Performance Overview
Mission Statement
X Repertory Theatre produces the most vital contemporary, classical, ensemble driven and experimental works drawn from diverse theatrical traditions. XRT productions push and explore the limits of the form and are linked by a common commitment to personal, relevant and arresting storytelling. An innovative Teaching Theater, XRT aims to be an artistic home for empowered and generative artists in dynamic exchange of ideas with their audience and their community.
Artistic Vision
We try to be a bridge: a bridge between the venerable theatrical traditions of yesterday and the unknown theater of tomorrow. We believe that the theater has to grow and develop with its audience and with the community. The world around us is changing radically and quickly, and it is the job of the artist to provide a mirror for that changing world and allow the community to come together in cathartic communion, dialogue, debate, and, perhaps, deeper understanding. We embrace the traditions that we have inherited from the great artists before us and we choose to celebrate and explore our roots as well as reach forward bravely to new voices, new visions, and new ideas.
Our 2010 Season
In our inaugural season, X Repertory Theatre will produce two full-length mainstage productions in our flexible and convertible theatre space at 1581 Industrial Street. Our season planning is currently underway and will include ensemble-generated & produced work. These productions, along with Cabaret Nights, Speaker Series and workshops geared to nurturing and developing new works, will offer our patrons an unexpected, visceral array of theatricality and artistic possibility.
Open Letter
Dear You, Our Audience,
We all gasp when a mirror falls to the floor with a crash, the night sky emerges from the light of day, a swath of blue silk flutters to the ground in a pool of ripples and reflection, yet these are just the most pedestrian of “stage effects.” Every great theatrical experience is both primitive magic and wondrous art.
The art of a culture reflects the culture. As our lives become more integrated with constantly changing technology, our art changes to reflect that new reality. So far, the theater has been slow to embrace the worldview of a new generation of audience members who text while they brush their teeth, tweet in real time, and grasp complex narrative tropes with the impatient ease of people born to virtual reality video games and high speed internet. We begin to think differently now, to see differently, and the theater of the future will reflect this.
Even as we are flinging open the doors to the new, we want to preserve the rich theatrical and narrative traditions that we have inherited-slowly developed story, rich characters, and language, language, language.
It is our job to welcome the artists of tomorrow, even if–maybe because convention-breaking is jarring and disorienting for the traditionalists among us (myself included). It’s also our job to celebrate and renew our greatest legacies so that in our rush towards the new and the innovative, the best of the venerable and the iconic don’t get lost. If we can celebrate our traditions, welcome the new, strive for relevance, vitality, and dynamism-where will it take us? I don’t know the answer but I hope you will join us on this journey as we explore the question….
Our first foray was our inaugural Signature Series Performance Piece. Every year the company will undertake a Signature Piece-a year-long exploration of a given topic. After six months’ development time, we’ll present a workshop of the piece with extensive post-show discussions to gather feedback from you, the audience. We will then go back into rehearsal for a later remount of the project.
2009’s topic-the economy. Comedy, tragedy and reality–all in one!
2010’s topic - stay tuned!
Our first piece, “Even Yet, Its Mighty Daring Sings!” weaved contemporary narratives collected through dozens of interviews of regular people all over the country, with the timely 1904 Harvey Granville Barker play, The Voysey Inheritance, about a 19th century Bernie Madoff character whose deception, once discovered, threatens to tear his family apart. Throw in a little circus (not quite one ring), cabaret, free beer, audience participation, and a chorus of dancing girls and it made for a fun night at the theater.
We hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
Caitlin Moon
