Neworld’s 30th Anniversary
See our full season launch brochure here.
Neworld is 30 years old! It was founded in 1995. What were you doing in 1995? I was in Mr. Obadia’s grade 5 class at Sherwood Park Elementary. I was singing along to a lot of TLC and Mariah Carey, and loving My Girl 2. I had greasy bangs and mostly wore crop tops and overalls. I was making plays all the time but at that point, they were performed in my basement and featured anyone who found themselves there – whether they wanted to act or not. It was in that year that a recently graduated Camyar Chai staged Evening in a Strange Land at UBC and the seed for Neworld Theatre was planted.
Camyar challenged what stories could be told on professional stages in Vancouvern by staging plays in a bold variety of forms from political allegories (Evening in a Strange Land) to dark Brechtian-style comedies (Opiate Karim) to adaptations of Persian folklore (Love & Quest). He laid the foundation for one of our most enduring relationships when he premiered Quest at the Cultch. He took risks with big ideas like The Devil Box Cabaret in a storefront on Commercial Drive, the beginning of Leaky Heaven Circus and the first Theatre Under the Gun.
In 2002 Adrienne Wong came on as Artistic Producer and played a pivotal role in the next ten years of the company making a name for herself with iconic productions like her original play, co-created with Julie Tamiko Manning, Mixie and the Halfbreeds and the West Coast premiere of My Name is Rachel Corrie. Adrienne left a lasting impact on Canadian theatre when she innovated a new form of digital theatre with Podplays, work that carries on today with her role as Artistic Director at FOLDA.
In 2004 Marcus Youssef joined the company and together he and Camyar challenged and delighted audiences with their iconic production
The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axis of Evil. This original production went on to tour extensively, led to a sequel and is taught on an ongoing basis in universities around the world as an example of the way theatre can play a role in challenging racial stereotypes and systems of oppression with satire.
Adrienne and Marcus ran the company together for many years and by 2013 Marcus was the sole Artistic Director. His time with Neworld was characterized by artistic collaboration and working across perceptions of difference. He created Winners and Losers with James Long which toured nationally for years, even appearing Off Broadway near the end of its run. With Peter Panties and King Arthur’s Night, both born from the mind of Niall McNeil, Marcus put stories created by and featuring artists with lived experience of neurodiversity on national stages and built a home for that work to continue with the creation of the Learning Ensemble Across Difference (LEAD). While at Neworld he won the Siminovitch Prize and supported a new generation of theatre makers, including me!
In our office, we have framed photos of Camyar, Adrienne and Marcus. I refer to them as our ancestors. I say it lightly but the truth is that I’m not joking. They are just that. Neworld, as you see it today, is descended from them. They carved a path that we follow today.
The vision for Neworld from the very beginning was to do as the name suggests, create a new world, to tell stories on the stage that lead us to the work we wish to see. One where diversity is valued not because it’s a buzzword but because working with people who bring a variety of lived experiences is where the magic happens and making space for who we really are is when our superpowers shine. One fuelled by trust and care where best intentions are assumed. One where theatre can be awe-inspiring and illuminate new corners of our experience. I saw this happen when I first worked with Neworld as an assistant director on The Idiot in 2011, under the incomparable James Fagan Tait, and I see it today in all of our ambitious productions that center stories rarely given resources and a shining light.
Being the Artistic Director I have such a clear sense of this company not being about me. Or even about the current team we have here today. This company is based on values and relationships that have long roots reaching back 30 years. We have internalized those ideals and enshrined them in policy and practice in the hopes of having this ambitious, innovative, fearless organization live far beyond us.
And all of this has brought us to today. This season we are bringing the shocking stories of climate disaster survivors to life on stage in a new verbatim project called Eyes of the Beast premiering at UVic this fall then coming to SFU in the Spring of 2025.
We’re returning to our touring roots for the first time post-pandemic with a BC tour of Cheyenne Rouleau’s Fat Joke and going even further afield with the international premiere of Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen’s The Seventh Fire. Our LEAD Ensemble is developing a number of new works and honing their craft on an ongoing basis. We’re continuing our partnership with the Unbound Reading Series with two events that feature readings by Black writers. We’re associate producing Meeting with our friends at Pacific Theatre and ITSAZOO and supporting our Community Engagement Manager Angelica Schwartz with their ambitious adaptation of Blood Wedding. And we’ve got a whole bunch of other new projects in development.
Camyar built a boat, Adrienne set it to sea and Marcus was the wind in the sails. I have the extraordinary privilege of captaining that ship. What a gift. Happy birthday sweet Neworld. You have held so many of us and we thank you.