MISSION /
The Civilians is a company that creates new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present.
The Civilians is a theater company dedicated to creating and producing work that dynamically engages our broader social and political environment. We support artists’ efforts to interrogate our lived experience, question and test the stories that shape our world, and awaken new thinking and perceptions through their creations. Our work is led by founder Steve Cosson, and is rooted in a multi-disciplinary community of artists that includes long-term company members, project-specific collaborators, and participants in its ongoing programming. Drawing on core values of innovation and experimentation, we create and produce in a variety of formats and aesthetics, tailored to the needs of each project: work may be driven by an individual artist, a collaborative team, or be company-devised. Many of our projects take the form of investigative theater, a term we coined to describe our artistic and journalistic process of creative inquiry, research, and interaction with communities and individuals. We sustain an active R & D Program, including an investigative theater cabaret series and podcast, an annual readings series from our multi-disciplinary incubator the R & D Group, developmental workshops, and an online journal.