Our History

We are calling ourselves Esperance Theater Company. Inspired by Shakespeare, esperance is a word that appears a few times throughout the canon: it is defined as “hope” or “expectation”. For us this means a constant reaching toward renewal, development, artistic excellence, and ultimately a stronger connection to our audience.

Esperance is a home for artists to dedicate themselves to ensemble work in service of story.  Our company will not only be asked share their talents as actors, but as musicians, writers, choreographers, poets, directors, designers, teachers, leaders and engaged citizens.  We are in service of the entire artist, and look to challenge our company to grow across disciplines. 

Every member of our leadership team has worked as an educator, and understands that the key to getting folks involved is through “defined accessibility.”  Our experience is that many people do not think classical theater is for or about them, and we take it as our responsibility to create the access point, and invite you in.  Once in, we want to make sure that the story and the storytellers are rooted in that same accessibility.  In our experience, if we are able to reveal this connection just once, it will hook you for a lifetime. 

Core Values

1. Generosity:  All our artists are generously in service of the story, the ensemble, and the audience. 
2. Company:  We are devoted to the creation and development of a consistent company of artists.
3. Classical Aesthetic:  We are interested in classical plays, new and old, that are focused on asking universal questions relating our common humanity.
4. Diversity:  We believe that the only way to get to a modern truth is to actively seek out voices from diverse experiences.
5. Lean Story Telling:  Our process will be to boil a story down to its essence, and streamline the performance by creating a direct connection between the actor and audience.
6. Audience as Accomplice:  Theater should feel a bit rebellious, and the event of the performance should have the excitement of intimate immediacy.  We are playing a secret game, where we all decide that we are going to “make believe.”  This takes trust, and we will cultivate an audience that is eager to lean forward, instead of sitting back, and feel a responsibility to engage, as they know they are culpable in the story.
7. Artists in Esperance:  We will continue to create leadership opportunities for our core company; creating actors as directors, musicians, writers, choreographers, etc….  We believe by empowering our artists we will strengthen our company’s commitment to each other and the community.
8. Mentorship:  We believe in cultivating from within, and the power of a shared history.  We will look for opportunities to teach and learn as we work, stemming from the responsibility to future theater artists.  
9. Sustainability:  We believe that theater is tied to the wellness of a society.  It is not an extravagance or a luxury, but a necessity.  Therefore our work will be accessible to the broadest audience possible, and we are dedicated to growing a foundation of fiscal health, providing the ability to pay our artists a living wage.
10. Artistic Excellence:  In carrying out our core values, we will not sacrifice reaching to produce theater of the highest quality.