The Birmingham Stage Everyone’s Talking About: Inside Red Mountain Theatre
As one of the finest arts education centers in the South, this local theater is a true Magic City gem. Image: Red Mountain Theatre
Backstage buzzes as the cast and crew prepare for opening night. Patrons spill in for the long-awaited show. Performers await their cues from the wings. Across the campus, young campers are filled with butterflies on their first day of theater camp. There’s nothing quite like the energy at Red Mountain Theatre.
At Red Mountain Theatre, the magic doesn’t start when the curtain rises. It starts long before.
“Red Mountain is doing every piece of the production — the creation of the work — here,” Jennifer Jaquess tells us. She’s been part of the team at Red Mountain Theatre since 2012 and stepped into the executive director role in 2024. “We are fully producing musical theater at a really high, professional-quality level in Birmingham.”
Perhaps you’ve witnessed this first-hand at a Red Mountain show, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The broad spectrum of educational programming doesn’t just make the most of Birmingham’s talent; it nurtures and develops it at every level, a mission made possible through its work as a nonprofit organization.
A Unique Local Performing Arts Hub
You might be surprised at the huge undertaking behind every Red Mountain production. When you see a traveling production at the BJCC, for example, the cast, crew, sets, and production are brought in from out of town. At Red Mountain, every show you see is entirely local.
“We license the script and the score from the rights company, and then we do the auditions, the set design, build the set, do the costumes, and sell the tickets. We produce the show fully here locally. And we use primarily local actors,” Jennifer explains.
That local focus is something she’s equally passionate about. “There is so much incredible talent in Birmingham,” she shares. “I think that’s a story we don’t tell as much as we should. It’s unexpected, especially for those looking at us from the outside.”
From preschool summer camps to youth-led junior shows, performance ensemble intensives, and major productions, Red Mountain Theatre is on a mission to make the performing arts accessible to everyone — thanks to community support and its role as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
“Where I grew up, we had nothing like Red Mountain Theatre,” Jennifer says, “so it wasn’t even a thing I knew existed in the world.” Now, she welcomes hundreds of kids from more than 120 different zip codes to participate in the performing arts through an array of educational programming. And that’s not even counting the young attendees who come out just to see a show.
An Education-Centric Approach
At Red Mountain Theatre, education is front and center, with programs that support performers at every stage. “We want to provide great educational training that helps people become professional artists in the industry, but the bigger thing is that theater skills are really life skills,” Jennifer says.
In any given Red Mountain program, students learn teamwork and collaboration, with plenty of practice in thinking on their feet. If one actor forgets a line mid-scene, for instance, it’s up to their scene partner to adapt in the moment, helping keep the performance moving without the audience noticing.
Theater is also an effective training ground for handling feedback. “You’re always putting yourself out there at an audition,” Jennifer says. “Regardless of whether these kids ever go into the theater, they know how to take feedback. It’s not a big deal to them; they just move on to the next thing. It creates grit and resiliency.”
A Magic City Melting Pot
Jennifer says Red Mountain is a great melting pot of the metro area, too. “The kid from Midfield is working beside the kid from Mountain Brook. The kid from Trussville is working with the kid from Alabaster,” she says, “I think what parents really love is that they’re getting their kid out of their bubble.”
She adds that the impact goes beyond performance skills, shaping how participants see and understand the world. By stepping into a character’s perspective, they build empathy — a skill that carries into everyday life and ultimately helps them grow into thoughtful leaders, parents, and professionals.
The theater also offers a residency program to serve schools that aren’t able to offer the arts in their curriculum. “Our foundational wellness curriculum uses theatrical techniques and exercises to teach kids how to regulate their emotions,” Jennifer explains. “It’s been really critical post-pandemic as teachers were really struggling with classroom management.”
For young performers wanting to take their training a step further, Red Mountain offers its acclaimed Performing Ensembles for ages nine to 18. These students will put in about 400 hours over the course of a school year, performing shows in winter and spring. “These kids tend to be high achievers,” Jennifer says. “Almost all our former students who are on Broadway now were in these groups.”
Red Mountain’s Arts Campus Sets the Scene
What makes Red Mountain Theatre really special is its ability to offer all of this in one place. Its 60,000-square-foot Arts Campus broke ground in 2019 and opened its doors in 2021. With performances halted by the pandemic, they focused their efforts on the building and design during construction. The result is a 30-million-dollar multipurpose facility that brings Red Mountain’s previously sprawling campus under one roof.
“We have five rehearsal spaces that can turn into conference space, cocktail space, and back to a dance room,” Jennifer says, noting that renting space for corporate and community events has bridged the gap to non-theater folks, spurring interest in the theater’s mission and productions.
On top of that, the campus includes a 459-seat theater, a grand lobby and bar, and a donor lounge. In the back of house is a scene shop, paint shop, costume shop, dressing rooms, recording studio, administrative offices, and a storage facility.
“We’ve yet to find anybody who has this scale of operations under one roof,” Jennifer says.
Current and Upcoming Shows
Currrently, the theater is in the middle of its run of Dear Evan Hansen, a first for Red Mountain. “The Broadway tour came through here a couple of years ago, but it’s never been produced here, and it’s the most technologically advanced show we’ve ever done,” Jennifer says, “We keep raising the bar.”
The Little Mermaid will open June 12, and Jennifer says the theater prioritizes opportunities to bring generations together around a good show.
In early fall 2026, Red Mountain Theatre will be performing Come From Away, which tells the tale of the community of Gander, Newfoundland, which played host to thousands of international travelers when 38 planes were diverted to the tiny town on 9/11. “With it being the 25th anniversary of 9/11, I’m really excited about the hopeful story of the goodness of humanity,” Jennifer shares.
And there are always new shows and programs waiting in the wings.
They’ll be announcing next season’s lineup later this month, and auditions for Performing Ensembles for ages nine to 18 will be held in the summer, with programs running from August through April.
This Theater is by Birmingham, for Birmingham
There are myriad ways to get involved with Red Mountain, whether you are looking to volunteer or support the theater financially. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Red Mountain relies on community support to sustain its programming.
“There is ownership within the community of this place that belongs to Birmingham, that’s for Birmingham, and there is civic pride in what we’re doing here,” Jennifer says. “What theaters all over the country will tell you is that ticket sales pay for the first act. The second act is paid for by our donors.”
Red Mountain offers behind-the-scenes perks for its Dress Circle Society members, its club for individual donors. Members get access to rehearsal sneak peeks, preview performances, concierge ticketing, and more, depending on the donor tier.
“Donors who are with us for a long period of time get to watch our students year after year. They watch them go from nine years old to graduating high school, and they get to be a part of making a difference in that kid’s life,” Jennifer says. “And there’s really nothing better than that feeling.”
For tickets for Red Mountain Theatre’s upcoming productions, click here. For more info on its many educational programs and how to get involved, check out their website.
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Katie Leigh Matthews
A Birmingham native, Katie is a lifelong waterfall chaser and is passionate about the outdoors. She also loves connecting with remarkable women in the Birmingham community and bringing their stories to life. Katie has been writing professionally for over six years; you can find more of her work at Moms.com and Islands.com.