About Us
Rising Sun Theatre was created in 2004 to provide opportunities for cognitively disabled people to practice the art of theatre. Our ensemble of emerging actors is committed to mastering a range of theatre skills with guidance from professional theatre facilitators and community support workers. We collectively create and publicly present original performance material which reflects the voices, stories, and imaginations of our actors.
Our Mandate and Mission
We believe that cognitively disabled people deserve access to professionally delivered arts programming that nurtures the innate creativity and artistic potential shared by all people. Our commitment to the ongoing artistic development of our actors empowers them to express themselves dramatically and share their experiences with the wider community. We believe our work has the potential to transform our actors into innovative creators and accomplished performers, and our audience members into engaged community supporters.
Our mission is to:
- Provide our actors with high quality professional instruction and facilitation
- Increase and strengthen skills in improvisation, acting, storytelling, movement, music, and collective creation in our actors
- Portray, through theatre, the specific experiences of our actors and the essential human experiences all people share
- Create work of high artistic quality that engages and entertains audiences
- Develop confidence, pride, self-discipline, communication and negotiation skills, creativity and self-expression in our actors
- Break down barriers and stereotypes and raise awareness of issues affecting disabled people in society
- Integrate the community-at-large as participants, volunteers, sponsors, advocates and supporters
- Build partnerships and interaction with local artists, arts organizations, and disability agencies
How We Work
The goal of our creative process and the root of our artistic work is the full expression of our actors’ ideas, input, and stories. Under direction from theatre facilitators, our actors practice improvisation, movement, vocal technique, solo performance, thematic exploration, storytelling, clown, and character work. These activities hone the actors’ skills in expressing and developing their own performance material. The material is continually shaped through physical and verbal experimentation, exploration and conversation by the actors with the facilitators.
Our Shows
Our performances are lively and energetic, highly anticipated by both actors and audiences. They feature original and live music, and encourage audience participation and interaction before, during, and after the shows. The creation process and performance are guided by a collectively-chosen theme that shapes the work, and creates a throughline for the performance. Our performances are inclusive of and accessible to cognitively and physically disabled people, their families and caregivers. Click HERE for more information on our past shows.
We look forward to meeting you at our NEXT SHOW!