Lyric Arts Company of Anoka, Inc.

At Lyric Arts, we are passionate about two things—creating great theater and bringing people together. 

November 1 officially kicks off Give to the Max Day 2023! This year, we invite you to support Lyric Arts to ensure we can continue to make BIG. BOLD. BRAVE. moves to ensure access to the arts in the Northwest Metro through performance, education, and community engagement. As our organization enters into a new chapter, we are continually humbled by the many ways our community has shown up for us.

It's true that Lyric Arts has grown a lot since its founding in 1995, but one thing that has never changed is the fact that those who walk through our doors describe the atmosphere of "belonging". Year in and year out, we hear how much Lyric Arts means and how much people love being part of our community of donors, audience members, artists, students, and volunteers.

Support the magic of live theater this Give to the Max Day! Your donation to Lyric Arts ensures that the programming you see on our stage continues to be BIG. BOLD. BRAVE. Whether it's helping us stage regional premiere productions, provide inspiring educational opportunities, or expand our outreach to the surrounding community, your generosity helps us ensure a BIG. BOLD. BRAVE. future for Lyric Arts.
 

You help make Lyric Arts BIGGER. BOLDER. BRAVER!

This Give to the Max Day 2023,  your gift can have tremendous impact on ensuring Lyric Arts can stay an artistic home for dozens of artists, students, and audience members each year! Your gift helps...

• Keeps ticket prices affordable. From performance rights to artist stipends to supplies like lumber and fabric, producing theater is expensive. Your contributions make it possible for Lyric Arts to maintain and build on our current level of quality without increasing ticket prices. 
• Pays artists for their time and talent. This season, we are paying actors more than double what we were able to offer before the pandemic, but we still have a long way to go to ensure actors are able to make what they can make at other, similar-sized theaters in the area—or at least make sure they can cover the cost of gas for traveling to Lyric Arts for rehearsal and performances. 
• Maintains and updates the Main Street Stage. We are lucky to finally own our building. However, essentials like heat, water, and electricity, combined with necessary repairs, cost us over $100,000 each year. Your donation is an investment in Lyric Arts' permanent home in Downtown Anoka.

Our mission

Lyric Arts’ mission is to enrich lives by creating meaningful performing arts experiences that ignite the imagination, inspire the spirit, and engage the community.

We are a growing, non-union professional theater, deeply rooted in the communities we serve, producing inclusive work that entertains, educates, stimulates, and is reflective of the diversity of our audiences and artists.

Our values

Lyric Arts is passionately and joyfully committed to excellence, integrity, authenticity, collaboration, diversity, inclusion, and creating community.

About Lyric Arts

Located in the heart of historic downtown Anoka, Lyric Arts is the only full-time, year-round theater in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis, providing access to the performing arts for tens of thousands of audience members each year—in addition to providing work for hundreds of theater artists and technicians. Lyric Arts presents nine to ten productions per season, including a unique mix of comedies, dramas, classics, musicals, and plays for young audiences. 

The company also presents a concert series, theater arts workshops, weekday matinees for school children, and educational outreach programs. We are able to fulfill our mission thanks to the support of the Minnesota State Arts Board and many generous donors and volunteers.

Founded in 1995 by Lin Schmidt and Phil Bologna, Lyric Arts began its life in the Pocket Theatre, a small converted cabinet shop just blocks from Main Street. After a $2.5 million purchase and renovation the Anoka Cinema—which had become a derelict building—Lyric Arts made the move to Main Street in 2001,