Founded in 1923 as the Little Theatre of Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre is one of the oldest, largest, and busiest community theatres in the country. Our fourteen productions per year - seen by audiences of more than 50,000 - are created by hundreds of talented volunteers and represent theatrical experiences of the highest caliber. The physical plant that is the Chattanooga Theatre Centre is a 8.5 million dollar, 40,000 square-foot facility beautifully situated on the banks of the Tennessee River. In addition to our 380-seat MainStage auditorium and 200-seat Circle, we boast huge scene and costume shops, spacious dressing rooms, large classrooms - one with a mirrored wall and ballet barre, gorgeous lobbies, attractive offices, and other amenities.

Our flagship program is a six-show MainStage season featuring a variety of offerings designed to satisfy the tastes of most theatre lovers - dramas, musicals, mysteries, and comedies of quality and lasting value. More adventurous productions take place four times a year in our Circle Series, and young actors and crews create four plays annually for more than 18,000 children, teachers, parents, and other adult friends in our internationally acclaimed Youth Theatre.

For community-driven theatrical events, we offer our Studio Series for readings of original scripts, recitals of scenes from our classes, one-acts led by novice directors, and other experiments as they are proposed to us.

In addition to our performance programs, we also provide drama and dance classes, workshops, and summer camps for students of theatre arts from kindergarten through adult. Offerings range from Beginning Acting, Theatre Dance, and Improvisation to Professional Clowning, Singing for Actors, Scene Analysis, and Stage Managing. Our adjunct faculty of local theatre professionals see more than 200 students per year. Thanks to our scholarship program, many who could not otherwise attend pay nothing.

Our Education Outreach program provides free admission to dress rehearsals, low-cost educational performances of titles such as Macbeth and The Importance of Being Earnest, free study guides for classes attending our Youth Theatre, and workshops for teachers learning to use theatre arts as part of their daily activities. We are Partners in Education with the local magnet school for the performing arts, work closely with the theatre department of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and offer internship opportunities for technical theatre students of Chattanooga State Technical Community College.

We are proud to provide professional opportunities for directors, music directors, choreographers, and musicians in our productions. Our MainStage has employed such guest directors as Sherry Landrum of New York's New Actor's Workshop and John Montgomery, Artistic Director of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Washington, D.C. We also offer paid opportunities for local directors who take the reins of MainStage, Circle Series, and Youth Theatre shows. In this way, we provide our community with a wide variety of styles and techniques to watch and from which to learn.

Speaking of local theatre, we have founded a forum of area theatre organizations designed to work together on common concerns and development.

Our extraordinarily talented technical staff consisting of the Technical Supervisor and Costume Designer support an extremely high level of production quality and provide training for volunteers in all aspects of theatre tech including set and costume design and construction, lighting design and implementation, sound design and playback, scenic painting, and properties procurement. They also frequently serve as advisors to other local theatres, churches, and schools in need of theatrical expertise.

Our professional staff also includes a Box Office Manager, Assistant Box Office Manager, Business Manager, Education Director, and Marketing and Public Relations Director. Management is provided by our Producing Director who reports to the Board of Directors.

The mission of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, in brief, is to enhance our community through quality theatrical experiences. With our rehearsal halls, construction shops, and workrooms busy with devoted volunteers, our classrooms filled with interested students, and our auditoriums brimming with enthusiastic patrons, it is clear we are well on our way to fulfilling that mission.