American Stage Theatre Company Breaks Subscription Records During 2008-09 Season

American Stage Theatre Company's 30th anniversary season has seen several high points, not the least of which is the recent announcement of the record number of subscriptions the theatre sold for its current 2008-2009 season. As of May 1, American Stage has sold 3,128, the first time in the theatre's history that they have had over 3,000 subscribers.

"In the first 26 years of our history, American Stage had never come close to selling 2,000 total subscriptions for our Mainstage Series, until our 2005-06 season when patrons purchased over 2,200," said Todd Olson, American Stage's producing artistic director. "Over the past four seasons, we have nearly doubled the number of our subscribers, and increased our total attendance by over 40 percent."

As most professional theatres around the country are loosing patrons, American Stage is seeing continual growth under the guidance of Olson, who came to St. Petersburg in 2004.

"Our patron base has grown so much over the last few years that we have had to move into a new building to keep up with the growth," said Olson. "We open the Raymond James Theatre, the new home of American Stage Theatre Company, at 163 3rd Street North in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg with the Tampa Bay-area premiere of the hit comedy, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, running June 3 thru 28.

The 30-year-old theatre, which was honored by St. Petersburg as the city's Resident Professional Theatre Company in 1987, will end its 30th anniversary season with the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning drama, DOUBT, running July 22 thru Aug. 16.

Subscriptions are on sale now for the upcoming 2009-10 season, which includes the Tampa Bay-area premieres of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning drama FENCES and the new hit comedy by David Mamet, NOVEMBER, as well as the 25th anniversary of American Stage in the Park production of the timeless musical HAIR at Demen's Landing Park.

American Stage Theatre Company is located at 163 3rd Street North in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. The box office can be reached at (727) 823-PLAY (7529) or by logging onto www.americanstage.org.

American Stage is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1977. The company's mission is to create the most satisfying live theatre in the Tampa Bay area, accessible to all members of the community. Their vision is to preserve the greatest human stories from our past, while creating the most defining stories and storytelling of our time. American Stage will move into a brand new state of the art 188 seat performance space in June. The Hough Family Foundation is the Season Sponsor, Raymond James is the Mainstage Sponsor, Bank of America is the Education Sponsor and WUSF 89.7 is the Radio Sponsor of American Stage.

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