Our Mission
Enchantment Theatre Company’s mission is to inspire children to dream, explore, think, and connect through imaginative storytelling onstage and in the classroom.
We bring stories to life in a way that encourages children to dream about who they are and may become, to explore story from different perspectives, to think using inductive reasoning, and to connect to other people and ideas. Our programs encourage children to question and explore how to live in a complex world so that they grow up healthier, smarter, and kinder.
Our Vision
Enchantment Theatre Company aspires to transform young audiences into creative, curious, and compassionate adults.
Our Values
We Believe That
- Theatre has the power to illuminate, transform, and heal.
- Experiencing theatre is essential for children to thrive.
- We have a responsibility to nurture, honor, and respect the imagination of our audience.
- Fables, fairy tales, and myths stimulate intuitive thinking and encourage the possibility of mystery and magic in our lives.
- Theatre can create community by bringing together a diverse audience encompassing all ages and backgrounds.
- We have a responsibility to reach out to children and families who may not otherwise have access to the unique kind of artistic and educational experiences that we provide.
- The intentional application of access and inclusion is paramount.
- We have a responsibility to create a working environment that encourages authentic and empowered participation and a true sense of belonging, enabling artists, staff and Board to be fully self-expressive.
- How we work with one another matters.
What Motivates Us
Enchantment Theatre Company believes that quality theatre can do more than just entertain. Theatre offers children an experience that awakens feelings of wonder, empathy, and joy. It fosters creativity; it promotes literacy by engaging students with a variety of learning styles; and it deepens connections between people and ideas.
Children need to go to the theatre as much as they need to run about in fresh air. Otherwise they perish on the inside…
Theatre feeds the heart and nourishes the soul and enlarges the spirit…
A theatre especially set up for children helps even more; and plays presented by people who know how to perform for children without talking down to them, or being facetious, or leaving their brains behind, are best of all.
By igniting the imagination and teaching children how to create collaboratively, we connect reading, seeing, learning, and creating through the theatre arts. These experiences develop the whole child and contribute to increased comprehension, compassion, academic achievement, and social-emotional competency.
To learn more about how social-emotional learning helps children succeed in school and as they grow into mature and empathetic adults, take a look at this e-book by the Committee for Children.
Artistic Director’s Statement
Beyond the Laughter and the Tears
The work of Enchantment Theatre Company is transformational. We are committed to creating theatre pieces that shift the very nature and substance of both audience and performers. Our devices are as old as the theatre itself – older in fact. Masks, puppets, music, and illusion are the tradecraft of pre-historic priests and shamans who could heal the body and soul. These workers of magic became the actors of ancient Greece, whose purpose was to unfold the nature of being a human being with a wildly diverse audience – citizen, slave, rich, and poor discovered the essence of their humanity in the company of one another in numbers sometimes reaching 30,000 souls. We of Enchantment Theatre Company are the heirs to this great work. We wish to engage the imagination and spirit of the audience until a transformation occurs and the true grace of our mutual humanity is revealed – not one time, but every time we perform.
Our purpose is redemption! Like a good Frank Capra film or Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, our plays affirm that no life is inconsequential. This is obviously a worthy endeavor for a theatre company for young audiences, and that is certainly a major aspect of Enchantment Theatre Company’s mission, but our goal is much larger than this. We are a family company and the family that we aim at is humankind. The fables that form the core of our repertoire are not simplistic tales leading to plastic happy endings. They are mini-epics, journeys of the body and spirit that lead to true growth and awareness. Our plays are neither tragedies nor comedies, but rather are akin to Shakespearean romances. Like A Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, our productions present hasty acts that have great consequences. They are stories of trial and tribulation, self-denial and self-discovery, ultimately celebrating the power of love and forgiveness.
Beyond the tears of tragedy and the laughter of comedy is the clear open space in which lives can be redeemed, rediscovered, and reborn. Our romantic fables are committed to generating such a space with every audience. This is a mighty task! We live in a world where cynicism is rather common and all we see are negative possibilities. Cynicism is easy. Standing tall for the possibility of life working out is much more difficult and far more rewarding.
Enchantment Theatre Company is committed to a family audience in the broadest and richest sense and can be counted on to stand for the possibility of life working out. We promise that every production will nurture the possibility of family, friendship, and love.
Company History
Enchantment Theatre Company has produced original theatre for school groups and families since 2000, when it was established as a non-profit arts organization in Philadelphia. The company presents only original work based on classic stories from children’s literature, using its signature blend of masked actors, pantomime, magic, large-scale puppets, and original music. Building on the more than 30 years of theatrical experience of its artistic directors, Enchantment has quickly become known for high quality imaginative productions, not only in its home city but throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia.
Enchantment has toured its original productions all over the world, appearing each year in 30-40 U.S. states. It has performed in such sophisticated urban arts venues as Lincoln Center in New York City and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in small town high school auditoriums and performance tents. In Philadelphia, Enchantment has appeared at the Kimmel Center and the Annenberg Center. The company has also toured in Asia six times, performing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Enchantment has shared the stage with more than 65 orchestras nationwide in its special symphonic works that pair great stories with great music for the benefit of school and family audiences.
Enchantment highly values arts in education, and the company has maintained a vibrant education program in the Philadelphia area. The program brings teaching artists to local schools for in-depth residencies and tours portable Enchantment Everywhere productions to schools and community venues, making it more feasible for children and their families throughout the area to experience the magic of live theatre.
