The name alone reveals one of its purposes: actors find in the stage a renewing source of their own creativity; they regain strength every time they touch ground in the world that first nurtured them, the world of live theatre. And more and more, actors--especially those busy in film and television--find that only the classical stage provides them with a venue to develop and display their skills at the highest levels--in performances of sustained emotional truth, great ideas, and respect for the spoken word.
(from l to r) Eric Allan Kramer, Hawthorne James, Ralph Drischell and Tuck Milligan, in a scene from the Company's first independent production Of Mice and Men, produced at the Ventura Court Theatre in 1996.  Photo: John Apicella).	But these would be relatively selfish reasons. What really drives the Company is the belief that the great masterpieces need ensembles to enact them, and that a city without such an ensemble is potentially a city without masterpieces. It is shortsighted for a metropolis like Los Angeles not to maintain such a classically trained company--as shortsighted as it would be for the city to build museums with spaces too small to house the great sculptures or walls to low to hang the great paintings or rooms too dark to see them. Or to build concert halls with impossible acoustics or with no place to seas the musicians. Or to have no instruments for the musicians. Or no musicians.
The classics can still speak to us--that is why they are classics. But without an acting ensemble capable of voicing them as they need to be voiced and acting them as they need to be acted, the classics--in all their excitement and wisdom--are effectively muzzled--or worse, distorted beyond recognition. What the masterpieces need are shared ways of working, high standards of performance, development and nurturing over time, a context to which tradition can be passed from master to journeyman, a company deep and committed enough that even the smallest roles may be strongly cast, and the kind of interaction between great works--for the audience no less than for the artists-- that only repertory and permanence can provide. Expecting that of a pick-up company would be like thinking you could put together a decent symphony orchestra for each piece on the program from the musicians who happened to be around at the time, or a major league baseball team for each game from casually available ballplayers. Theatre is a collaborative art, and collaboration is more efficiently and more effectively done with teamwork. But there can be no teamwork without a team--a company, more than a collection of individuals, an ensemble.

On to "Does the Company have a vision?"