Mission Statement

Unknown Theater is dedicated to making theater an integrated and necessary part of people’s lives -- providing regular opportunities for the members of our diverse Los Angeles community to come together, appreciate one another, and search for meaning together.

Primary Objectives

1. To produce uniquely theatrical events -- communal experiences shared equally by the actors and the audience.

2. To create "The 5th Wall" to inject theater into the modern urban ritual, making theater an accessible, integrated, and significant part of people's lives.

3. To build and support programs to involve the community, young and old, in most every step of our creative process.

4. To create unusual opportunities for the artists of Los Angeles by building relationships and openly collaborating with our neighbor artists.

5. To gather and support a disciplined and inclusive ensemble of artists and administrators, a powerful and long-lasting infrastructure, which will make our goals a reality.

Founding Beliefs and Principles

1. We believe that theater is an intrinsic part of the human experience.

2. We will always challenge, question, and have faith in ourselves.

In all aspects of the organization, including play choices, design choices, rehearsals, workshops, collaborations, The 5th Wall, management, fundraising, marketing, special programs & finance:

a) We will stay true to our mission and our objectives in all things at all times.
b) We will have hope: eschew cynicism and maintain an attitude wise and brave enough to be idealistic.
c) We will be disciplined: never make a choice solely because it is the easiest one or the most profitable one.
d) We will be creative: accept tradition and learn from the past, but always take the original route when in doubt.
e) We will grow: welcome challenges that seem just beyond our practical reach and present abilities.
f) We will forever be a new voice in the theater community: always remember why we exist, and continually reevaluate our work, beliefs, and procedures to ensure that we are always marching into Unknown territory.
g) We will support one another: work together to create a positive environment that fosters commitment, risk, exploration, and growth.

3. We will choose work thoughtfully.

a) We will always understand why we need to tell a particular story.
b) We will center our efforts on virtually inarguably positive agenda: peace, collaboration, the celebration of the human spirit, and other potentially universal or humanistic themes.
c) We will maintain the following qualities in all of our work:
-Uniquely theatrical: Always moving toward our goal of a communal experience - an event shared equally by the actors and the audience.
-Original in content and execution in respect to the theater community at large, and our own body of work.
-Intellectually challenging.
-Engaging.
-Professionally produced with the highest attention to detail in all aspects.

4. We will always challenge, question, and have faith in our audience.

a) We will consider the audience's role in every production.
b) We will never think that we are smarter or more advanced than our audience.
c) We will be careful with the expression: "Give them what they want". By staying true to our instincts we might just stumble upon a new brand of theater, which we never could have guessed, "they wanted".

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