have a great project with Carver and Briscoe high schools, working with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The program was supported by the Anne E. Casey Foundation.
The idea was for hearing-impaired students to experience creative self-expression through theater, using ideas in written word, sign and movement. The insight these students had was just incredible.
We have a vigorous, dedicated partnership with the Baltimore School for the Arts. Students in the process of developing their professional careers are being mentored by our professional actors — they spend time in rehearsals.
We also work with local colleges and their theater departments. Goucher College made our new play, “No Foreigners Beyond This Point,” required reading for this fall?s freshman class.
Do you offer internships?
We have 15 internships. It?s a great training ground for those in the early stages of their careers. We offer a stipend and housing. Most will be working in production and administration. We get a lot of applications. I modeled the internship program at my previous theater for the program here at Center Stage.
You?re located in the Historic Mount Vernon Cultural District. Any plans to move or expand?
There are no plans to move. We love being here. It?s a great neighborhood. Terrific work is being done by the Mount Vernon Cultural District and others — parking, safety and restoring this historical district. There will be new signs that point pedestrian traffic to us.
How will you put your stamp on Center Stage?
It?s not so much about putting my specific stamp on Center Stage. What I?d like to do is infect my enthusiasm for the place further into this community. I want to get people thinking about Center Stage, having an awareness of what we are all about. People have an amazing experience here, once we get them through our doors.
What is the best part of your job? The worst?
The worst part is not being able to give artists everything they need to fulfill their dreams, physically and financially. These are incredible, imaginative people — and our work is to help them realize their dreams.
The best part is the interaction with the audience, seeing people in our lobbies before and after our shows.
Any other thoughts about why the arts are important?
I?m positive and enthusiastic about the role of the arts in our current culture and environment. As we find more ways to not interact on a personal level, the arts are a way for people to come together, to react together. There?s power in that.