Barn Theatre - School

Located on a picturesque rolling hillside on M-96 between the cities of Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, the Barn Theatre retains its charming countryside setting and remains the perfect summer outing for the whole family!

We are one of the nation's oldest Equity resident summer-stock theatres as well as a longtime Michigan entertainment destination. Sixty years and over 500 performances under the same management is a benchmark nearly unparalleled in the theatre industry, yet it's a benchmark we boast at the Barn Theatre thanks to founders Jack Ragotzy, an Obie award-winning director, and his wife Betty Ebert Ragotzy. With $875 in their pockets, the Ragotzys founded the Barn in 1946 as the Village Players in nearby Richland. Three years later the company moved into its current home, an abandoned dairy barn, and became the Barn Theatre of Augusta, Michigan. Jack and Betty nurtured the Barn through the years until it became the success western Michigan enjoys today.
The Barn Theatre School for Advanced Theatrical Training was founded to promote the concept that all theatre artists, performers, designers, technicians, stage managers, directors, and art managers have broadly based theatre exposure and experience in the belief that such exposure and experience are the heart of an appreciative and creative relationship between the disciplines of any theatrical enterprise.

The Barn Theatre (School For Advanced Theatrical Training) was created to administer a program of instruction, training, and practical experience in all phases of the preparation and presentation of theatrical productions. The School will also endeavour to bring Theater to disadvantaged and underutilized children, thus providing the possibility of creating the stars of the future by encouraging the children of today.

Mission: The Mission of The Barn Theatre School for Advanced Theatre Training is to provide apprentices with instruction and practical experience in all aspects of theatrical production as they participate in the creation of plays, musicals and musical revues. Additionally, the school offers local students, regardless of ability to pay, life-enriching educational opportunities thru exposure to the arts.

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