Verb Theatre Value Statement

Above all, Verb Theatre values respect.  At Verb, we actively seek ways to ensure that anyone who interacts with us knows their full humanity is acknowledged, welcomed, and respected in our spaces even (and especially) when there is disagreement. As such, we are committed to continuing to explore ways we can be more accessible (artistically, financially, physically, and emotionally) to everyone we work and interact with.   Respect for the individual humanity of each person is at the core of all our decision-making, and may take a number of different forms.

·      We respect our audiences, honouring the time and energy each audience member brings into our theatre by providing provocative, important, and undeniable experiences.
·      We respect our artists, recognizing their humanity, skill, and dignity by creating inclusive and brave creative spaces. 
·      We respect our stakeholders, appreciating that much of what we do is funded by tax dollars, private donors, and ticket buyers and live that respect by investing that financial support wisely, productively, and magically. 

Verb Theatre values bravery in our artistic experimentation, and strives to create an artistic culture where creative risks are encouraged.  This courageous approach helps us to both dream big and to be accountable and honest with ourselves and each other. 

Verb Theatre values curiosity as an essential quality needed to ask the daring questions that help us better understand each other.  Verb values the diverse range of perspectives and representations on our stages and marvels at the complexity and truth of a wide range of human experiences.  Humanity is complex, nuanced, and interesting and we want our art to be as well. This diversity may be expressed in the scripts we choose, the stories we tell, the actors we cast, the artists we hire, and conversations we initiate over the course of months or even years.

Verb Theatre values empathy. We at Verb believe that theatre is a site of radical empathy, and this is true in both our performances and our creation processes.  We believe in empathy-driven rehearsal rooms where human needs are nurtured. We invite both artists and audience members to help us understand their needs so that we might better meet them.

Verb Theatre values mentorship, both as givers and receivers.  We want to support many generations of artists by providing exposure and access to any knowledge, know-how, and experience we might have to offer, and take pride in unlocking the potential of emerging artists to share with the greater community.  As the benefactors of mentorship ourselves, we seek out the expertise of senior artists in our own development

Verb Theatre values liveness.  We celebrate the ritual value of theatre, and the importance of liveness in our artistic craft.  Togetherness and shared experience make theatre an act of ritual empathy, and we value the live audience as an essential and beloved contributor in that experience.

Verb Theatre values professionalism. We strive to build a creative culture that works toward excellence and the highest standard of quality, and recognize that taking care of our artists is vital to ensuring a healthy, professional workspace.

August, 2021

This year at Verb has been a time of growth and learning. Thanks to the many artists who have shared their voices to help us better understand the industry we work in, we know a bit more about how and why we want to create now than we did a year ago.

In addition to taking training in healthy workspace development, we have also reinvigorated our code of values, which we will be posting here soon. We thank our community for their support of Verb and for helping us continue to grow in the years to come.

I find this image elucidating, because it’s clear to me what the problem is AND what the solution is.  We have to get rid of the obstacles.  So that’s what I’m setting out to do in our theatre community – get rid of the obstacles and barriers to entry that many artists face.  I’ve always believed that for long-lasting and meaningful change, we must treat the disease, not the symptoms.  It’s a longer, sometimes more difficult approach, but it is the one I believe in.

To that end:

·      Anti-racism, anti-oppression, and EDI (equity, diversity and inclusivity) training has become part our administrative toolkit.  So far we have taken three seminars or workshops on these topics, with a fourth scheduled for October.  We do this because it has been made clear that systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination has been a very real barrier to many diverse artists, and we don’t want that to be a barrier preventing anyone from playing at Verb. 

·      One of the barriers to entry for many diverse artists is trust.  To help build that trust and hold ourselves and our contractors accountable, we plan to formalize a Verb-specific anti-racism policy using the tools we learn in these seminars and workshops.  We hope to have this done by the end of October, but I want to be very honest that this deadline might change if we learn things that need more focused consideration in these seminars. 

·      Another obstacle is that many young people who might be interested in becoming theatre artists are decelerated or even halted in their journeys because they’ve never seen anyone who looks like them on stage before.  Verb is currently working with several community members and organizations invested in breaking down this barrier to create a formalized program that brings young people to the very shows they might most need to see to support them on their artistic journey.  This is at a very early phase, but we hope to have more to announce by the end of the year.  Of course, we also have to ensure that there are diverse professional artists working at Verb, as there often have been.  One of the obstacles to programming diverse work at Verb, however, is that we are an artist-led organization and don’t always have the ability to bring in outside directors, so in the past, our AD has needed to direct most of our shows.  We began to explore how our budgets might be able to support bringing in outside directors back in February before the pandemic hit, and will continue to examine this as we we look toward the future.

Clearly there is more to be done, and there are more conversations being had.  

This where Verb is starting.  Thank you for reading.

Jamie Dunsdon, Artistic Director