Vision & Mission
Zee Zee Theatre believes in individual stories that provoke and inspire us, and that foster common understanding and empathy across our diverse human experiences.
We are devoted to telling diverse stories and amplifying the voices of those on the margins with a focus on LGBTQ2SI+ communities. Zee Zee explores intimate moments through which the infinite complexity of human character can be revealed.
Artistic & Executive Director’s Message
Welcome to our 15th Anniversary Season!
2022/2023 marks our crystal anniversary. In our case our purple crystal! I know it’s cheesy.
But all of these little cheesy ways that help us acknowledge this milestone add up to something that begins to come close to honouring this achievement.
With your support, our dear parton who might also be one of our donors, or public funders, or private funders, Dave and I have been able to grow Zee Zee from an idea I had, long before we incorporated the company, into a fully operational producing company… with staff too!
A dear friend and wise arts leader Norman Armour once said organizations have five year life cycles. We have seen Zee Zee level up twice before at that exact time, and this year it is no different. We have for the first time ever THREE main stage productions for you. Along with THREE plays in development. We have our community storytelling project that we’ve been doing since 2013. We have also launched our National Queer & Trans Playwriting Unit in partnership with 9 other producing companies up and across Canada. This is a monumental project that will revolutionize how plays are developed in this country – centering the artist and the artists’ well-being at every level, while building new networks of trust and collaboration over this vast land.
To say we’re proud is an understatement. But we still have so much work to do. We continue to find ways to engage authentically and with humility toward reconciliation and decolonization. We continue to find ways to centre the most marginalized within leadership positions within the creation process and indeed within the organization itself. We are keenly aware of the state of the world, wars, the rise of nationalism, fascism and modern populism, the rise of the cost of living, the housing crisis, the toxic drug crisis, the climate crisis, institutional and individual racism towards Black, Indigenous, Asian and all People of Colour, police brutality, the continued genocide of missing and murdered Indigenous Women, and now even body autonomy over reproductive rights. The world stands in stark contrast to this celebratory milestone of crystals and plays. But I hold to my belief in the arts as a driver of change. At its most basic it brings a room of people together to breathe and witness comedy and drama. It elicits in us a deep primordial sense of community as well as connection to the material on stage. We feel for the characters on stage. And I believe it is that magic, that ability in all of us to suspend our disbelief that the possibility for change exists.
Join us this season as we continue to make the world a better place.
Artistic & Executive Director
September 2022