Grab your “Team of Champions” as we kick off awards season and the 2026 Winter Olympics at Arts For Life’s annual Trivia Night on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.

The event will take place at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 S. Geyer Road, St. Louis, with doors open at 6:30 p.m. and 10 rounds of general-knowledge questions to begin at 7 p.m.

Cash prizes will be awarded to first and second place teams. There will be a 50/50 raffle, silent auction, mulligans available, and a costume contest.

In keeping with the theme – tied with the start of the Olympics in northern Italy on Feb. 6 and the beginning of the arts awards season – dress like a winner! The broad theme encourages participants to wear costumes related to stage and screen award winners, Olympic medalists, champion sports teams and any popular underdog stories. Team and individual prizes are available for best costumes.

Nominations will be announced for the annual Theatre Mask Awards (plays) and Best Performance Awards (musicals) honoring excellence in community theater and youth productions during 2025.

AFL President Mary McCreight is excited to welcome the theater community and friends to the highly anticipated annual event. “Don’t miss the most fun time in metropolitan St. Louis’ community theater!” she says.

Rennell Parker Sr. to Host

Rennell “Coach” Parker Sr. will be the host. Parker, a member of the AFL Board of Directors, is a past Best Performance Awards nominee – in “The Wiz” at Hawthorne Players, where he has appeared in several productions. Every Halloween season, he takes part in the Voices of Valhalla for “theatre in a cemetery.”

He is a certified life coach and positive psychology coach. His business, The Parker Group, provides social services to corporations, schools, groups and individuals. He is president of the board of directors for Avenues Counseling Center in St. Louis.

A Navy veteran, he has been married to wife Chasity for 23 years, and they have two children: Kelson, 19, who is a volleyball player at Lewis and Clark Community College, and Rennell “RJ” Parker Jr., 22, who plays soccer in Barcelona, Spain.

“It’s going to be a fun night,” Parker said. “I love the connections in community theater. It’s good to see the support people have for other companies’ shows. I love to see new people get involved and watch them grow. There’s that energy and bond-building in theatre.”

Tables of 8 players are available, at $200 per table. To make a reservation, visit https://arts-for-life-2.square.site/ or www.artsforlife.org. You can also email: [email protected] for more information. Mulligans will be available, at 5 for $10 or 10 for $20.

For the past 26 years, AFL has honored musical theater with the Best Performance Awards and began the Theatre Mask Awards to honor comedy and drama productions in 2015.

This year’s Theatre Mask Awards will take place on Saturday, April 25, at 10:30 a.m. at Royal Orleans South, 2801 Telegraph Road, St. Louis. The Best Performance Awards are set for Sunday, June 14, at 2 p.m. at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts at Chaminade College Preparatory School, 425 S. Lindbergh Blvd., Frontenac, Mo. More information will follow.

“These events recognize the incredible talent we have in St. Louis community theater and honor the passion and dedication of those who build this amazing and unique theatrical community,” McCreight said.

Sponsorships are available – trivia rounds at $100 and event at $50, which includes group/company name and logo displayed at the beginning and end of event as a sponsor, then group/company name and logo displayed on our social media sites as a sponsor.

Arts For Life is a local not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to the healing power of the arts through its work with youth, the underserved and the community, with its goal of “Making a Dramatic Difference.”

AFL is dedicated to promoting public awareness of local community theatre, encouraging excellence in the arts, and acknowledging the incredible people who are a part of it.

For more information, email [email protected]. or visit the website.