MISSION
Theatre East stirs the human side of current issues by fostering new plays of social relevance through New York and World Premieres.
A 501(c)3 nonprofit theatre company whose mission is to provide the community with a platform to deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world we share through theatre.
And creating access to art makers and storytellers through the space they manage and operate in Long Island City,
the Court Square Theater in LIC .
COMPANY HISTORY
After producing such hits as the premiere of Christopher Durang’s The Vietnamization of New Jersey (NY Times Critic’s Pick) and the premiere of Texas playwright David W. Crawford’s Harvest (Back Stage Critic’s Pick, Smith & Kraus Best New Plays of 2008) and earning a spot as “producers to watch in 2008” on PBS’s Theater Talk; with over a decade of producing both here in New York and Texas, the husband-and-wife producing partners, Judson Jones and Christa Kimlicko Jones, along with Joseph Mitchel Parks, founded Theatre East in 2008.
CORE BELIEFS
We believe art defines civilization.
We believe theatre serves as a communal experience.
We believe theatre enables a greater connection to the world and to each other.
We believe theatre is a catalyst for critical thinking.
We believe theatre can teach us about humanity’s place in history.
We believe theatre should play an active role in education.
We believe theatre is not a luxury but should be accessible to everyone, no matter one’s economic or social status.
We believe in the inherent value of artists and seek to provide competitive compensation for their skills, efforts, and expertise
We believe a theatre company, in order to effectively serve its community and itself, should remain transparent and inclusive.
We believe in fiscal responsibility for the company at all times.
We believe the creation of theatre depends upon smart, respectful, courageous, and versatile artists.
We believe as the result of theater, individuals are allowed the rare opportunity to step out of themselves and feel, think, know, experience, believe, and see as others do. Through this lens we just might, in a world gone mad with senseless yet targeted violence, embolden the needed yet frighteningly vanishing virtue of empathy.
Drawing from my small-town Texas upbringing, I truly believe theatre exists to serve its community, much like the feed store, the local house of worship, or the old barbershop. It serves as a place where ideas are exchanged and challenged. As a child, I remember going to the feed store with my father or grandfather. We’d get there, load up the feed, the saltlicks, and whatever else we might need. Then my father would pour himself a cup of coffee, sit down with whoever else was there at the time, and then the bigger purpose of our trip would begin.
Conversations about the weather, market prices, farming practices, politics, the goings-on around town. Oddly enough, most things you could get from the almanac, morning farmers’ report, or the news. But this was how we and most folks did it.
And still do. It’s this sense of community we seek. Theatre, which taken directly from Greek means, “a seeing place.” And communion comes from Latin meaning, “with oneness.” A place of seeing what common things we share. Or as John Peter Berger put it, “The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it’s something that theatre can do, but it’s rare; it’s very rare.”
I truly believe theatre is more than just something we view as a bystander. I believe it’s something we experience as a community. Millennia before theater houses were built or marquees were lit, people found themselves congregating together to share stories of journeys, of discovery, stories of great victory or grave defeat. People were impassioned, emboldened, or even frightened by these accounts. And it was a collective experience. Because it was a part of them.
In economic times such as these, with new fears seeming to surface every day, art is not always considered paramount. However, we feel our community needs the work of bold, aware artists confronting challenges with a penetrating, unblinking eye to help us understand our ever-changing surroundings. This…is our charge.
FROM JUDSON JONES
Judson Jones
Artistic Director
Theatre East