Actor, director and producer Mark Salyer talks about NewStages - a collective of teaching artists, directors, writers and performers from Broadway, fi...

Los Angeles, September 2, 2021…Beginning with their New Year’s show in January, NewStages, a Los Angeles based theater company for seniors, has had a busy year, in lieu of Covid, with thousands of seniors tuning in to their online programming. This past April, their Tennessee Williams workshop launched the company’s Zoom Lecture Series. In June, Secret Lives was presented on Zoom and Vimeo over the four weeks of Pride month and was a huge success. Since 2012, New Stages has been a part of the City of West Hollywood's One City One Pride Arts Festival producing a show with the seniors of the LA LGBT Center each June. Currently they are presenting Sondheim: Flecks of Light and Dark. In September (as long as Covid holds out) Broadway's Kay Cole will be presenting her Musical Theater Conservatory to the online community. NewStages was originally an offshoot of Stagebridge in Oakland, CA, the country's oldest senior theater company and in 2014, they became a part of the award-winning Oasis Theater Company. Through a partnership with the LA LGBT Center’s Senior Services and with support from the City of West Hollywood and the Grace Helen Spearman Family Foundation, NewStages was born. Since then, the company, under the direction of Mark Salyer, has brought classes, workshops and performances to thousands of seniors, including a yearly production for the One City One Pride Arts Festival. READ MORE: getthefunkoutshow.kuci.org