Green Candle Theatre Company

MISSION STATEMENT

Green Candle Theatre Company is a non-profit 501(c)3 committed to providing accessible, conscientious and dynamic theatre to its audience. Green Candle remains viable through its outreach to the needs of the creative community. The company’s exceptional devotion to these policies provides an environment that promotes and nurtures the artistic voice of Vermont.


COMPANY HISTORY

Green Candle Theatre Company was originally founded as Garage Theatre, Inc. in December 1989 by four University of Vermont alumni. The company rented a rehearsal space in downtown Burlington where public play readings were held. The press quickly became intrigued by the new troupe describing it as “...a promising eruption of theatre.” The troupe incorporated in January and by May had begun to produce original work. The company maintained a policy of affordable admission to any event and pledged to produce shows that challenged the audience to reevaluate commonly held mores.

In our second generation as Green Candle Theatre Company we earned international recognition with performances of Feeding the Moonfish by Barbara Wiechmann at the 1994 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Scotsman hailed Green Candle as “Theatre at its best.” In 1995 we returned to the Fringe festival and premiered In the Blood by VT playwright Keefe Healey. The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland) praised “the taut nightmare drama” for offering “strikingly good performances” and the Burlington Free Press headlined us as “Bloody Good Theatre.”

During October of 1996, we produced the American premiere of the hit British musical Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens which ran for 17 sold-out performances at 135 Pearl and won the Burlington Bessie Award for Outstanding Original Musical. Seven Days said that Saucy Jack was “...Hot! Hot! Hot!” In 1997, the company premiered three new works by Vermont playwrights at the Sanford Meisner Theatre in NYC. The New York Times said our comedic production of The Prince and the Pauper by playwright Marc Lachapelle was “hilarious” and Dr. Ruth Westheimer called the show “Delightful!”

In its tenth season the company created The Chartreuse Salon, a forum for dramatic readings of literature. We also offered such diverse productions as the dark and haunting Man in the Glass Booth by Robert Shaw and the off-beat holiday comedy Desire under the Elves by Robert Coles. By the year 2000, the company had produced over 60 plays and held acting workshops for adults and children. In the fall of 2000 we produced Duet for One by Tom Kepinski, a drama loosely based on the life of cellist Jacqueline du Pre. We also created Cabaret 2000-Where Do We Go From Here? which we performed at Club 135.

In spring 2001, Green Candle presented our debut collaboration with Parima Restaurant, All in the Timing, an evening of five comedic one acts written by David Ives and served to perfection amidst a five-course meal. The show was a sold-out success. In March 2002 the company presented The Probable Pirandello’s Wife, a dark new work by VT playwright Herb Propper. The show ran for six well-attended performances at FlynnSpace. In the summer of 2005, the troupe was pleased to perform Neil Simon’s Fools as part of the inaugural season of the Waterfront Theatre at Main Street Landing in Burlington. In spring 2006, the company premiered Silent Invasion, a multi-media original work written by VT playwright Josh Bridgman. In November, the company returned to Flynnspace with the premiere of The Next State, a collaboration with Sweet Racket Productions, written and directed by Seth Jarvis. We returned to FlynnSpace in March 2007 with Jane Martin’s controversial drama, Keely and Du.

In June, 2008, the company produced an original adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story, The Nose, written, directed and produced by company member Aaron Masi. This highly creative show garnished rave reviews. Shortly after, in November of that year, we produced another highly successful play, Art the Father, written by member Michael Jordan Evans. This show was the first of a series of collaborations between Green Candle and The Burlington Theatre Lab, which is run by Evans, and was our debut production at the OuterSpace café. In March of 2009, we produced American Buffalo at Outer Space to hit reviews and sold out performances.