What is a mission statement? Does it hold weight in whatever limbo we are in? Drafting a mission statement is the first, and perhaps, most single most important task as one begins a theatre company. The mission statement will be a manifesto declaring the group’s ideals, its goals, its passions. It is a stone to which we refer in order to stay true to the principles established as a company. It is a flag of individuality and an oath to everyone who walks through our doors: this is who we are and this is what we stand for.

Back in 2002, when we crafted our mission statement, this is what we created:

Believing in the power of theatre to startle the soul, ignite debate and embrace the diversity of the community in which it serves, Cygnet Theatre Company is fearlessly committed to the dissection, examination and celebration of the human story through the medium of live theatre.

We’ve touched back on this many times over the years to help us stay aligned with what our theatre stands for. We have yet to feel it need to revise it, as it still is the strongest roadmap for us in our decision making. It has been a sturdy and encompassing touch stone.

But, ten months into this damned pandemic, it may feel as if almost none of that matters. Without being able to produce live productions, we’ve been challenged with finding other ways to create and meet our mission. In the numerous, numerous  conversations we’ve held with each other since this pandemic started, many questions emerged:

• What place do the arts hold in the current world?
• How has our job changed?
• How will the arts need to adapt in the upcoming years?
• Have we “embrace(d) the diversity of the community in which (we) it serves”?
• How do we continue to follow our mission regarding serving community, when the community cannot gather?
• How do we fulfill our statement that we will be “fearlessly committed… to the medium of live theatre” when we aren’t yet able to create live theatre?
• Or most to the bone: who are we as artists?

These, and other serious questions, suggest long range perils for this industry and its role in our greater community must be strengthened in the coming year. But after ten months of reflection upon these and other questions, we believe that the arts are more essential now than ever before.

The arts serve to inform, entertain, challenge, introduce, and now, perhaps most importantly, to offer a refuge to reflect and share experience. That is what we do. The medium may have changed for the moment, but our mission remains the same.

When we are able to come back, it’s definitely going to be challenging. The theatre may make changes that are somewhat different from what we left back in March. It may never quite be exactly what it was, but newly reflect the challenges of a post-pandemic world. But the act of creating and sharing will remain the same as we are given the opportunity to rethink how we produce and make American theatre accessible to more people.

And we think that’s a good thing.

After ten months, our Mission Statement continues to hold strong:

• We are still dedicated to giving audiences something worthwhile.
• We are excited about the prospects of reaching new audiences.
• We are committed to providing our audiences, staff, casts, crew and designers a safe environment at all times where one can focus on the art on stage.
• We are dedicated to provide theatre experiences to our audiences that will enrich, inform, entertain, challenge, just as we’ve always done.
• And we are so respectful and grateful to our subscribers and donors who have not given up on the arts this past year but have stayed with us with the forward-looking goal of coming back stronger.

We ARE stronger and capable of more than we have imagined because we did not give up. Uncertainty still lays ahead for all of us, but we know that by working together, we can make a better future for our community through the arts.

The opening sentence of our mission statement is to believe in the power of theatre.

So that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

Thank YOU for sticking with us. Your faith in us inspires us and gives us reason to continue on. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Sean and the entire Cygnet Family