How We Work Together
The STAGES™ Framework
by Art & Soul Consulting
Set the Scene • Tailor • Audition/Appoint • Gather • Empower • Strike
Build Teams That Make Brave Work — Without Burning Out
Theater proved it's possible: diverse humans creating bold art together under pressure, on deadline, without destruction. STAGES™ makes it repeatable for your organization.
Result: Creative teams that tell the truth, take risks, and ship work that lands with everyone who matters.
www.artandsoulconsulting.com
Theater's Proof & STAGES™ Overview
What Theater Has Learned About Creative Collaboration (That Most Organizations Haven't)
Theater has an ancient problem: get diverse humans to create something brave together — on impossible deadlines, under massive pressure — without destroying each other. For 2,500 years, theater practitioners have solved this through rigorous attention to psychological safety, trust-building, and clear creative containers.
But most theater companies still operate on instinct. They know brave collaboration works—but they don't know why, or how to make it repeatable. STAGES™ codifies the specific conditions that unlock brave collaboration.
What You're Looking At
STAGES™ is the operating system built on what theater knows about brave collaboration — but designed to be repeatable, teachable, and embeddable across any creative organization.
It has six stages because psychological safety isn't one-time work. It's sequential. It builds. From foundation, through trust-building, through daily creative practice, through capturing and carrying forward. Each stage unlocks the next.
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The STAGES™ Sprint
90-Day Reset for Teams That Have Gone Careful
You're leading talented people who've stopped being honest, creative, or brave. Meetings feel like minefields. Bold ideas stay buried. The work is fine, but the magic? Gone.
Spoiler: You don't have a people problem. You have a system problem. This Sprint builds the foundation that changes everything.
Sound familiar? You're not alone — and it's fixable.
What You Get
Set the Scene — We establish clarity about mission, stakes, and what safety looks like for your team. Ambiguity dissolves. Context emerges. People understand why they're here.
Tailor — We design the collaboration structure for this specific team — their tensions, strengths, reality. Not cookie-cutter. Built WITH them.
You leave with: Full diagnostic showing where trust is breaking + customized STAGES™ blueprint showing exactly how brave collaboration works in your organization. This becomes your operating manual.
Where This Leads
Sprint builds your foundation (Stages 1-2). Once you see it working, you choose your path:
Own It — Use your blueprint to implement Stages 3-6 yourself. You have the tools.
Embed It — Move to 12-month full transformation across your organization. Sprint investment fully credited. ($150K-$350K)
Scale It — License the full STAGES™ suite + train your people to run it. Sprint clients receive $5K credit. ($30K-$50K annually)
The foundation proves the system works. Then you decide how far to take it.
Result: Measurably braver, more creative team. Clear blueprint to sustain it. If your team isn't there in 90 days, we tune it until they are.
Investment
Corporate/Creative Teams: $45,000
Arts Organizations (501c3): $35,000
Educational Institutions: $38,000
Cohort Model (3-5 orgs): $20,000 per institution
Arts Organizations (501c3): $35,000
Educational Institutions: $38,000
Cohort Model (3-5 orgs): $20,000 per institution
Founding client rate through February 15, 2026. Regular rates increase $10K starting April 2026.
Payment plans available: 30% signing / 30% month 2 / 40% completion.
www.artandsoulconsulting.com
STAGES™ Embedded Leadership Experience
Stop hemorrhaging talent, momentum, and millions in underperforming creative work
Your organization makes things — campaigns, content, experiences that should move people. But internally? Creative teams are siloed. Trust is thin. Your best people are one recruiter call away from leaving. You're spending six figures on 'culture initiatives' that don't touch the actual problem: your teams have forgotten how to collaborate without fear.
STAGES™ Embedded Leadership brings the entire operating system that makes Broadway productions work — where 100+ artists create brave, profitable work on impossible deadlines without destroying each other. We install it across your leadership structure so brave collaboration becomes your operating rhythm, not a one-time workshop.
What You Get
Full STAGES™ System Integration Across 20–30 Key Leaders
Your directors learn to facilitate brave kickoffs. Your producers protect creative bandwidth. Your executives finally get real feedback without defensiveness.
Complete Licensing Suite Access
AI companions, workbooks, workshop guides, templates, and tools — everything your leaders need to run STAGES on every project, team, and initiative.
12-Month Consulting Partnership
Ongoing measurement, adaptation, and coaching so the system evolves with your organization's reality — not just what worked in month one.
What Changes
01
Month 3: Leaders stop avoiding hard conversations. Teams start naming problems early instead of at crisis point.
02
Month 6: Creative risks feel strategic, not reckless. Projects close with lessons captured, not resentment buried.
03
Month 12: Brave collaboration is your competitive advantage — embedded in how work gets done, not dependent on who's in the room.
Result: Embedded safety infrastructure. Repeatable systems for inclusion and feedback. Sustainable performance without burnout. The kind of competitive advantage your industry competitors literally can't replicate — because they don't know this system exists.
Investment: $120K–$180K annually (less than one senior creative's salary — this transforms your entire leadership structure)
Licensing renewal optional year two. Most clients embed this permanently because the cost of going back is too high.
www.artandsoulconsulting.com
STAGES™ In-House Leadership System
Own the Operating System. Scale Brave Collaboration Permanently.
Some organizations want us to lead transformation. Others are ready to become it. If you're running multiple creative initiatives annually and have internal leaders hungry to facilitate brave collaboration, the STAGES™ Licensing Suite gives you the entire system — tools, training, AI companions — to own and deploy.
This is how theater companies run multiple productions simultaneously: shared language, repeatable architecture, portable courage. Your people become the experts. We're your backstage support.
What You Get: Complete Toolkit
- 6 Quick-Start Guides (one per stage)
- 6 AI Companion Tools
- Video tutorials
- Facilitation scripts & rubrics.
Includes train-the-trainer onboarding (year one) and quarterly strategy check-ins to keep the system sharp.
Who This Is For: Self-Sufficient Organizations
Multi-project organizations running 5+ creative initiatives yearly — regional theaters, creative agencies, university programs, school districts.
You have internal capacity and want the IP, not consultant dependency.
What Changes
By month 6, STAGES™ becomes your organizational language. By year 2, new hires inherit it as default — not training.
Result: One year of licensing costs less than one failed project. But it transforms everything you touch.
Investment: $30K–$50K annually (based on organization size, number of licensed users, and annual project volume)
- Small orgs: $30K
- Mid-size: $40K
- Large/consortiums: $50K
Art & Education
Arts organizations: Mission-aligned pricing & cohort models available
Educational institutions: Cohort pricing $15K-$20K per institution starting Q1 2026
www.artandsoulconsulting.com
STAGES™ Workshop & Keynote Experiences
Spark Brave Collaboration. Make It Repeatable.
Your team needs a reset. Not another trust fall. Not theory dressed up as inspiration. They need to experience what brave collaboration actually feels like — and leave with tools they can use tomorrow. STAGES™ Workshops and Keynotes let participants experience the framework in real time, gaining language, permission, and a playbook to lead differently.
Quick Options
Half-Day STAGES™ Workshop Experience (3-4 hours)
Teams move through an abbreviated STAGES™ cycle using a live current project as the creative lab. Participants experience what brave collaboration feels like in real time — not theory, but actual practice resolving a real challenge together. Teams leave with workbooks, facilitation tools, and a playbook to continue brave collaboration after you're gone.
Investment: $7K–$8.5K
Full-Day STAGES™ Deep Dive (6-7 hours)
Teams workshop a real current project through all six stages — Set the Scene through Strike — experiencing the complete architecture of brave collaboration. You'll establish psychological safety, tailor culture for this specific team, practice honest feedback in real time, and leave with a documented blueprint showing exactly how to replicate STAGES on your next initiative.
Investment: $10K–$12K
Featured Keynote (60-75 min)
"Stop Walking on Eggshells: The operating system for creative collaboration in a polarized world "
Your team is performing safety. Avoiding hard conversations. Silencing bold ideas to keep the peace. This keynote reveals what neuroscience knows about psychological safety—and gives participants the six-stage architecture to stop performing and start collaborating for real.
Investment: $6K–$8K
Keynote + Workshop Combo
Hear the framework, then practice it on real scenarios for immediate impact.
Investment: $14K–$19K
Who Books This
- Conference organizers
- HR/L&D leaders
- Arts organizations
- University programs
- Anyone needing transformational content that actually transforms.
Result: Participants leave knowing brave collaboration isn't rare — it's learnable and repeatable.
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How STAGES™ Transforms Teams
Real Outcomes. Measurable Change.
"I am not only a better artist and professional, but feel I am a better person because of this training. The material was invaluable, but even more so was the compassion and support with which it was taught."
— Alex Lonati, Community & Artistic Programs Manager, SpeakEasy Stage Co.
"Using the STAGES framework, I now have the language and tools to direct with clarity, honesty, transparency, and compassion. Artists feel more confident, less afraid, more balanced, more free."
— Leigh Barrett, Director & Actor
"90 minutes with Art & Soul is more valuable than years of previous DEI work."
— Donna Feore, Award-Winning Director/Choreographer
"DEI work in theater so often feels perfunctory and performative. Kira's philosophy allowed us to use our individual identities to deepen our work and enhance collaboration in a way that improved the final product and enriched everyone's personal experience."
— Will Roland, Actor
"She led a warm, yet frank and open process which allowed our creative team and cast to challenge one another in a brave environment. The work was positively impacted for all time by her presence on the project."
— Donna Lynn Hilton, Artistic Director, Goodspeed Musicals
"I have found myself more willing to bravely facilitate difficult moments because of the foundational framework. This work leads to more sustainable practices."
— Heather Mell, Managing Director, Greater Boston Stage Company
"Kira facilitated an individualized, perfectly 'tailored for the room' experience that I believe lifted each of us and all of us through our time together."
— Zi Alikhan, Director, The Band's Visit, TheatreSquared
www.artandsoulconsulting.com
Your Team Is Ready. Let's Build the System.
Theater proves brave collaboration isn't magic — it's architecture. STAGES™ gives you the operating system where psychological safety is default, creative risks feel strategic, and people stay because the work matters and the system holds them.
4 Ways to Start:
- The STAGES™ Sprint — 90-day reset for teams that have gone careful. ($45K)
- Embedded Leadership — Install STAGES™ across your organization permanently. ($150K-$350K)
- Licensing Suite — Own the system. Train your people. Scale it yourself. ($30K-$50K annually)
- Workshop & Keynote — Experience STAGES™ at your event or retreat. ($8K-$15K)
Founding Client Offer (Through Q1 2026):
Book Sprint by February 15, 2026 and lock in founding client rate FOREVER ($45K instead of $55K starting Q1 2026). Plus: Manager Micro-Huddles Guide, $5K credit toward Licensing Suite, and performance guarantee—if your team isn't measurably braver in 90 days, we tune it until they are.
Next Step: Schedule a 20-minute Discovery Call — we'll map the right path for your team.
Contact: Kira Troilo, CEO | [email protected] | artandsoulconsulting.com
Theater has solved this for 2,500 years. Your team is ready. The question is: will you build the system in 2026, or watch your best people leave in 2027?
www.artandsoulconsulting.com