Page 3 - Setting the Stage - Strategic Plan through 2024

STAGES - STRATEGIC PLAN THROUGH 2024 3

In January 2020, Stages celebrated the opening
of our new $35.4 million three-theater venue,
The Gordy. This transformational moment was,

in many ways, the outcome of a comprehensive
five-year strategic plan that was implemented
during the 2015-2016 Season.

The first and driving goal of this plan was clear:
to transform infrastructure. With this in mind, the Ray and Elaine Messer
organization had crafted a thoughtful campus master
plan, acquired property, and embarked on a wildly
successful capital campaign that allowed the scope In January 2019, we commenced a new
of the tools and resources in this new venue to comprehensive planning process that culminated
completely exceed original expectations. with a five-year plan that was ratified by the Board of
Directors in September 2019. We opened the doors
With this new venue, Stages has the ability to to The Gordy with a new found understanding of
transform theater-making for Houston artists and Stages’ work and our role in our community.
audiences. And, with the capital planning and
implementation process behind us, we are poised We engaged Board, staff, artists, donors and
to shift all our institutional resources back to our audiences in focused discussions about Stages’
core work of producing theater. past, present and future. There was a newly minted
maturity that emerged from these intimate and
As Chair of Strategic Planning for the Board of important discussions about Stages: a broader and
Directors, I have had the opportunity to partner more complex understanding of our role within our
with Board and community leaders as well as community; and new shared language that allowed
management and staff on the development and us to adapt new ways to tell our story.
implementation of Stages’ strategic plan. In the fall
of 2018, as we prepared for an epic transition over We are excited to share this work with you. Thank
the next year to our new home, it was evident to you for the role you play in Stages’ success. I hope
us that Stages needed to undertake a new planning you are as inspired as I am with Stages’ newly
process to set the course for our first formative revised mission, vision, and values, as well as our
years in our new home. path forward in the coming years in increasing
our impact in Houston.
With so much of our energy focused on the building
process, it was critical we put our eyes on identifying
the artistic company we wanted to be once we were
beyond this extensive work and living in our new
reality at The Gordy.

Ray Messer
Chair
Strategic Planning 2015-2020