Every artist on a CCS production is paid as a professional. No stipends. No volunteers. No working for exposure. More than 60% of every production budget goes directly to the people on stage and behind it, union or not. We don't have a non-union rate. We have one rate.

High standards, no shortcuts. We make work that takes risks, demands craft, and leaves the audience a little different than when they walked in. Good enough isn't good enough in a city that invented its own music, its own food, and its own way of doing everything.

We do the work right or we don't do it. That means we will never compromise on paying artists fairly, not when budgets get tight, not when it would be easier, not when everyone else does it differently. Our financial commitment to artists isn't a goal. It's a non-negotiable.

New Orleans has always been a city of many voices. Its stories deserve to be told by and for all of its people. We cast and hire diversely across race, gender, and sexuality, and we are committed to the continuous work of doing that better.

The work doesn't stop at the curtain call. We take the craft seriously, through training, mentorship, and education that cultivates the next generation of New Orleans artists. That's how we build something that outlasts any single production.

Theatre is an economic engine and a cultural force. Every dollar that goes to a CCS artist stays in New Orleans — spent at local restaurants, paid toward local rent, reinvested in this community. When you support CCS, you're not just funding a show. You're funding a city.