This discussion guide is designed to help arts administrators, board members, and arts practitioners working within varying disciplines and with a range of budget sizes to better understand and apply lessons from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ experience to their own.

Created with OPERA America, the guide is divided into several categories of questions created to prompt discussion and reflection. It can be used in conjunction with the original story, Think Opera’s Not for You? Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Says Think Again. The story focuses on how Opera Theatre of Saint Louis approaches an underlying problem for their organization: audiences are not spending enough on tickets to replace the losses from those departing.

It is part of a larger series documenting the preliminary insights of performing arts organizations participating in Wallace’s Building Audiences for Sustainability (BAS) initiative.

The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis discussion guide can serve as a teaching aid for group discussions or for individual study.