As Centerstage Theatre continues to move toward in-person performances, strengthening diversity and representation in casting and storytelling remain key focuses for the theatre.

“Centerstage is about throwing the doors of live theatre and the arts open for people who couldn’t get in before,” artistic director Trista Duval said. “Whether you want to be onstage, or in the audience or backstage, we’re about finding those walls and breaking them down, finding those doors and unlocking them.”

After performing its postponed Christmas show in July, Centerstage is heading into a fully in-person 2021-2022 season.

Deanna Martinez, who directed the Christmas show, said she has received more opportunities to direct as a woman of color at Centerstage than anywhere else.

“A lot of times, female directors in particular are seen as being good with kids, and so they’re often very limited to children’s productions and things like that,” Martinez said. “As a person of color, often I’m asked to work on what we call ‘the February projects.’ We’re often asked to work specifically around projects that are targeted toward our own ethnic communities. Centerstage doesn’t see things that way. They see it as all projects are for everyone.”

Martinez added that it was important to her to join a theatre that would be safe for her own daughter and other children of color with whom she had worked.

Duval said the theatre has been working on improving diversity in casting since she became artistic director. Recently, Centerstage published a statement in support of Black Lives Matter with a list of immediate action items that she said are either completed or in progress.

“On a purely numbers-based statistical level, the more diversity you have, the healthier you are, and on a human rights level, it’s a matter of human rights,” Duval said. “Black Lives Matter is about human rights. Access to the arts should be a human right.”

In an effort to make theatre more accessible, Centerstage put on its first sensory friendly performance in 2019 to include people with sensory sensitivities or issues.

“They have created relationships in the community within the schools and then also in specific cultural groups in the community to make sure that their diversity is not a box that’s being ticked, but that it is a real representation of the community in which they function,” Martinez said.

Martinez added that she felt very supported and wanted as a director at Centerstage. When they were unable to perform their Christmas show, they rescheduled rather than canceling.

Centerstage also remained partially open throughout the pandemic and did not have to lay off any staff. The performers in the Christmas show were able to film individual song performances to be streamed in a Christmas cabaret. Duval said Centerstage did lose money, but relied on community support and had a successful fundraising event.

Duval and Martinez both said they were excited about the upcoming season. Duval added that she cried when they were first able to bring people back into the theatre and that she is excited to be able to give performing artists opportunities again.

“Live theatre is meant to be live, and so getting to do this last show, and having both streaming and live options, was so exciting,” Martinez said. “It was wonderful to feel the energy of the space. Even though there were less people than normal because of limited capacities, it’s still worth it to hear the live reactions, the laughter and the gasps.”

As they head into the next season, Martinez said she hopes Centerstage will take the next step in representation beyond color-blind casting: telling diverse stories.

Duval said the theatre is aiming to start including those stories this season, and added that she is in negotiations for a script that does just that.

“In a time of hot social media takes, the idea of sitting down for two and a half hours, and hearing about somebody else’s life in a way that’s very live and visceral, but also funny and touching, is incredibly important,” Duval said. “This is not a time to throw those out the window in order to play it safe with show titles.”