MTC’s Bold Move
by Carol North

For thirty-nine years, Metro Theater Company was a professional theater on the move, touring to schools and communities throughout the St. Louis region, as well as beyond. Our tours took us coast-to-coast across the U.S. and as far as Italy, Japan and Taiwan. We were perpetual guests in other people’s places. If someone asked, “Where’s your theater?” we’d say our home was St. Louis, and that we chose to tour, rather than maintain a home theater. All our resources went to supporting artists, not real estate. The van felt most like home to us. 

Granted, Metro Theater Company did organizational business from an office, and like any theater, we required space for rehearsal, set construction and storage. Those spaces shifted over the years as the company grew. At its founding, Metro’s office was downtown and rehearsals took place in an empty classroom at New City School. In the mid-1980’s we moved our offices to a storefront in Webster Groves and conducted rehearsals in the auditorium at Steger Sixth Grade Center. We rented office, rehearsal and storage space at COCA for nine years, and from 1996-2012, our home was a mixed-use industrial site in University City. 

As Metro Theater Company approached its fortieth season, facility needs were once again a critical issue. We had diversified artistic programs, continuing to tour but now also mounting larger mainstage productions such as Hana’s Suitcase, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Giver.  Commissioning and new play development were ongoing. Community demand for our education programs was exploding – a good problem, to be sure, but we needed staff to meet the demand. We were making it all work, but everyone felt the strain of trying to do so much in too little space.

Metro’s board and staff took on an exhaustive, two-year search for an affordable, flexible, right-sized site for consolidated organizational operations. Functional space was the priority. Location was less important. When we finally made our way to 3311 Washington Avenue, we hit the jackpot. Not only could it satisfy all our functional criteria, the street-front location on the eastern boundary of Grand Center was a place where Metro Theater Company could establish public visibility.  From the sidewalk outside the building we could see the marquee of the Fabulous Fox Theatre. We imagined how cool it would be when people coming out of the Fox would look down Washington Avenue and see Metro Theater Company’s home. The space had enormous potential - a euphemistic way of saying it needed a lot of work, and the surrounding area was still quite rough. But we all envisioned what it might become. Grand Center leadership told us we’d be a vital anchor for future cultural development east of Grand. Moving to 3311 Washington in 2012 was not without risk, but everyone, including some very generous donors, rallied around the effort to support Metro Theater Company’s bold move. 

A sign was essential, everyone agreed. 

It had to be eye-catching, illuminated at night, visible from Grand Boulevard, stylishly reflective of the character of the organization, and, as we learned through months of leg work, officially approved by the City of St. Louis. Thanks to Alderwoman Marlene Davis, Metro’s then Managing Director Matt Neufeld had an influential champion as he took the design plans from one official bureaucrat to another. The path to approval required acceptance of several variances for the size of the sign and its right-angle extension over the sidewalk. (Visible from the Fox, right?) At long last, we got the green light to move forward. With just weeks before our first-ever New Works Festival in May 2013, the magnificent sign went up on the façade of Metro Theater Company’s new home. After forty years, we could finally say, “Here we are, St. Louis, the third-oldest professional theater in St. Louis!  Come on in and see what we’re making for you!”

Photography by Sarah Rugo, John Wolbers, and Jennifer Lin