At the new
Midlantic Theatre Company, we want to bring theatre, schools outreach and eventually, prison outreach, that feed and entertain you. We want to revel in writers' characters, stories and words, served by, not driven by, production values. Those characters are: you. – – What will we put on?  Everything. New, classic, musical; we especially want to give Shakespeare a better deal than he sometimes gets. True delivery of the goods: his characters experience big emotions that matter, AND they capitalize on his vast array of sparkling words. We aim to deliver the goods. The world could use him now, and his audience deserves their rapt attention on his characters onstage. You, the audience, deserve to walk out of our theatre alive with feelings and thoughts. Our 3–word motto: "Shakespeare is exciting." Chekhov, Miller, Williams, Wilder, ad infinitum, are too. So are you, to be on our website. Now, please, see what we do!

Virginia Hammer, Artistic Director: I was given plenty of rejection during my 11–1 month search for the right, large space for "Henry VI". "Henry" was oft pronounced “not radical enough.” Shakespeare, staged “straight,” is often radical nowadays, I think ­ at least, sometimes, in NY. I think WS’ comedies do better, staged in fun, different times. That still doesn’t take away the power and fun of WS’ words, allowed to work their magic without overpowering concepts or staging. Pure and simple. No schtick, easy on the 21st century irony/comments. WS is pretty whole–hearted. I’m not advocating a $5 set and everybody in black bodysuits. But WS’ characters think and feel very fully; isn’t truly using those words, enough?

I was lucky to be raised, 1973 – 1983, on trips to Stratford, Ontario’s Golden Age. I’m blest and cursed with the memories of Maggie Smith, William Hutt, other international stars and a company the NY Times called “the best on the North American continent.” The audience were riveted to the stage. Maggie Smith’s Rosalind is still the greatest performance I’ve ever seen.

Let’s get out of the way of those magic words! Highly trained actors, familiar with WS’ demanding idiom, with the requisite physical and mental energy to rock him on a live stage; astute directors, good production values that help those words, not overshadow them: that’s our responsibility. Modern writers, new writers, the classics: their people are us all. They’re enough. Who knew?