Stages CEO's Role is Educator as Much as Artist

Sandy Boren-Barrett wanted to be a dancer when she was a kid. As an adult she may be a show business professional, but she’s pretty far afield from being a straightforward “hoofer.”

Boren-Barrett is the CEO and artistic director of

“I view myself as an educator as much I do as an artist,” she said. “I can’t approach the art of what we do without thinking about the educational value to the kids in the performance as well as those in the audience.”

A Milwaukee, WI, native, Boren-Barrett went to Alabama to get a degree in theater with a minor in dance from Huntington College. She experienced what she called a series of “happy accidents”—both while in college and when she returned to Milwaukee after graduating.

“I had been the last-minute, fill-in director for a production of Brigadoon in college,” she said. "I later got hired to direct a musical at my former high school."

She soon realized she harbored a love of theater for young audiences. She thought about teaching high school drama and wound up getting a teaching certificate at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

“I knew the Twin Cities had a strong children’s theater community and so I came here,” she said.

After living here six months, Boren-Barrett was hired by the Child’s Play Theater at Eisenhower High School to stage manage and be its choreographer. She was an independent contractor at that time who supplemented her income working in the accounting department for a local hotel.

The company hired her full-time in 1990. She went with them in 1995 when they became Stages Theatre Co.—an anchor tenant of the —and assumed her present position in 2005.

“I love where we are located and the community we are in,” Boren-Barrett said. “We have great support, and we have great reach.”

She prides herself on the quality of productions. Stages averages eight shows a year, at least half of which are new shows written by local playwrights. The company has become the second largest children’s theater in the area after the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.

Boren-Barrett is also proud of Stages’ outreach and access program, which takes shows on the road, as well as its reasonable ticket prices.

“Accessibility is our main focus,” she said. “The average price for our tickets is $9.”

A major fund drive with a goal of $1.5 million is close to being met. A third of that amount will support outreach and access to the production and education programs.

The organization also has strong partnerships with local school districts, especially the Hopkins Public Schools.

Boren-Barrett’s family life is centered on show business. Her husband, Tom Barrett, is a set designer and technical director at Macalester College. The two live in Maple Plain with their daughters, Ivy and Faith.

Boren-Barrett is very content with her life.

“I eagerly look forward to each day,” she said. “Working with kids is one of the most satisfying of things in my life.”