Main Street Theater

About Main Street Theater

Main Street Theater has TWO (2) locations.
Please make sure you know the location at which your production is playing.

Theater Locations

Main Street Theater - Rice Village

Main Street Theater - Chelsea Market

2540 Times Blvd. Houston, TX 77005

4617 Montrose Blvd. Houston, TX 77006

Main Street Theater Staff

Rebecca Greene Udden
Artistic Director

Shannon Emerick
Marketing Director
E-mail

Vivienne M. St. John
Youth Theater Producing Director

Angela Harris
Administrative Director of Education Programs

Andrew Ruthven
Company Manager/ Box Office Manager

Troy Scheid
Director of Kids On Stage

Mark Roberts
Technical Director

Julie Morin
Development Director
E-mail

Jeff Lane
Master Carpenter

Martha Vazquez
Youth Theater Bookings Coordinator

Main Street Theater Board

Thomas Tomlinson President
Lara Bell Martha Colangelo Anice Duytschaever Amy Freeman Susan Green Dianne Killough Sarajane Milligan Mary Murphree Thomas Nichols Jan Pasternak Mark Scheid	Mary Jacobs Scheid Samantha Schnee Susan Shank Kari Short Victoria Schutter Susan Silverman Roland Smith Rebecca Greene Udden Constance Wood Barbara Woolhandler

Advisory Board

Mark Adams
Karol Kreymer and Robert Card
Laura and Bryan Emerson
Louis and Lillie Fontenot
Ziggy Gruber
Tom and Christianne Hagemann
Barbara and Ernest J. Henley
Jo Alessandro Marks
Carlin Glynn and Peter Masterson
Sylvia Matthews
Linda K. May

Thomas Meloncon
Irving Mermel
Nanci Reichman
Enid Robinson Rosenfeld
Betti and Charles Saunders
Guy and Carol Streatfeild
Patsy Swayze
Bernard Weingarten
Elizabeth D. Williams
Mary Wright
Kay and Fred Zeidman

Main Street Theater History

In 1975, Houston was a booming, oil-rich metropolis with a growing, sophisticated populace eager for exposure to a wide variety of cultural activities. But with only one resident theater, patrons were inevitably limited in the number and range of theatrical voices they had the opportunity to hear. Furthermore, few professional opportunities existed for the city's growing community of theater actors, directors, writers and designers. Thus, Main Street Theater, the first of several new theater companies established during the 1970's, was founded to meet two needs: to offer Houston theatergoers a more varied and challenging selection of plays and musicals and to provide a venue for training, employment and exposure for our city's professional theater artists.

Founding Artistic Director Rebecca Greene Udden enlisted a collection of theater professionals in a temporary home at Autry House, the Episcopal Diocese's community center on Main Street. Hence, the name of that youthful and idealistic group. The first production under the name Main Street Theater was Noel Coward's HAY FEVER, produced in June of 1975. There followed a new production every month for the next season, setting a precedent of constant activity, which continues to this day. The organization evolved from an artistic collective into a more traditional organizational structure with Rebecca Greene Udden as Artistic Director. A company of artists has remained the driving force behind the theater's success, and over the past twenty years, hundreds of actors, directors and designers have found an artistic home at Main Street Theater.

Encouraged by critical acclaim and audience growth, the board of directors moved Main Street Theater in 1981 to larger quarters in an abandoned dry-cleaning plant in University Village. In the 92-seat space, with little to separate actor and audience, Main Street Theater developed its intimate playing style, which is as suited to the grand scale of Shakespeare as it is to a one-person show.

In February of 1996, Main Street Theater opened a second space with a 190-seat theater. Main Street Theater at Chelsea Market houses a stage dedicated to the youth theater program and to large-scale MainStage classics and musicals.

Main Street Theater opened its 26th anniversary season with a new status as an Equity Professional Company. After several years of presenting Equity actors under a special agreement, MST has been approved for Actor's Equity Association (AEA) Small Professional Theater status.

Main Street Theater is a member of the Fresh Arts Coalition, a collaboration of the most original and thought-provoking arts groups in Houston, which includes 15 dance, theatre, literary, musical and visual arts organizations that have joined together to collectively raise awareness of the size and diversity of the arts in Houston. For more information, go to www.fresharts.org .