Glass Elevator is ringing in its 2025 inaugural season, bringing a new company with a new vision to the St. Louis theater scene. Glass Elevator is all about originality and is driven by the mission of telling underrepresented stories. They hope to accomplish this with “satire, absurdity, and a dash of anarchy.”
Nick Freed, the founder of Glass Elevator, is originally from Farmington and relocated to the St. Louis area after living in Chicago for more than 13 years. Freed was inspired by the experimental nature of “storefront theaters” in Chicago and wanted to bring a taste of that scene to St. Louis.
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“You can’t throw a toasted ravioli without hitting a company doing Shakespeare and Neil Simon shows and musicals around the city of St. Louis,” Freed says. “There are companies that are doing those shows with colorblind casting, but we really wanted to experiment with how shows are staged, where they’re staged.”
The innovative nature of the company also extends to the people behind the scripts. There is an emphasis on highlighting new talent through the Ground Floor Series, where playwrights have the opportunity to workshop and develop an original script.
“In St. Louis, there are a ton of new playwrights here in the city who are just dying to have their work seen, have their work discovered and put forth,” Freed says. “We really wanted to have that be a core of the company developing new work, creating new pieces.”
Freed says the team at Glass Elevator is especially interested in seeing work from a variety of new voices. This includes writers of color, queer writers, and anyone whose perspectives are often underrepresented in theatrical work that’s happening around the country. Submissions for the Ground Floor Series are now open, and a chosen playwright will be selected in April.
Another standout feature of the company’s 2025 season is its fresh take on the traditional holiday theater experience. Instead of focusing on winter holiday-themed productions, the company is shifting its attention to horror during the Halloween season.
“Everybody’s holiday play is A Christmas Carol or something around the winter holidays, but nobody really looks to Halloween or like fear or horror plays,” Freed says. “It is hard to scare an audience, but I love the idea of trying to.”
While horror will take center stage, audiences need not fear—it will be balanced by a touch of humor. Freed says that humor is “disarming” in settings like these and it will offset performances with a bit more fun.
As Glass Elevator begins its journey in St. Louis, the company aims to offer a unique contribution to a rich theater scene.
“There’s a lot of wonderful companies in the city that are doing a lot of really high-class work, but we want to kind of come in and try to shake things up,” Freed says. “We want companies to experiment a little, to not be afraid of taking big shots and seeing what the audience gives you back.”
Glass Elevator’s first fundraiser, the “Dance-a-thon 2005,” will take place on February 21 at Greenfinch Theater in Fox Park. Patrons can dance the night away, grab a drink, and celebrate local art while supporting this new theater endeavor.
