Next Life was born out of two things: A love of classic works and a desire to see them reflect the demographics, attitude, and style of contemporary artists.

While we love Shakespeare, Greek Theatre, Gothic Novels, Oscar Wilde, Classical Mythology, and everything in between. The reality of these texts is that they exclude the demographics that make up modern audiences. We believe in the power of retelling the same stories over again just as those who have produced the classics have believed for years, but understand the importance of giving these stories the space to grow and change. Classics have historically been as tool of colonialism and patriarchy, but we believe in their power to subvert the very systems that lead to their creation by returning these stories to the disenfranchised.

Our Key Principles:

• Theatre is for everyone. Theatre should not require a liberal arts degree to understand. Theatre should be accessible and comprehensible to all people.
• Theatre is political as all art is political. Every choice made in art is political and it is our responsibility to foster diverse, inclusive, sustainable, and progressive spaces for the production of art.
• Theatre should be thought-provoking, entertaining, but foremost come from a place of love of community.

Why the Next Life and not a New Life?

The beauty of classics is that they should be for everyone. We are but stewards of stories for a time. These stories have been in the hands of other, and will be in the hands of artists after us. We only carry stories through their next life before they move on to their next and their next and their next.