Our New Mission Statement

Over the past few months, as you've noticed, we've been reshaping our mission statement to better reflect our commitment to you, our community. Last month you read our new vision statement, Putting Community Back in Theatre. This month I'm so very proud to announce that, after months of work, we have a new mission statement. Now the new mission statement doesn't change what we do or how we do it, but it truly defines what we have done in the past and will help guide us through the future.

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Theatre East's mission is to advance the dialogue of the
shared human experience through works that utilize
simple storytelling, providing our community with
a platform to deepen its understanding of themselves,
each other and the world we share.

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Advance the dialogue:
We will continue bringing you New York premieres like EYE OF GOD and THE SOLDIER DREAMS that truly discuss the issues that face us as a community. These will be productions dealing with social matters that will cause you to continue the conversation as you enjoy your post-show cocktail or piece of pie.

Shared human experience:
As with our past work, our focus will continue to be works that explore subjects that affect us all. We will continue to give a voice to the understated, the marginalized and the misrepresented. Our desire is that, when you are at one of our productions, you truly see a part of yourself on the stage.

Simple storytelling:
The fact is, we love celebrating the theatre with you. A part of that celebration is truly embracing the power of the stage, the authority of an amazing script, and the stories therein. It has always been our goal to get out of the way of the script and let the story rise. You will most likely not see hydraulics or an actor flying from a web, but you will be moved nonetheless.

Providing our community with a platform:
We will continue bringing you talkbacks where community leaders engage in dialogue, not so much about the show, but about the issues raised by the play. This might be Farm Aid, God's Love We Deliver, The New York Foundling or spiritual or civic leaders. We want to provide an opportunity for you to have a voice, participate in public discussion or perhaps just listen.

Deepen its understanding:
During the first year of the New Rites Collective, our educational program, we were having group reflection time where students shared something they learned that day. A very shy 15 year old Britt'ni, in a voice just above a whisper said, "I learned something about myself I didn't know...I'm beautiful." Through our productions, reading series, educational and community efforts we will continue with programming that truly allows for a better understanding of one another. We will take on our fears, share in our joys, and gather strength for our trials. And we will do it with you.

We look forward to it!

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