Founded in 1987, Live Bait has created more than ninety world premieres. Each year, they develop scripts through staged readings and sometimes present emerging playwrights in their first fully realized production. Live Bait makes a special effort to work with younger directors, matching them with playwrights with whom they think they are compatible. They produce original plays as well as adaptations of literature to the stage.

In addition to its own work, Live Bait hosted 20 itinerant theaters on its late-night/off-night stages, making its space available to a wide range of artists. In an average year, Live Bait employs 55 artists on the mainstage, hosts 120 emerging artists on its off-night/late-night stages (roughly 15 theater companies) and teaches more than 75 outreach sessions and theater-arts classes, reaching a student audience of 1,500.