OPPORTUNITY
Tacoma Musical Playhouse (TMP) seeks an Executive Producer to lead the organization and bring current and future supporters, fans, and volunteers along on an exciting journey to celebrate musical theater and build community in the Tacoma, WA region. The Executive Producer will possess a flair for creating smart plans and executing them with a team to produce audience pleasing musical theater featuring community volunteers supported by professional artists. As the top organizational leader reporting directly to TMP’s Board of Directors, the Executive Producer will infuse a sense of shared purpose throughout the organization, and maintain and build a team to take the company into the future, building upon the history and legacy created by TMP’s founders. The Executive Producer will be TMP’s lead steward of Mission, Vision, and Values and will work tirelessly to create a culture that is inclusive and welcoming and will be the principal executive ensuring that the resources necessary to produce work at an increasingly impressive level of artistic achievement are always available and growing. Through creativity, force of will, and an unwavering dedication to TMP’s core values, this charismatic leader will bring experience and insight into creative cultivation, partnership alignment, engaging new audiences, and strategic approaches to fund development and earned revenue growth. The Executive Producer serves as the public face of TMP and will lead an artistic, production, administrative, and education team to deepen TMP’s commitment to engaging in joyful gathering centered around the magic of musical theater. While participation in TMP’s season as stage director is an option for the Executive Producer, this role is fundamentally focused on leadership of all operations of the organization and TMP is seeking an individual who understands that focus and can reimagine how TMP operates in a manner that opens up even more opportunities for the future.
BACKGROUND
Tacoma Musical Playhouse was founded by Jon Douglas Rake and Jeffrey Stvrteckyin 1994 to fulfill a need in Tacoma for a theater company that specializes in the uniquely American art form of musical theater. Mr. Rake took on artistic leadership of the company, directing the majority of the company’s work over an enduring tenure until his death in December of 2025. The company is committed to honoring the intentions of its founders with a future commitment to expansive community building centered around the production of joy-filled musical theater experiences.
TMP’s Mission is “to inspire and enrich lives of our diverse community through musical theater.”TMP has held a long belief that people’s lives are enriched by high-quality entertainment. Sometimes that entertainment challenges people to think about life issues; other times it offers opportunities for hilarity; and still other times it offers moments for tears. In all cases, however, the experiences move people’s emotions and take them to a new place in their thinking.
As the largest community theater in the Northwest, TMP has been recognized with national and international awards from the American Association of Community Theater (AACT) among other local and regional accolades. From its modest beginning at the Annie Wright Kemper Center, to a church basement, then to the Narrows Theater, a former movie house and the performance facility it now owns and operates seating 387 patrons, TMP steadily grew into Tacoma’s premier musical theater company over its 32-year history.
In 2013, Tacoma Musical Playhouse went through its last comprehensive capital improvement project, a $1.2 million renovation of the theater and public gathering spaces. The highlights of those improvements included moving the orchestra, once situated with patron seating, to a new loft space onstage. The stage was also lowered and widened as part of that renovation, and a new sound system was installed.
Programs
TMP Mainstage offers season subscriptions and season flex passes to its mainstage productions. Each new season includes Broadway-style musicals, supported by a live orchestra. Single tickets, including adult, student, senior, military, child and group discounts, are available for all productions as well. Group sales are a significant portion of the company’s annual ticket revenue. In line with its commitment to access for all audiences, TMP offers free tickets for each production’s preview performance to numerous Pierce County social service organizations to distribute to under-served individuals.
TMP Family Theater is a regional favorite for families, young audiences, and the very young. These fully-produced musical productions are adaptations from children’s literature and feature many favorite adult TMP Mainstage performers.
TMP Education department provides acting and dance for youth ages 5-18 with classes, camps, workshops and productions through its CampTMP, which grows in popularity every year. Education is a priority for TMP. CampTMP, a well-established educational outreach program, trains a group of talented and eager young and senior-aged performers (TMP’s Young at Heart Players) each summer. The programs culminate in fully-staged public productions each year. A professional staff of instructors offers a well-rounded program in all aspects of musical theater.
TMP has hosted several Special Events every year, including Behind the Curtain at TMP, Broadway in Seattle Trips, Costume Shop Sale, Sing-Along with Santa, A Big Band Christmas, Young at Hearts 50+, among others. TMP’s founders also historically offered engaging theater tours to New York City, London, Los Angeles and other cities where patrons enjoyed the experience of attending several Broadway shows.
TMP employs a modest professional staff of 6 full-time administrative and production staff members. TMP contracts directors, music directors, choreographers, educators, and other specialized artistic leadership to mount productions utilizing the robust volunteer talent available in the Tacoma community. In addition to the Playhouse facility, TMP owns a former church that it uses for education programming and two private homes located behind the theater that are utilized as rental properties. TMP’s annual operating budget is approximately $2 Million, a balance of earned revenue through ticket sales, rental income, and contributions from TMP supporters.
THE FUTURE
With the passing of Jon Douglas Rake in late 2025, TMP has taken time to assess its future following the unplanned departure of its founder. Mr. Rake’s professional and personal partner, Jeffrey Stvrtecky, will also depart the company in May of 2026 making way for a new generation of leadership to take the reins of this community jewel.
Like many founder-led organizations, TMP recognizes that many of the contributions of its long-standing leaders are unsustainable, commitments that blur the line between professional contributions to the operation of a thriving business and personal passions driving artistic and organizational ambitions. As TMP looks to the future, the core of its mission is unwavering–to continue to celebrate musical theater through a supportive and uplifting community-based experience. At the same time, Board leadership has acknowledged that there some critical priorities must be addressed for the future of the organization, and the new Executive Producer will be looked to help create plans...
