CENTER STAGE Immersive Dining Series to Launch at The Rep for 60th Anniversary

This year marks The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis' 60th Anniversary Season. As part of the Diamond Anniversary season, The Rep will partner with St. Louis-based conceptual dining experience PLACE & TIME for a limited two-night immersive dinner series next month, July, at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts.

Titled CENTER STAGE: Food as Character, Ritual & Spectacle, the dining experience will explore the role food has played throughout theater history — as character ritual, tension, comfort, seduction, celebration, survival, and spectacle. The six-course dinner will draw inspiration from iconic plays and musicals where meals and food imagery became central to character development and storytelling.

Guests can expect an evening inspired by musical and drama productions alike— interpreted through PLACE & TIME's signature lens of culinary storytelling, immersive atmosphere, and detailed sense memory.

Founded in late 2021 by Caitlin Franz, Joe Mooney, and Chef Chris Bork, PLACE & TIME creates immersive concept dining experiences exploring intersections of culinary history, culture, ritual, and storytelling. Since launching their first public dinner series, the trio has produced more than 40 original public concept events in unique private and public spaces, while continuing to maintain a creative portfolio of private dining and hospitality projects across the country.

The collaboration reflects both organizations' shared interest in immersive arts - live performance, hospitality, and communal experience.