Portland Stage and the City of Portland have created a 50% discount at the garage between Spring St. and Free St., a short 0.3-mile walk! Be sure to get your ticket stamped at concessions.
Portland Stage does not own its own parking lot and is unable to provide free or subsidized parking. However, we’ve compiled some parking resources for you below!
PLEASE NOTE: If you attend during the monthly First Friday Art Walk or the Thursday 2pm Matinee, please allow extra time to find parking and get to your seats before the show starts.
There is metered on-street parking on Forest Ave, Congress Street, High Street, Cumberland Ave, and Oak Street within quick walking distance to the theater. Meters are enforced 9:00 am-6:00 pm Monday through Saturday, and can be paid with coins at the meter or by card/cash at either a meter terminal or by using the city’s Passport Parking app.
On-street parking in metered spots is FREE after 6:00 pm, on Sundays, and on Holidays.
There is also unmetered, 2-hour and all-day parking on various side and residential streets within a few blocks’ walking distance of the theater that is generally enforced until 5:00 pm, Mondays through Saturdays. If you go this route, make sure to read all parking signs to avoid receiving a ticket or being towed.
Portland Stage and the City of Portland created a 50% off discount* at this garage when your ticket is stamped in the lobby or at the Box Office, and only a short 0.3-mile walk to the theater!
*Note: this discount does not apply when the garage has special event or snowstorm pricing, which is a flat fee on entry.
Visit their website for special Portland Stage event parking rates for up to 7 hours.
Not available 9:00 am to 5:00 pm weekdays. This is a Pay-And-Display Lot managed by Unified Parking Partners. Be sure to pre-pay in the lot before you head to the theater. This lot is enforced by a combination of ticketing, booting, and/or towing (in extreme cases).
New to Portland Stage or attending theater? We’ve compiled answers to the most common questions theatergoers have so that you can have the best experience attending the show!
Whether this is your first show with us, or your first show ever, we wanted to give you a quick primer on the terms we use and answer some commonly asked questions when people come to the theater.
PATRON An audience member. That’s you!
SUBSCRIBER A patron who has purchased all their tickets for the entire season in advance. (To learn more about subscriptions, click here.)
USHER A community volunteer who will scan your ticket, help you to your seat, or serve you at concessions
HOUSE MANAGER A staff member who oversees the Ushers and ensures everything audience-related goes smoothly during a performance.
BOX OFFICE Where you buy your tickets. At Portland Stage, this is on the street level.
WILL CALL The window at the Box Office where you pick up your tickets.
LOBBY The place where the bathrooms, Concessions, and ticket scanners are located.
CONCESSIONS Where you can purchase baked goods, coffee, beer & wine before the show or during intermission.
HOUSE Where the audience sits during the performance. All seating at Portland Stage is accessed via the 2nd floor.
MAINSTAGE Our largest space, and where most of our fully rehearsed and designed productions are performed. We sometimes produce larger staged readings here as well.
STUDIO THEATER A smaller blackbox space which hosts a mix of staged readings, new play workshops, and fully staged productions.
THE SUSIE KONKEL THEATER FOR KIDS STOREFRONT SPACE The home of our Theater for Kids programming, and also where we often hold smaller play readings and social events.
PRE-SHOW The period of time between when the house opens for seating and when the show begins
CURTAIN The time that the show starts,
CURTAIN SPEECH A welcome announcement at the start of the show to thank sponsors and make any requests of the audience such as silencing cell phones
INTERMISSION A break in the middle of the performance. Shorter shows are sometimes performed without an intermission.
FINAL CURTAIN When the show reaches the end of its final scene. Sometimes the curtain will close, but more often all the lights will go dark to end the scene and the actors will leave the stage..
CURTAIN CALL / BOWS – When the actors come back out on stage after the final curtain so the audience can applaud their performances.
This timeline is for shows starting at 7:30 pm.
6:45 pm – Lobby and Concessions Opens
7:00 pm – The house opens for seating.
7:25 pm – The lobby lights will flash a five-minute warning.
7:30 pm – Curtain & Curtain Speech. The show begins!
Intermission – If there is an intermission, it’s usually 15 minutes.
End of Intermission – The lobby lights flash a five-minute warning.
9:30 pm-ish – End of the Show, time varies. Once the house lights come up, patrons can leave their seats to head home.
This timeline is for shows starting at 7:30 pm.
6:45 pm – Lobby and Concessions Opens
7:00 pm – The house opens for seating.
7:25 pm – The lobby lights will flash a five-minute warning.
7:30 pm – Curtain & Curtain Speech. The show begins!
Intermission – If there is an intermission, it’s usually 15 minutes.
End of Intermission – The lobby lights flash a five-minute warning.
9:30 pm-ish – End of the Show, time varies. Once the house lights come up, patrons can leave their seats to head home.
Our theater sells Concessions starting 45 minutes before curtain, as well as during intermission (for those shows that have an intermission). Featuring goods from an assortment of local bakeries, confectioners, and brewers. Outside food and drink is not allowed inside our lobby or auditorium.
Portland Stage prides itself on its varied selection of locally made baked goods, candies, coffee, and beer as well as soft drinks, specialty wines, tea for your enjoyment. Our selection changes on a seasonal and production-by-production basis, so stop by the theater to see what we have available as early as 45 minutes before your scheduled performance.
Our cutting-edge Hearing Loop system works with T-Coil hearing aids so that actor’s voices and sound cues are tracked directly through patron’s hearing aid, earbuds, or borrowed headset.
Large Print Programs
Available for free upon request at Concessions or through an Usher.
Elevator Accessibility
The lobby, and access to both our Mainstage and Studio Theaters, is accessible by elevator. Please contact the Box Office if you are concerned about whether your wheelchair or scooter might fit in our elevator.
Wheelchair Accessible Seating
Wheelchair locations are available in the front row only in both the Mainstage and the Studio Theaters. Advanced reservations are recommended to ensure we can accommodate you at the show you wish to attend.
Alternative Accessible Seating Options
The Box Office can help you find seating that best accommodates your hearing, sight, or mobility accessibility needs. The theater also has removable front-row seating and seating without armrests for patrons who have difficulty sitting in our standard theater seating.
Hearing Loop
Our hearing loop works with T-Coil hearing aids so that actor’s voices and sound cues are tracked directly through the patron’s hearing aid, earbuds, or borrowed headset. You can borrow headsets from a House Manager or Usher at our Concessions. Scroll down for frequently asked questions about how to use or troubleshoot our hearing loop system.
We are proud to be partnering with Audio ‘D’ & Finetone, Maine’s only Full Service Hearing Aid Company, with locations in Windham, Scarborough, Cornish, and Farmington. They offer a variety of hearing aids designed to work with loop systems, and may be able to program your hearing aids to work with the loop system at Portland Stage.
This system is specifically designed to work with Telecoil (or T-coil) hearing aids. T-coils allow different sound sources to be directly connected to a hearing aid, improving sound quality and allowing the hearing aid wearer to easily perceive the signal of interest in almost any environment, and regardless of background noise.
Each hearing aid is different, so only your audiologist can tell you if your specific hearing aid has Telecoil (or T-coil) compatibility. If you have a hearing aid with a t-coil, your audiologist can make sure the t-coil has been programmed. Once programmed, you just need to activate it before the show!
If you have a hearing aid and it does not have a t-coil, you can get a “remote” from your audiologist that can be programmed to work with your existing hearing aid. This is similar to the receivers that we have for other patrons, but without the need for headphones.
You can get a receiver and headphones from our House Manager or an usher at Concessions. For better sound quality, you can bring your own set of corded headphones (must have a standard 8mm headphone jack) to use with the receiver. House Management will ask for some sort of
For questions, please call our Box Office at 207.774.0465 or see the House Manager when you arrive to see the show.
I’m getting no audio!
If you’re having difficulty getting your personal hearing aid to connect to our system: make sure your hearing aid is set to t-coil mode. If that doesn’t work, please consult with your audiologist to make sure your hearing aids are compatible and/or set up to work with a t-coil loop.
If you’re having difficulty with one of Portland Stage’s headsets: make sure that your volume is up (the volume and power are the same knob), and that your headphones are pushed into the jack all the way.
If neither solves your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
The audio has a buzzing sound!
If this is happening as you’re setting up your volume for the performance: our house lights interact with the Hearing Loop system. Check again once the house lights go out for the performance.
If this is happening during the performance: the hearing loop audio gets a buzz or humming in it when the volume gets set very loud. Turning the volume down can help with the buzz or humming.
If neither of these have solved your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
I’m getting no audio!
If you’re having difficulty getting your personal hearing aid to connect to our system: make sure your hearing aid is set to t-coil mode. If that doesn’t work, please consult with your audiologist to make sure your hearing aids are compatible and/or set up to work with a t-coil loop.
If you’re having difficulty with one of Portland Stage’s headsets: make sure that your volume is up (the volume and power are the same knob), and that your headphones are pushed into the jack all the way.
If neither solves your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
The audio has a buzzing sound!
If this is happening as you’re setting up your volume for the performance: our house lights interact with the Hearing Loop system. Check again once the house lights go out for the performance.
If this is happening during the performance: the hearing loop audio gets a buzz or humming in it when the volume gets set very loud. Turning the volume down can help with the buzz or humming.
If neither of these have solved your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
Portland Stage is offering closed captioning on some of our pre-recorded digital content, including some of our Education content and Digital on Demand productions. We are unable to offer closed captioning on much of our live-streamed content at this time.
Open captioning is a text display of dialogue and sound effects synced with the performance and positioned so that most of the theater can use or ignore it based on their needs. Patrons do not need special equipment to use this service. Seating with optimal viewing of the captioning display is reserved for patrons who need it and is available by contacting the Box Office.
Support for Open Captioning is provided in part by the Theatre Development Fund. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
ASL-interpreted performances are often scheduled in conjunction with Student Matinees, or for specific productions.
For the hearing impaired contact the Box Office here.
For ASL students please contact the Box Office at 207.774.0465
Regular ticket pricing applies to ASL performances.