About Us
Our Mission, Our Company, Our HistoryAbout the Company
Gloucester Stage is a professional non-profit theater company, operating under a NEAT agreement with AEA, SDC, and IATSE unions, presenting contemporary plays and rousing classics that have moved on to commercial productions in New York and Paris. Located in a century-old brick warehouse on the oceanfront of Boston’s North Shore, the unique three quarter thrust stage provides an intimate experience for audiences.
Mission Statement
The Gloucester Stage Company’s mission is to present professional productions of intellectually stimulating and socially relevant theater,
provide a nurturing work environment in an inspirational setting for artists of exceptional talent,
enrich the greater theater landscape by introducing audiences to new work,
and contribute to the cultural and educational development of Cape Ann.
Land Acknowledgement
Gloucester Stage Company is located on the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Pawtucket people and their neighbors the Massachusett, Nipmuc, Penacook, and Wampanoag tribes.
The original Algonquian name for this land is Agawam, potentially meaning “fish-curing place.” We recognize and honor the Native and Indigenous peoples who have lived in this territory for more than 10,000 years, are here now, and will be here for generations to come.
We would like to thank members of the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness for reviewing this acknowledgement.
EDI & Anti-Racist Action
Gloucester Stage is committed today and in our coming seasons to engaging more Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, staff, audience members, and vendors, and to presenting stories that are representative of a much greater and more diverse experience.
We are prioritizing this work and will be increasing our transparency as we effect change now and in the years to come. Thank you to leaders in our Boston Artistic community and We See You W.A.T. for challenging organizations to take this time to grow.
Theater Safety Standards
We remain committed to providing a safe environment for all of our volunteers, artists, and staff. We are proud adopters of the Chicago Theatre Standards, and part of the #notinourhouse movement. We intend for our Company, by our actions and example, to help change the culture that, for so long, has allowed physical and emotional harm to take place in our industry.
We remain vigilant in these processes and policies to ensure that Gloucester Stage is a place where people feel safe, are free to do their best work, and have the ability speak up without fear of reprisal.
Building History
The Twin Lights Garage—currently the home of the Gloucester Stage Company—was designed by Ezra Phillips around 1915 for John F. Perkins and Fred A. Corliss; it represents one of the many commercial projects Phillips & Holloran was involved in over the years. Perkins and Corliss started out in business together in the 1890s renting bicycles. With the arrival of the automobile on Cape Ann in the early 20th century, the men updated their business plan and made the transition from bicycles to cars. The garage Phillips designed for them could hold 100 autos; Perkins and Corliss used it to house the cars visitors arrived in as well as their own fleet of vehicles used for chauffeuring summer-folk from their hotels and cottages around the Cape.
The design of the garage was simple and the materials—concrete, steel and brick—were selected specifically for the building’s intended use. The drawings for the façade of the building are straightforward and feature just a touch of decorative brickwork near the cornice, plate glass windows, and reinforced wooden double doors which resembled the style of door that would be found on a horse barn rather than a car garage. Adding a whimsical touch, Phillips included two lighthouses in his plans, perched on the top ridge of the building. On the outside of the Twin Lights Garage, buried in the side yard, was a 1,000 gallon gasoline storage tank. The pump through which the gas flowed was on the sidewalk directly in front of the garage. Acclaimed American modernist painter Stuart Davis (1894–1964) captured the façade of this building and the gasoline pump in sketches and drawings, and later in such paintings as Gas Station, 1917 (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden) and Report from Rockport, 1940 (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
The twin lighthouses of Thatcher’s Island located off Rockport have made their way into the collective ideology of Cape Ann. First erected during Colonial times and then rebuilt in 1860–1861, the two towers have been used in advertising, on town and city seals and as logos for businesses and clubs. It remains uncertain whether the lighthouses were actually installed on top of Perkins and Corliss’ garage. Courtesy of Cape Ann Museum, learn more online: www.capeannmuseum.org