2026 Preview Entertainment: An Interview with Servant Stage

Servant Stage Singers: Moran Eliza, Kayla Klase, and Morgan Geoffery

Welcome Andrew Zahn, Development and Community Relations! BNT and Servant Stage have long supported each other, so we’re thrilled to have you back for our 2026 Preview. Thank you for sitting down with us for a chat. We’d love to learn a little more about Servant Stage and the gifted people involved.

Tell us a little about Servant Stage’s history and what’s happening now…

Servant Stage began a little over 12 years ago as a group of friends bringing some shows to the community. It’s always been the goal of Servant Stage to accomplish our mission “to serve our community with outstanding musical and theatrical experiences; make the arts accessible to all, especially people with financial or physical limitations; provide a creative outlet for artists in our community to develop and share their talents; create performances that inspire, educate, challenge, and entertain; and to have fun while doing it!”

What’s a typical day at Servant Stage?

As a growing theater company with a vibrant educational department, each day looks very different from the last. The days are spent touring shows to various schools, churches, community centers and theaters and this year we’ve offered nearly 200 performances to over 50,000 people without charging for a single ticket! As a pay-what-you-will theater, part of our goal is to make sure everyone can see a quality performance!

In addition to performances, we’re often planning months ahead. It’s not uncommon for us to be casting a show, rehearsing a different show, and performing an entirely different show concurrently. Mix in the costume team working on multiple shows along with various set construction projects–there’s always something happening at Servant Stage and myriad ways for folks to volunteer and get involved!

Mondays are a unique day in regards to our vibrant youth theater programs. Thanks to Lancaster Alliance Church who hosts us on Monday nights, we often have over 100 people in different programs happening. From one of our four youth companies, to Monday night pay-what-you-will theater classes and various other rehearsals, the building is often hopping.

What is the heart and history of the Sacred Songs performance? What is the central message of Sacred Songs?

This performance has been adapted from Servant Stage’s audience-favorite original revue show, I’ll Fly Away. Originally featuring a live bluegrass band in addition to the vocal trio, I’ll Fly Away was a tribute to classic gospel songs and hymns with a bluegrass flair that was created to speak to the timelessness of faith, heritage, and hymnody. Prior to that, a similar trio was featured in Servant Stage’s popular Old-Time Gospel Radio Hour shows. In short, some of these arrangements have peppered at least a half dozen Servant Stage productions over the past 11 years, making them some of our favorites to sing and share!

What experience do you hope your audience will walk away with?

It’s our hope that this performance encourages our audience with the truths contained in these songs, sparks memories, stirs up nostalgia, and hopefully brings a smile to your face and a song to your heart.

What inspires you when creating a new program/show?

We hope that each show we create will inspire, educate, challenge, and/or entertain our audiences. What often begins with an idea for the style of show we want to create quickly gets filtered through the lens of “how can we make a show that will best serve our audiences in its content, pacing, length, composition, etc. We are so blessed to work with hundreds of gifted artists who bring their unique gifts to bear on each production, making it a joy to collaborate in the creation of each new show!

How has Lancaster shaped Servant Stage?

From the beginning, Servant Stage was formed in response to the unique culture, generosity, and artistic vibrancy of this community. Lancaster’s strong tradition of supporting the arts—combined with its deep commitment to faith, family, and service—created the perfect environment for a pay-what-you-will theatre company to take root and flourish.

Lancaster has also shaped our mission. Because this community values accessibility, neighborliness, and caring for one another, Servant Stage has grown with those same priorities at the center: making high-quality theatre available to everyone, performing in schools, churches, and parks, and creating opportunities for local artists of all ages.

In many ways, Servant Stage reflects Lancaster itself—creative, collaborative, generous, and community-minded. The company exists and thrives because of the people, culture, and spirit of Lancaster County.

What does the future hold for Servant Stage?

We have our fullest season ever in 2026 with more productions than ever, including 14 youth theater productions, 5 mainstage shows and we expect to serve over 60,000 community members! We’re so very grateful to Bob Neff Tours for sponsoring Servant Stage for many years in a row. It’s support like this from many wonderful people and organizations like Bob Neff tours that make Servant Stage possible.

What question do you wish I’d ask?

Well, as a person who works in development I’m constantly looking for new ways for people to connect to the mission of Servant Stage and support if they’re able. So I suppose the question would be “how can folks learn more about Servant Stage and learn different ways to support?”

Feel free to visit our website at www.servantstage.org to learn more or reach out to me at 717-455-0255.

Three words…(what pops into your head about the group or yourself!)

Joy. Joy. Joy! 🙂