ABOUT US

Our Mission

The Collective unites professional artists who share a responsibility to create work in the contemporary American Theatre that is emotionally truthful, socially relevant, and defiantly accessible.

The company was established in the tradition of the Group Theatre out of a belief that the current conditions of commercialized theatre necessitate collective action.

Commitment to a permanent ensemble distinguishes The Collective. Through a shared vocabulary, uniform technique, and continual practice, the group pursues a common purpose: to establish a theatre that is uncompromising, relevant, and inclusive.

History

The Collective began in 2007, when several recent graduates of the William Esper Studio came together to continue to create and produce work that built on their recent training and the strengths and talents of their colleagues. The parting advice to many of the graduates was to 'create your own work' as a way of taking control over one's career. The Collective exists to provide a network and a place where these individuals can showcase their talents.

The Collective just produced and will soon publish our 5th annual C:10, our ten minute premiere play series. We have produced 3 full length plays as well as 7 Short films.  Throughout the year, we workshop one-acts as well as full-length plays during our weekly in studio sessions. We have taken our New York stories to Coastal Carolina University and worked with students there to help them tell their own stories.  We publish all of our produced work and sell them to New York community through Drama Bookstore and to the larger American community through our website and Amazon.com.

Our produced works range in themes from gay conversion therapy, to an imagined America where Islam is the predominant religion, to a dark comedy about one family’s reaction to our past presidential election. From race to politics, from romance to religion, our members are encouraged to bring their ideas and voices to test them out on Collective Mondays. Our writers and actors then receive feedback from respected colleagues in a safe space and from that feedback develop the idea into producible work.