MISSION

Established in 1994, The Foundry Theatre aspires to assemble a community of artists with revolutionary ideas for the theatre and the world in which it is situated. We commission, develop, premiere, and tour theatrical works that explore the (im)possibilities of theatre and we believe our body of work makes passionate argument for its limitless potential. In addition, The Foundry hosts ongoing dialogue series and community collaborations that bring artists together with stakeholders from other communities to unpack issues and ideas of contemporary social and political resonance.  Now in our eighteenth year, The Foundry Theatre is an ongoing performance of ideas, created by rigorous theatrical works, public dialogues and community engagement that invites as many people as possible to consider what it means to be citizens of a world that we ourselves create.

 

There is tremendous vitality in the assembly of individuals who have committed their lives to the theatre, not in service of a "career," but out of a hunger to participate in creating a broader vision - to be part of a progressive community whose ideas, art, and actions would address and challenge what is unacceptable in the status quo. Many who believe in the potency of theatre dare to hope their work will support and invigorate other individuals and communities to do the same. The Foundry is committed to reinvestigating that ideal and staking out a new relevancy for theatre and the artists

who make it within the fabric of our citizenry.

                                                                          A book of matches advertising the Foundry's first production                                                                                                         W. David Hanckock's The Convention of Cartography (1994)

The Foundry is an ongoing experiment in the creation of a theatre/art making company that is expressed both by the art we make and the contexts we address to contain it.  We consider our work multidimensionally and intersectionally.  The dimensions which currently guide the company's values are: 

ART MAKING

    Aesthetics: 

We seek to create rigorous theatre works that are driven by ideas, that embody or invite inquiry, and that knit together unusual forms and provocative content.

    Artists:

Artists are guaranteed from the start that we will produce their commissioned work and that we will creatively and financially support its long term and inimitable development through to its premiere.   We are committed to providing respectful compensation to all participants involved (that are in relation to permanent staff salaries) and we negotiate all compensation directly with artists (this process is not mediated by agents or managers).  Artists are invited into the budgeting and producing strategies of their projects and we maintain transparency in all elements of producing. 

IMPACT

  We are committed to ongoing assessment of methodologies and documentation:  What are we doing and how is it working?  And is our

  company’s practice useful to other artists/organizations/sectors?   We seek to add to a body of aesthetics and analysis with our work. 

  We look at all our public events as invitations towards building an engaged and participatory community (even more than an audience) that

  in turn contributes to the company’s ongoing evolution.

POLITICS

  We see ourselves as a theatre company within an ecology of repairing, transforming and collectively making the world.  Our programs continue to

  pursue deeper meanings and practices of democracy.  We seek to participate in a paradigm shift in the way that art and the artists who make it are

  considered and engaged in this democracy; and our internal structure of shared leadership reflects these ongoing pursuits.