Our Vision
Advancing the human race through theatre made just for you.
Our Mission
We are Dayton’s professional regional theatre company, exploring the human experience and promoting enlightenment, inclusion and understanding while startling us all into a renewed awareness of ourselves.
Core Values:
- We affect the conscience of our society.
- We engage our audiences as partners in the creative experience.
- We provide a platform for artists to evolve and explore.
- We are a resource for our community.
Aspiration
As the premier professional producing theatre in the Miami Valley, we will continue to be the gateway for theatre professionals with a national presence to share their talents with our community. The well-informed theatre patron will find our mainstage seasons satisfying and unique, while the novice theatre patron will find an inclusive warm atmosphere to explore a broad spectrum of script choices and the intimate relationship between artist and audience. Our engagement programs will reach beyond our geographic boundaries and create opportunities for young and mature alike. Our programs to develop new theatre works receive national recognition for the company and our region. We will continue to be recognized as an organization of merit and integrity.
Company Principles
Producing theatre is our primary business, an activity that connects artists and audiences.
In the selection of materials for presentation:
- We address the issues that affect our society and the people in our community today.
- We include new and contemporary works, as they become available.
- We include classic works in such a fashion that we—both artists and audience—experience the work anew, so that its impact is forceful and fresh.
- We are actively involved in the development of new theatre works; we support playwrights and composers by bringing their work to an audience.
- We explore new methods and styles of performance.
- We include materials that families may attend and enjoy together, acknowledging that the parents and grandparents of today train the audiences of the future.
- Our audiences are more than consumers; they are intelligent and informed—critical partners in our creative experience.
- We will provide opportunities for our audience to obtain information about our programs and productions and allow them to respond directly to the artists and administration, which may affect change in our product or programming.
- Our community deserves the opportunity to experience new developments in our art while they are still new.
- We believe theatre must entertain—and by entertain we mean that it must be of a large enough experience to transport us out of ourselves.
As a recipient of community funding, we will insure that the organization is fiscally sound and will continue to provide professional employment for theatre artists as well as maintain a major presence in the cultural fabric of our community.
This company seeks collaborations with artists and companies that will enhance our own performance skills and create unique production opportunities for our audience. We treasure both cross-disciplinary projects and partnerships with other arts organizations
A community is richer by the presence of artists; therefore, we nurture the talents of artists invested in the region as well as encourage new artists to join our community.
We acknowledge the contribution of the gifted theatre artists who have built this company through their quality performances, through their voluntary service, and by identifying The Human Race Theatre Company as their artistic home. To these artists, the company may extend an invitation to become a Resident Artist. Resident Artists of The Human Race may be given preferential consideration in hiring, though they are not guaranteed work or directly compensated as Resident Artists.
An important role of the Resident Artist is to be part of The Human Race community—to participate in the evaluation of scripts, to speak out on the company’s behalf, to bring new ideas to the creative table, and to keep the spirit of the company true to its mission.
Some of our Resident Artists have moved to other regions or taken time to pursue other professional or personal interests. These artists are considered “ex officio.”
We bring visiting artists into our community to provide both our theatre artists and audiences with new skills and viewpoints.
We encourage our resident artists to network with outside professionals because theatre artists grow in their craft when exposed to the global community.
Artistic Statement
Former Artistic Director Marsha Hanna set our artistic bar very high. For 25 years, from our founding in 1986 until her untimely death in 2011, we were always in agreement about the type of theatre we wanted The Human Race to produce—great storytelling; something that touches our emotions; something that makes us stop and consider; something that reminds us “why we are here.” Marsha supported my endeavors to make the company a cornerstone in the development of new musicals for the American theatre. In Marsha’s memory, we commit to becoming a similar incubator for new plays. Our season will always be a mix of world and regional premieres, plays and musicals, recent hits from major theatre Meccas and re-imagined classics. By combining national, regional and local artists, we hope to continue growing our own theatre community—students, artists and audience. By combining artistic excellence and fiscal responsibility, by providing a voice for new writers while feeding the soul of our community, I see the path for our next 25 years. Always full of surprises, always Entertaining (with a capital “E”). I do hope you will join our journey. – Kevin Moore