Stage East was founded in 1990 after the Cornerstone Theater Company, a group of actors who met at Harvard, came to Eastport to stage a production as part of their mission to bring theater to rural communities. They adapted Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt, into a local version called Pier Gynt. This production featured a mix of Cornerstone's actors and local residents, many of whom had never acted before.

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After Cornerstone left, the local participants founded Stage East and staged their first production, The Playboy of the Western World  by John Millington Synge, in the fall of 1990. Stage East continues to produce popular and thought-provoking plays, along with other theatrical offerings.

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