Mandate

During our time in Victoria, we formed small, alternative theatre companies and nurtured them from fledging collectives to established, successful organizations. We produced Canadian plays that spoke to people our own age and addressed contemporary issues in exciting and innovative ways. When we returned to Vancouver, we developed this successful model in Epicentre Theatre.

Our mandate is to produce modern and post-modern plays, with a focus on Canadian works. In fact, our first two seasons feature only Canadian plays. We choose plays that challenge artist and audience, and send them away thinking about what they've witnessed.

An epicentre is a focal point, the centre from which shockwaves radiate. We hope to function in the same way, reaching out from our home at the Vancouver Little Theatre to local audiences and artists in Vancouver and beyond. We combine a strong artistic vision with pragmatism and hard work. As much as fellow thespians may espouse the process, the art of rehearsal, we must remember that theatre is first and foremost for and about the audience. A production is a product they consume. And so, we want to create sharp theatre--good-looking, well-produced plays. It is our goal to balance entertainment with instruction, to make the stage a bear pit, vaudeville and lecture hall. We agree with Vaclav Havel, that theatre "should always be somewhat suspect" and struggle to be the abstract and brief chronicles of our time.

Arthur Miller once said that "drama is akin to the other inventions of man, in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings." It is from this idea that our artistic mandate springs.