The PACT Manifesto

Theatre can't change the world, but people can. And theatre can inspire people to work for change. It can help us believe in the possibility of a better world, and it can help us envision ways in which we--individually and collectively--might contribute to bringing about that world. Let's use theatre to dream and to plan.

Before theatre can inspire--before it can motivate, embolden, and suggest--it has to engage. To do that, theatre must tell stories that matter. It has to tell stories that matter not only to the people onstage and backstage, but also to those in the audience. Let's not assume we know what matters to the people in the audience, or to the people who we'd like to be but aren't yet in the audience. Let's ask them.

Engaging an audience requires more than telling stories that matter; it requires telling those stories in a dynamic manner. Theatre must excite the senses and the imagination. Let's avoid the deadening conventions of staged literature and instead produce works that embody a spirit of vitality.

Let's perform holy rituals that reaffirm our shared goals and ethics.

Let's perform noisy revels that challenge our divisive mindsets and habits.

To help overcome the problems and perceptions that separate us, theatre must be a model for communal interaction. Let's reject hierarchical structures and adversarial relationships. Let's bring together people from multiple generations, diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, and a range of political perspectives. Let's make both the process and the production open spaces for discussion and consensus-building.

Let's abandon preconceptions and embrace potentials.

Let's go change the world!