Wisdom Tooth exists to provoke Social Awareness, Ethical Courage, and True Imagination, striving for a theatre of experience rather than one of event, providing an intersection for emerging and established theatre professionals, and creating a dynamic training ground for performing artists. Wisdom Tooth Theatre Project is, at its core, a performing arts initiative: a project–a process–rather than
a traditional company. Founded in 2007, Wisdom Tooth seeks to facilitate a dynamic union between Indy's provocative, emerging artists and the established theatre community; i.e. In doing so, we strive to change the paradigm of theatre as "event" into a theatre of shared "experience," an encounter between performer and audience with a deep narrative investment which is transformative rather than merely "consumptive." A flashpoint for the theatre of the 21st century. We believe only imagination can prepare us for the future; without it, today and all our tomorrows are merely mnemonic devices for our past. Imagination, realized through a creative process, is the truest path to our future. We recognize the role of critical thinking skills as an important component of any well-rounded perspective. However, we believe the development of imagination and creativity is often under-valued, or worse, left to chance. Creating is God's full time job, and if we are to be participants in that, in becoming fully realized and authentic as individuals and as a culture, imagination must be a primary component of our civic life in this century. Our mission is both educational and social, and includes:
a) making theatre a redemptive force in the local community,
b) the promotion of new works and classics,
c) the creation of training labs that are committed to the interplay between critical thinking and play, and most importantly,
d) a company where all kindred, creative hearts can call home. We are committed to creating a place of process that can become a home for all artists, not just "our company," and a turning-point for what the performing arts are to become. These goals, as are all Wisdom Tooth's programming, are guided by the three anchoring principles found within our mission statement: social awareness, ethical courage and true imagination.
