BRAVE THE STAGE 2026 to Benefit Savannah Stage Company Scholarships

Savannah Stage Company has announced the twelve brave souls set to perform at Brave the Stage on November 13th at The Clyde Venue. The event is a fundraiser for SSC's Pay What You Can Camp Scholarship Program, which allows families to pay what they can for summer theatre camp. No child is turned away. This year's goal is $15,000. Award winning author Jessica Leigh Lebos will host the evening.

Lexi Balaoing, SSC's associate artistic director, is directing the event and mentoring a performer in it. She describes the rehearsal schedule as deliberately short. Six weeks is enough time to pick an act, learn it, and get in front of the other performers, but not enough time to talk yourself out of it. 'If we gave them six months, they'd find six months of reasons to back out,' Balaoing said

The 2026 Brave the Stage performers come from every stretch of our community. They include Shaylyn Mackey, co-founder of Big Chick Energy Comedy; Jessica Leavitt Ouattara and Taylor Cook, with Jessica founding Clem Consulting; Clinton Edminster, owner of Water's Cafe and Starlandia Reclaimed Art Supply; Bettie and Michelle Negley, longtime theatre in Savannah supporters; Local Erika, Lowcountry content creator; Christopher Ridley, SCAD career advisor; Sunny Girardeau, artist and advocate; Amy Knussman, math educator with SCCPSS; Liz Walker, board member of Tybee Post Theater and dancer with Tybee Ballet Company; and Susan Daggett of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Their acts range from musical theatre and a cat duet to original music, a theatricalized op-ed, a staged reading of a murder mystery, and a comedy routine.

The performers are coached by a team of Savannah theatre professionals. Mentors include Jason Kraack, a musician and composer; August Starling, a filmmaker and actor; Shawna Peña-Downing, an SSC actor, director, and choreographer; Emily Gates, a SCAD MFA alum; Maggie Lee Hart, actor, educator, and designer; McKenna Lyons, longtime SSC member; Sheila Berg, an Historic Savannah Theatre staple on stage; Lexi Balaoing, SSC associate artistic director; and Rahul Menon, a Gulfstream engineer and improvisor with Front Porch Improv.

Balaoing says the most common moment in rehearsal is a freeze, the moment when they come face to face with that fear.

'A mentor's job isn't to fix the fear,' she said. 'It's to make sure the person knows the way back in. That's a theatre skill we use in rehearsal everyday, it's a life skill and honestly it's most of what we do.'

The money raised goes to camp scholarships, and the numbers behind the $15,000 goal are more urgent than they sound. Fifty-six percent of the students who come to SSC's summer camp use the Pay What You Can discount. That means more than half of the kids in the room are there because the sliding scale exists.

'Fifteen thousand dollars is a lot of campers,' Balaoing said. 'It's also the difference between a kid spending a summer in front of a screen or a kid spending a summer building their bravery, using their imagination, and growing with other kids.'

Tickets are $45 for general admission and $60 for VIP. VIP includes early entry, elevated hors d'oeuvres, and reserved seating. Doors at 6pm for VIP, 6:30pm for General Admission, with performances starting at 7pm.

Donations to individual performers can be made through Savannah Stage Company's website and social media. All money raised goes to the Pay What You Can Camp Scholarship Program.