The St. Louis Post Dispatch recently published an article entitled “Why are so many former New Yorkers flocking to the St. Louis arts scene?”
New York is an epicenter for opportunities in the fine and performing arts. St. Louis has a thriving arts district, but it does not have as many opportunities as New York does. It is interesting to read that so many creatives from the east coast are traveling to the mid-west in order to work in the arts.
In early 2022, New York native Danny Williams succeeded Mark Bernstein as managing director of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. At Stages St. Louis, New York Gayle Seay replaced artistic director Michael Hamilton, who retired after the 2021 season.
During the pandemic, Sharon Hunter-an actor, director and veteran of the New York theater scene-launched the Moonstone Theatre Company. In 2019, Jennifer Wintzer, an arts administrator with more than a decade of experience in New York, gained the newly created position of artistic director of theater at COCA.
Williams, a former director of finances and administration at New York’s Public Theater, described the pace in St. Louis as “definitely different.”
“I find myself taking more time to talk to people,” he said. “And the rent is definitely cheaper here. I think that’s a real positive for folks.”
Seay, whose worked as a casting director, actor and choreographer, said she made frequent visits to St. Louis before taking the job at Stages.
“I was very lucky that an opportunity came up in a city that I already felt was my home away from home,” Seay said.
Hunter, the founder and artistic director of Moonstone, is originally from St. Louis.
“I had been keeping in touch with a lot of people here in St. Louis, and I realized that there were a lot more theater companies developing,” she said. And it just made sense to start a company in her hometown, rather than in New York, “which would have been extremely expensive for me-and harder to do.”
Wintzer’s relationship with St. Louis began during her time at Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts. “I do think that this is an incredibly creative town,” she said. “And people are really excited to work together. In New York City, you can have a much bigger network as an artist, to the point where you can be more anonymous-which I actually miss. But I think you can get things done faster here in St. Louis, in terms of making art.”
Tom Ridgely, producing artistic director for the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, expressed that the position was “everything I could ever want in a job. Truly a dream.”
“I’m from Indianapolis, originally,” he said. “And I’d spent time in Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh. So I had an idea in my mind of what a midsize, Midwestern river city was like.”
Artists bringing their talents from New York to St. Louis has a direct impact on arts administration. Perhaps over the next several years, the arts scene in St. Louis may be more thriving than it is today.