Electic Company Theatre: Vancouver BC, Canada

Objectives & Activities

The Electric Company is a unique and vital presence in the independent theatre scene of Vancouver. We create and produce original works with an emphasis on collective creation. Our projects are the result of collaborative writing with our scripts being authored by the core members of the company. Our projects consistently garner rave reviews in the press and play to sold-out audiences.

A key goal is to create a constructive and rewarding environment for artists allowing all members of any given project a voice in the overall shape and evolution of the play. Artists are encouraged to think outside of their traditional roles (e.g. a lighting designer might offer up an idea for staging, an actor might contribute text to the script, etc.)

We are also committed to providing opportunities for emerging artists to work in large projects with established artists. As well, we are dedicated to fostering the participation of youth in theatre through various outreach programs such as workshops, apprenticeships, mentorships, etc.

We are active members of the theatre community having affiliations with several companies both large and small as well as multiple arts organizations. We are leaders in promoting the face of independent theatre in Vancouver.

The audience is always at the forefront of our work and we strive to tell stories that speak to our community and our often accelerated culture with unorthodox and surprising techniques, nontraditional staging, and capitalizing on the immediacy, imagination, and magic of theatre.

We believe in collaboration and inclusion. Our projects are the result of partnerships with community organizations, arts groups, businesses, government, schools and individuals. We work to reach across cultures, backgrounds, economics, and ideology to find the universal elements that connect all members of our community.

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Wrapped in layers of visual and physical imagery, our plays, at their core, speak to audiences of an accelerated culture at an exhilarating rate.

Nontraditional staging. Takes. New routes. The immediacy of our very live theatre captures the contemporary imagination with stories that are fresh, raw, and relevant.

Our stories grow out of issues, themes, or narratives that appear on our collective radar and are fed through a process of intensive research and aesthetic critique. We tune in to stories of personal and social transformation. We are excited by the role of technology in people’s lives; how the impulse of invention continues to flow against the resistance to change.

We strive to create theatre that is life-affirming, inspiring and provocative, and to promote theatre as an educative, cultural, and by all means fun, experience. With a fresh approach to the use of space in our storytelling we transform venue into narrative. Challenging the established conventions of creating theatre and watching theatre, the Electric Company constantly experiments with its own formulae. We believe in theatre that is accessible: financially and thematically. Audiences are always at the forefront of our work.