Mandate

We are born in terror and trembling. In the face of our terror, before the uncontrollable chaos of the universe, we label as much as we can with language in the hope that once we have named something we need no longer fear it. This labeling enables us to feel safer but also kills the mystery in what has been labeled, removing the life and danger from what has been defined. The artist’s responsibility is to bring the potential, the mystery and terror, the trembling, back.

Anne Bogart, A Director Prepares

Making Face Theatre is dedicated to producing high-calibre and thought-provoking theatre, through a process of creative collaboration and critical investigation. Our objective is to create theatre that wears expressions fully, and for those expressions to be real. We want to make theatre that is honest and funny, physical and poetic. We believe that theatre should be visceral and dreamlike.

When we attempt to understand a person, a moment, a thing, we often generalize and label it as “true enough,” and consequently, we fail to capture it wholly. We use a name to put a fence around a thing in an effort to keep it safe, protected, and clear to us. But in doing so, we crop off its uniqueness. Eventually, we begin to forget the potential the thing once had, seeing only its existence in relation to the mould we have made for it. Despite our effort to contain the thing, the character, or the story, it is through its inconsistencies that we find its vitality; they capture the living, breathing, illogical essence to which we can relate.

Theatre should create windows to empathy. It can help us to feel that we are connected to one another and that through exposing a character’s specific experiences, we can reveal universal truths. We want to uncover the reality that we have unlimited possibilities—that a lonely wife could be a drinking husband; a possessive mother, a wandering son. We believe that a connection is realized in the moment that we identify someone else’s struggle, and recognize the ways it is different from our own. We want to create theatre that tells stories that make us feel a sense of commonality; a kind of understanding outside of words.

We want to make theatre that implicates the audience and forces them to have a reaction, to “make a face,” by engaging them wholly and inviting them to sit-in, rather than to sit-back. We want to create stories that remind us of who we have been, who we could be, and who we have affected, so that our audiences leave the theatre feeling more connected and more inspired to create.