The Foundry Theatre

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 believe our body of work constitutes a 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 and métiers to unpack issues and ideas of contemporary social and political resonance.

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, if necessary, to rededicating theatre and the artists who make it to the service of our society.

Foundry productions have been critically recognized and honored with 11 Obie Awards and 4 Drama Desk nominations for "Unique Theatrical Experience." The company itself has twice received the Ross Wetzsteon Obie Award for its "overall contribution to the Off and Off-Off Broadway community" as a theatre that both "fosters new envelope-pushing work and engages artists in the thorniest issues of the world we inhabit" and most recently we received the national Peter Zeisler Award in recognition of "innovative practice and dedication to freedom of expression."

Now in our eighteenth year, The Foundry Theatre is an ongoing performance of ideas, created by rigorous theatrical works, public dialogues and community programs that invites as many people as possible to consider what it means to be citizens of a world that we ourselves create

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The Foundry is an ongoing experiment in building a new kind of theatre/art making company that cannot be understood -- by ourselves or others -- as having only one focus. There are three concurrent and cross-pollinating dimensions that guide the values of The Foundry:

Art-making practice:

Aesthetics: We seek to create new theatre works that embody or invite inquiry, works that knit together unusual forms and challenging content. We seek to not repeat ourselves from project to project as a way to reflect the living nature of the accumulated and accumulating evolution of the company

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 rigorous development by following the needs of its initimitable process. We are committed to providing respectful compensation to all participants involved (that are inrelation to permanent staff salaries) and we negotiate all compensation with artists (this process is not mediated by agents or managers). Artists are invited intothe 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 how is the company’s practice useful to other artists/organizations/sectors? We seek to add to a body of aesthetics and analysis with our art and dialogues. We look at all our public events as invitations towards building an engaged and participatory community (even more than an audience) that impacts 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.