stage door

American  

noun

1. a door at the back or side of a theater, used by performers and theater personnel.

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stage door British  

noun

1. a door at a theatre leading backstage

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Etymology

Origin of stage door

First recorded in 1770–80

Example Sentences

Josie said she met Sleep in person years earlier, outside York Theatre Royal's stage door, to give him paintings of the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky which she had created herself.

From BBC • Dec. 19, 2025

Actors are arriving, signing in by the stage door and heading to their dressing rooms.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 13, 2025

There are few movies, and almost no musicals, that depict the nasty way that fascism tends to sneak in through the stage door before announcing itself in the spotlight like 1972’s “Cabaret.”

From Salon • Jul. 13, 2025

On a late-spring day in 2018, when the New York Philharmonic was deep in rehearsals of a Strauss symphony, an unexpected visitor showed up at the stage door of David Geffen Hall, the Philharmonic’s home.

From New York Times • Sep. 30, 2023

Joseph dried off his glasses and pounded on the stage door.

From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick