Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan.
Hi Jordan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Music Mountain Theatre really began long before we had a theatre building. In 2001, our founder, Ginny Brennan, started a small performing arts studio focused on giving young people a place to learn, perform, and build confidence through theatre. Over the years, that community continued to grow, and so did the dream of creating something larger.
Eventually, that dream became Music Mountain Theatre, a nonprofit theatre company in Lambertville, New Jersey. We opened our current theatre with the goal of creating a place where professional-quality productions, arts education, and community could all exist under one roof.
Since then, MMT has grown tremendously. Today, we produce a full season of Mainstage musicals and plays, year-round Children’s Theatre productions, classes, camps, workshops, and educational programs. More than 1,000 performers of all ages come through our doors each year, alongside the artists, technicians, teachers, volunteers, and audience members who make the theatre possible.
What we’re most proud of is that, even as we’ve grown, the heart of the organization hasn’t really changed. MMT is still about giving people a place to discover theatre, return to something they once loved, develop their craft, take a chance on themselves, and find a community.
We’ve gone from a small performing arts studio to a year-round nonprofit theatre, but every step of that growth has happened because people believed in what this place could be and chose to become part of it. And we still feel like we’re just getting started.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road — but we’re not sure any theatre’s story ever is!
Building and sustaining a nonprofit arts organization comes with constant challenges. From the beginning, we’ve had to learn how to balance big artistic ambitions with the financial realities of running a theatre. Producing year-round means maintaining a building, employing a growing staff, creating sets and costumes, licensing productions, supporting educational programming, and keeping ticket prices accessible to our community. There is always a balancing act between dreaming big and figuring out how to make those dreams financially sustainable.
Like so many arts organizations, one of our greatest challenges came during the pandemic. Live theatre depends on people gathering together, so suddenly losing that ability was incredibly difficult. Coming through that period and rebuilding audiences, programming, and momentum required a tremendous amount of work and faith in what we were doing.
Growth itself has also brought challenges. MMT started as a very small, hands-on organization where everyone did a little bit of everything. As we’ve grown, we’ve had to learn how to build a larger staff, create better systems, expand our facilities and resources, and evolve from a small organization into a year-round theatre serving thousands of people.
There have certainly been moments when the obstacles seemed overwhelming, but we’ve always tried to approach them the same way we approach putting on a show: figure out what needs to happen, gather the right people, get creative, and keep moving forward.
In many ways, those challenges have shaped Music Mountain Theatre just as much as our successes have. They’ve taught us to be resourceful, adaptable, and incredibly grateful for the community that continues to support us.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Music Mountain Theatre is a year-round nonprofit performing arts organization, and at the center of everything we do is live theatre. We produce a full season of Mainstage musicals and plays, an extensive Children’s Theatre season, and a wide range of classes, camps, workshops, and educational opportunities for performers of all ages.
We’re known for producing a tremendous amount of theatre while maintaining a high standard for what audiences see onstage. Our seasons range from large-scale Broadway musicals to classic plays, contemporary works, family productions, and opportunities for new or developing artists. We believe that high-quality theatre should also be accessible, both to the people sitting in the audience and to the people who want to participate in creating it.
One of the things that sets MMT apart is the pathway we’ve created for people to grow here. A child can take their first theatre class with us, perform in Children’s Theatre, move into more advanced training and productions as a teenager, and eventually find themselves performing on our Mainstage or working professionally behind the scenes. At the same time, an adult who hasn’t performed in twenty years can walk through our doors, audition for a show, and rediscover something they thought they’d left behind.
We’re also incredibly proud that MMT has become a gathering place. The people who participate here come from different towns, generations, backgrounds, and levels of experience, but theatre gives them common ground. Some people come here to pursue a career in the arts, some come because performing is the thing that brings them joy, and some simply come to see a great show on a Friday night. There is a place for all of them.
What we’re most proud of is the community that has formed around the work. More than 1,000 performers come through MMT each year, in addition to our students, staff, volunteers, families, and audiences. We’ve watched friendships form, careers begin, children grow up, adults rediscover their creativity, and families make theatre part of their lives.
At the end of the day, we don’t just want to produce great shows. We want to create a place where people feel welcome, challenged, supported, and inspired — whether they’re stepping onto a stage for the first time or have been doing it their entire lives. That’s what we believe makes Music Mountain Theatre special.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If there’s one thing we’d want readers to know, it’s that places like Music Mountain Theatre only exist because a community chooses to make them important.
Every time someone buys a ticket, enrolls their child in a class, volunteers, auditions for a show, makes a donation, or simply tells a friend about us, they become part of our story. As a nonprofit arts organization, that support allows us to keep taking risks, creating opportunities, and making live theatre accessible to our community.
We also hope people know that you don’t have to consider yourself a “theatre person” to walk through our doors. Come see a show. Bring your kids. Take a class. Audition for something even if you haven’t been onstage in twenty years. Volunteer backstage. There are so many ways to become part of what happens here.
We’re incredibly proud of how far Music Mountain Theatre has come, but we’re even more excited about where it can go next. Our greatest hope is that we can continue growing while remaining what we have always wanted MMT to be: a place where people come together, create something meaningful, and feel like they belong.
Pricing:
- Mainstage Tickets: $35 for general admission; $33 for seniors and students.
- Children’s Theatre Tickets: $12.
- Flex Passes: Discounted multi-show packages are available for patrons who attend several productions throughout the season.
- Classes & Educational Programs: Pricing varies by program, with classes, camps, workshops, and other opportunities offered throughout the year.
- Accessibility: As a nonprofit theatre, Music Mountain Theatre works to keep ticket prices affordable so that high-quality live theatre remains accessible to the community.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://musicmountaintheatre.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/musicmountaintheatre
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/MusicMountainTheatre
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@musicmountaintheatre7474
