Debut Theatre Company

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Debut Theatre Company

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A non-profit theatre company based in St. Louis made up of Metro St. Louis area creatives. The company formed from the concept of two St.

Debut Theatre Company engages, inspires, entertains and challenges audiences with theatrical productions. DTC’s goal is to maintain and support the next generation of theatrical artists by providing experiences on stage, backstage and in all technical aspects of performance. The company aspires to provide a stage for youth who are passionate about performance in all aspects. Debut strives to assemble a cast, crew and production team that provides mentoring experiences as inexperienced youth work alongside peer thespians who have more stage or crew experience. Louis youth in an effort to promote life-long learning and appreciation of the arts toward a more conscious and compassionate community by including an annual Acting Against Cancer performance that donates one-hundred percent of profits toward a charitable cause either globally or locally. We hope to make a difference for our artists on stage, our audiences and those who benefit through our charitable causes, Pedal the Cause and St Jude. This youth centered company celebrates the essential power of the theatre to illuminate our common humanity.

09/20/2026

We made it all the way to our most recent Acting Against Cancer Production… Dear Evan Hansen! 💙👕🌳

The cast and crew (as always) were INCREDIBLE! Not only was this production in-the-round, choreography was used to tell the story more than ever before. It was incredibly empowering to share this neurodivergent story. I can’t even begin to describe how much this show means to me and so many others like me.

I often find this show a litmus test for people’s capacity for empathy. Mental health matters. Not only when it looks palatable. Not only when someone fits the impossible and damaging “perfect victim” narrative.

From my director’s note:

“Dear Evan Hansen doesn’t ask us to forgive the mistakes of its characters. I don’t think that’s what good theatre ever asks us to do. There’s a fundemental difference between asking an audience to forgive a character and asking them to empathize with one.

Theatre is an excercise in empathy. How can we empathize with a character when they don’t [fit the perfect victim narrative]? How can we bring that empathy into the real world, and extend it towards the people in our real lives?

‘Mental health matters’ is offering compassion to those who are in crisis… The people whose pain is easy to miss. And the people whose pain is impossible to ignore.”

Neurodivergent people are often so misunderstood by the culture at large. It’s a gift to get to tell a story like this one. I can’t thank everyone involved in this show enough for allowing us to take a bit of that power back and for handling it with such care! 🍎✨

📸 and STL Fringe

09/19/2026

Willkommen… bienvenue… welcome! ✨🖤

Cabaret was our explosive 2025 summer Acting Against Cancer musical! The talent was stacked! But this cast was more than just wildly talented, they were committed to their craft and to telling this remarkably timely story with care and precision. They did their homework. They brought themselves fully to each character. They performed this show with their entire selves, even knowing the audience reaction might be wrought.

The cast and production team were incredibly diligent and careful with their dramaturgical work. In addition to our studies in the rehearsal room and at home, we all took a trip together to the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum to learn directly from the history that informs this story, confront the warnings within the text, and remind ourselves of the responsibility that comes with telling a story like this.

From my director’s note:

“My challenge for you tonight is to pay attention… to Symbols. Metaphors. Warnings.

In this production of Cabaret, we do not rewrite any of the 1998 text we’ve been given.

As you sit back, relax, and ‘come hear the music play,’ ask yourself…

What would you do?”

The finale is probably the most important thing I’ve ever staged. I knew I couldn’t do this show by staging it any other way. I’d like to write more about it, explain what it means to me, and exactly how I came to that conclusion… but instead, I’ve decided to include a clip of it at the end of our Instagram post. (FB couldn’t include it here.) I’ll let it speak for itself.

I can’t thank the cast, crew, and production team enough for being brave enough to tell this story in such a way with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You’re the bravest people I know, and I’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with you 💋 𓁺

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09/17/2026

There’s just something so magical about those horror shows… Frankenstein (February 2025) was our third and latest straight play production! 🩸🪾❄️

Frankenstein is one of my favorite novels of all time. I’m endlessly inspired and in awe of Mary Shelley’s genius and the rich, abundant themes in the story: ownership, generational trauma, parenthood, otherness, humanity, and the rapid and dangerous advancement of technology left unguided.

Nick Dear’s adaptation of this story so near and dear to my heart is remarkable, emphasizing the humanity of the creature, and demonstrating that monsters aren’t born… they’re made.

I wanted to emphasize these themes through my own lens, beginning with one major visual choice… the entire cast began the show in creature-like makeup except the Creature himself.

He begins the story innocent, untouched by the world around him. But as society repeatedly rejects, abuses, and dehumanizes him, he slowly becomes what everyone has insisted he is. His makeup transformed alongside him, becoming increasingly monstrous as his behavior did, until, by the end of the play, he looked like everyone else.

I also wanted to place greater emphasis on the Creature’s female companion, whose existence is conceptualized without any consideration for her own bodily autonomy or consent, echoing some of the circumstances of the Creature’s own creation, but with the terrifying caveat that her body is created with an even more horrific expectation. Another example of ownership, personhood, and what it means to create life without considering the life being created.

And, of course, this cast was extraordinary. Beyond being wildly talented and hardworking, these artists brought so much of themselves to their performances. Their dramaturgical work was truly remarkable. They even braved a snowstorm to bring this production to life, which feels pretty fitting for Frankenstein! ⚡️🕯️

📸 and .meadows__photography

09/15/2026

Our stroll down memory lane continues as we countdown to the big one-oh!

We wrapped 2024 with a very special performance at 54 Below in New York City! This performance was in partnership with the .harmonies.project 🩷💙🖤

Beautiful City was special in many ways, it featured friends from all over the country including Los Angeles and NYC, and of course our hometown family in STL!

Beautiful City was also an avenue to raise funds and awareness for other causes that are important to me beyond cancer research. Profits from the show were donated to The Trevor Project and Doctor’s Without Borders to provide relief for both LGBTQ+ youth and survivors in Gaza.

Rehearsing together at Pearl Studios and performing in such an iconic location was a blast, and the phenomenal cast brought their A-game.

I often feel very powerless in creating change in the world, but it’s experiences like this that help me to see just how necessary art is. Art can change lives. Art can save lives. Even when we don’t see it right away. Together, we built a beautiful city from all over the country, and I couldn’t be more proud!🌈🍉

We would love to do it again someday 🙂

📸

09/14/2026

The 2024 season kicked off with Alice by Heart, a spectacular production full of magnificent costumes (including Alice’s skirt made entirely of book pages), inventive staging, and lots of tear jerking memories 🐇🪖

DTC’s production was the VERY FIRST production of Alice by Heart ever performed in Saint Louis! We couldn’t have asked for a better PREMIERE cast 🩵

I was incredibly proud to direct this show as a woman.

From my director’s note:
“… not only are women faced with their own journey into adulthood, they must learn to navigate the ways in which society treats them depending upon their age and other superficial and ever-changing qualities.

[Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland] was written by a man who verifiably caused extensive harm to the very demographic he wrote about: young girls. How do we grapple with the fact that so many of our beloved stories were written at the expense and danger of women and children? This is the question I sought to understand as I began working on this production.

Alice by Heart relates to the atrocities of the holocaust by centering the London Blitz and WWII. It emphasizes the importance of storytelling in our darkest of hours, and demonstrates why literature isn’t just our greatest form of escapism, it is also our greatest weapon against the (still present) threat of fascism.

My ultimate goal … is taking the power
back that so many female-identifying people have lost at the hands of the ‘Alice narrative.’ I hope to give Alice the feminine voice she was denied all those years ago when Carroll first took her up the River Thames in 1862.”

This one was unbelievably special to me. Thank you to the entire cast, crew, and audience for helping to reshape this narrative with me 💙

📸 Sophia Holobaugh and

09/13/2026

At the very tail end of 2023, DTC performed our second ever straight play: Sam Shepard’s Buried Child. 🌽⛈️

While away at school, I missed DTC more than words could say! I was also desperate to work on Shepard’s unsettling piece. The themes of generational trauma and the destructive weight of buried secrets were ideas I wanted to explore with the incredible community of talent DTC always brings together.

And that incredible DTC community came together once again to rehearse this piece while I directed from afar. We spent a month doing table work over Zoom before I came home for Christmas break. From there, this incredible cast had just ONE WEEK of in-person rehearsals before we opened.

Audiences were often shocked to learn just how young our cast was, but there was no doubt that these actors were more than capable of carrying such complex and demanding material.

And, being DTC, of course we couldn’t tell this story the way it’s always been told. We incorporated two exceptional ensemble storytellers into the production, who hauntingly embodied the forces of continuity and change within the Southern Illinois home. Their presence allowed us to explore the cyclical nature of the story and the question of whether this family was truly capable of breaking free from generational trauma.

Thank you to the cast and crew for daring to tell this story with us, and for embracing the challenges of an unconventional rehearsal process. And thank you to everyone who came to see the show and took a chance on another classic told in a new way 🖤

📸

09/12/2026

Our 2023 Acting Against Cancer Musical remains one of my favorite DTC shows of all time…

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 💈🩸🔪🥧

There’s something very special about the way horror allows us to explore the human condition. It forces us to confront fear, violence, grief, and all of the unsavory things we’d rather not look at. That’s what makes horror musicals so special to me! Combining the heightened theatricality of musical theatre with the darkness of horror just allows us to examine humanity in such a deeply honest way.

As DTC is committed to donating our profits to cancer research, we operate with a very small budget for each of our productions. That meant we wouldn’t be doing Sweeney Todd with a fancy barber chair or a towering two-story set.

Instead, I chose to stage the show in a way that centered those incredibly vulnerable in society: the patients at Fogg’s Asylum. In doing so, I think we were able to bring the show’s themes of a corrupt justice system, class dynamics, institutional power, and dehumanization to the forefront.

For this production of Sweeney Todd, the audience was transported into the world of the asylum, where every character was an inmate recounting the story from inside its walls.

The performances were incredible, the added choreography was breathtaking, and audiences left the theatre genuinely affected by what they had experienced. Some even remarked that “Epiphany” was truly terrifying to behold (in the best way).

To the incredible cast and creative team of Sweeney Todd: thank you for taking a chance on this unconventional interpretation of the story. You trusted us to look at this show through a different lens, embraced every strange and challenging choice, and gave yourselves completely to the world we created. This production would not have been possible without you ❤️

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09/11/2026

Our 2022 musical was a haunting story about belonging, community, and the human condition.

Today, we’re celebrating our unforgettable production of Side Show! 🎪🎈

Side Show remains one of the lesser-performed musicals in the Saint Louis area, and we knew we had to change that. Its exploration of identity, belonging, exploitation, and the desire to be seen for who we truly are along with its hauntingly beautiful score is just part of what makes this story so important to tell.

At its heart, Side Show asks us to consider how we treat people who are different from us. In a world that continues to other those who don’t fit neatly into society’s expectations, this message remains just as important today.

Telling this powerful story with such a young cast was no small feat. Every actor approached the material with an incredible amount of care, maturity, and dedication, rising to the challenge of telling a story that demanded vulnerability and nuance. They took such good care of this show and the real lives it depicted ❤️

Side Show also featured some of the most inventive character costumes we’ve ever had to construct. A very special thank you to Gram and Gabby D for making sure the twins survived every single one of their 10 second (or less) quick changes night after night! Between maneuvering the girls while they were physically pinned together, managing dozens of wig changes, and swapping accessories for nearly every scene, these changes were a production in themselves. Talk about all-stars! 🎪✨

📸 Alex Brooks Photography

09/10/2026

The end of 2021 brought us right back to the 1980s with Heathers the Musical: High School Edition! ❤️💙💚💛

Heathers also brought us back to a message we first explored with Carrie: the consequences of bullying, exclusion, and cruelty, and the importance of choosing kindness before it’s too late.

Heathers was an incredibly special show because it marked our return to live performance post-pandemic. For the first time in over a year, we were all together again, singing in harmony!

But Heathers was special for another reason… it marked my very first musical directed after Patrick left for NYC to pursue theatre in the big apple.

Patrick left impressively enormous shoes to fill, and I wasn’t sure how I would lead Debut in his absence. He was (and remains) such an integral part of the DTC family.

But with the support of my assistant director and best friend, Gabby D, I was encouraged to create anyway. And I couldn’t be more proud of what we were able to put on.

To the cast and crew of Heathers: thank you for trusting us, for showing up when we were finally able to be together again, and for making our return to the stage so incredibly special.

“Life can be beautiful.”

❤️💙💚💛

📸 Alex Brooks Photography

09/09/2026

2021 brought us our first post-pandemic production: Steel Magnolias! 🌸✂️💕

With our all-female and non-binary cast and production team vaccinated and masked up, DTC put on our first production after COVID-19 altered the theatre landscape.

Despite the challenges of rehearsing for weeks over Zoom, these Steel Magnolias banded together to bring this heartwarming and life-affirming play to the camera. Once filmed, the production was available to stream online for a limited time, giving audiences at home a taste of the theatre they had been desperately missing. As always, all profits from streaming were donated right back into the community to support cancer research.

Steel Mags wasn’t just special because it was filmed and viewed virtually, it also marked DTC’s VERY FIRST PLAY! Having performed only musicals up until this point, Steel Magnolias opened up a whole new world of possibilities for DTC.

We couldn’t make this post without remembering the late, great Dolly Parton, who brought Truvy to life in the beloved 1989 film adaptation. To Dolly: thank you for giving Truvy her heart and her warmth. We’ll keep laughing through the tears, and we’ll keep telling stories with your spirit in mind, full of light, love, and generosity for all.

To our Steel Magnolias cast and crew: “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.” Thank you for helping DTC find its way back to storytelling, for persevering through an incredibly challenging time, and for reminding us that even in the hardest moments, there is still room for laughter, love, and community. 🌸💗

📸 Alex Brooks Photography

Address

111 S Geyer Rd
St. Louis, MO
63122

Website

http://debuttheatreco.weebly.com/

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