Focus on Arts and Culture: Enter Stage Right in Port Huron
builds community through
theater

It’s the last dress rehearsal before opening night of “King Lear” at Enter Stage Right in Port Huron, and the theater is buzzing with anticipation.

Executive Director Regina Spain commands the stage, clipboard in hand, delivering final notes to the cast and crew, who offer each other words of encouragement and share nervous laughter. Soon, the audience will pour into the venue and take their seats. Together, they all will create not only an unforgettable theatrical experience, but also an enduring sense of Community.

“I look forward to every rehearsal, to every show, because it’s my way to express parts of me that I can’t necessarily do in my everyday life. For some people, this is their outlet that they go to versus bottling it up inside,” says Talia Bulgrien, who played both Lady Cordelia and The Fool in “King Lear.”

“I think the importance of having community theater is also giving that sense of a place for people to go, to meet new people, to form new relationships, to experience something new,” she says. “Live theater, especially versus TV or a movie, you go and you become part of the story. You’re not just sitting there watching. You’re in it, and it gives you that elevated feeling of being a part of something.”

Community Foundation support helps theater thrive

That sense of community is exactly what Spain and her husband, Brian Spain, hoped to create when they moved Enter Stage Right into the 100-seat Citadel Stage facility in 2016, with a goal to keep prices low and ensure the theater’s shows are accessible to as many people as possible.

Since then, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has provided Enter Stage Right with grants from the Stebbins Family Fund (to install a wheelchair lift in the historic building), as well as operations grants from the Inclusive Arts Fund.

A current grant of $25,000 provides support for Enter Stage Right’s year-round theater productions and core community programming. It aligns with the Community Foundation’s focus area of Arts and Culture, which aims to strengthen creative contributions to the civic, social and cultural infrastructure that enhances our region’s vibrancy.

“We’re trying to corral this herd of cats here and figure out how do we make this sustainable,” says Brian Spain, who serves as chair and secretary of the Enter Stage Right Board of Directors. “Your operations grants help us run some programs that we wouldn’t do otherwise.”

‘It feels like such a gift, every opening’

Enter Stage Right currently runs a 10-show annual production calendar, theater-based workshops, events in collaboration with other local theaters and performers, and outreach programs. It serves 4,500 people each year and, according to St. Clair County Convention & Visitors Bureau statistics, patrons spend nearly $350,000 on retail and dining while visiting the Theater.

Regina Spain says the Community Foundation’s support has helped Enter Stage Right survive and thrive despite the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple rent increases. In fact, the theater has been so successful that it’s outgrown its current space and is now considering a move to south Port Huron, where Enter Stage Right would anchor a city revitalization project along the Bridge to Bay Trail.

The move would be another opportunity for Enter Stage Right to achieve its mission of bringing powerful theater to entertain, enlighten and inspire the community.

As the “King Lear” dress rehearsal wraps up, Regina Spain reflects: “After opening night, after everybody goes home, I dim the lights and sit in the front row and soak it in. It feels like such a gift, every opening.”