The Civilians began in 2001 with a company of artists, led by Founding Artistic Director Steve Cosson, who were interested in making new work at the intersection of the theatrical and the real. Shows include Gone Missing, with several US and UK tours culminating in a one-year Off-Broadway commercial run; This Beautiful City, about the politicized Evangelical movement; The Great Immensity, the first major American play about climate change; Another Word for Beauty, created from a residency inside Bogotá’s national women’s prison during their annual beauty pageant; and Pretty Filthy created from months of immersion in L.A.’s adult film industry. The company also has a rich history of nurturing new work by some of America’s leading playwrights and composers, such as Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, which has gone on to hundreds of subsequent productions around the world and was recently named the fourth best play of the past twenty-five years by The New York Times. The company has participated in several BAM Next Wave Festivals and has been produced at major New York and regional theaters. The company supports a number of emerging and established artists each year through its R&D Program, cabaret series, the Let Me Ascertain You podcast, and its online journal for socially-engaged theater, Extended Play. For more information, visit www.thecivilians.org.

Leyla Vural is following