Is there some special aesthetic quality to the Company? Is there some unique artistic vision? Beyond the shared belief that the classics--from all over the globe--must continue to be done, that they can have a unifying rather than a dividing effect on our society, and that only a professional, trained, permanent ensemble can give them the productions they deserve, the members of the Company probably have as wide a variety of artistic visions of and approaches to these classics as any other comparable group of performing artists.
We perhaps have a slightly higher regard for the integrity of the classic texts and the authors' intentions than the average modern director does, and a significantly higher regard for the importance of actors' contributions to the process of rehearsal and performance. We believe less in type-casting and more in encouraging versatility among theatre artists. We believe less in star turns and more in ensemble playing. We confess a bias in favor of those scripts which are patently theatrical over those which are disguised screenplays; and in favor of those plays which speak to universal themes over those which are locked into a specific time or place or political concern. We would hope that we could present ourselves to any producer or director whose vision is not antagonistic to ours, as an ensemble of trained and co-operative colleagues ready to tackle any challenge; and we would hope any such director or producer would be equally co-operative with us and respectful of our beliefs and our ways of working.	Janellen Steininger and Eric Allan Kramer in the finale of The Wood Demon. (Photo: Jay Thompson)
We would hope that by dedicating ourselves to serving the great plays--and the community that needs them, now perhaps even more desperately than ever--we place ourselves beyond the narrow sectarianisms of the stage, like "museum theatre," "politically correct theatre," "multi-culturalism," "traditionalism," "conceptualism," "deconstructionism," or any of the other passé "isms" of the theatre, which after a bracing and feverish turn on the stage, quickly lose their ability to revitalize anything. We hope that we are multicultural in fact, not in theory. That the only correct theatre is great theatre. That scripts are meant to be staged, not de(con)structed. That great plays may be reborn without having to be "reconceived." That no theatre that treats actors like human beings can ever be mistaken for a museum, wax or otherwise. And that timelessness is not inconsistent with timeliness.

On to "What does the Company do?