Letter from the publisher

I am pleased to present our new media kit, which is designed to provide you with all the necessary information about Stagebill.

This season Stagebill celebrates its 75th anniversary. The quality of our writing, editing, and graphic art, coupled with the amazing performances our magazine and readers attend together, fulfills the definition of a great program magazine. In fact, Stagebill prides itself on being a bit like program publishing's Laurence Olivier, the great English actor who could transform himself to suit each role he played. Or, to extend the metaphor, we sometimes think of ourselves as the third violin from the left in a world-class chamber orchestra. That's because Stagebill customizes its features to support each performance, whether a virtuoso recital at Carnegie Hall, the timeless charms of the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker, a pre-Broadway run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago or A.C.T. in San Francisco, a performance by the Washington Opera's Placido Domingo at the Kennedy Center, or the award-winning Lion King on Broadway.

It takes great audiences to make great performances; every year more than 18 million people attend performances in our venues. After all, without an audience there is no performance.

Stagebill began in Chicago in the 1920s, servicing the growing theater scene. As we head into the next century and millennium, Stagebill serves more than 80 venues around the country, including the Kennedy Center in our nation's capital, Lincoln Center in New York, and opera houses, theater companies, and symphony orchestras in Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Diego, and San Francisco. This season we're proud to add three exciting New York theaters to our list of publishing partners. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is the city's oldest performing arts institution, known worldwide for its sophisticated, vanguard productions. The refurbished New Victory Theater on Manhattan's revitalized 42nd Street is an intimate gem, home to performances that range from theater for young audiences to classic ballet to genre-busting shows. Continuing to expand on Broadway, Stagebill has just added the distinguished Roundabout Theatre Company, and will publish programs for Roundabout's new Selwyn Theatre on 42nd Street and for the company's long-running hit, Cabaret, at Studio 54.

Before we once again step back and let the performances take center stage, I'd like to acknowledge our Stagebill readers: it's their expectations of intelligent discourse and enlightened companionship that we strive to fulfill at each of the 28,000 different performances for which we create programs every year.

Charlie Parker once wrote: "Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Every century is a great century for music. But here we are at the beginning of a new millennium, and it sounds pretty good. Ground has been broken on a new performing arts center in the heart of Philadelphia; Jazz at Lincoln Center begins construction soon on a new hall dedicated to jazz; and a marvel of a Shakespeare theater just opened on Chicago's Navy Pier, that city's prime tourist destination.

It's a great time for arts lovers. Play on.

Fred B. Tarter
President and Publisher, Stagebill