About Us

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. We took our name from old vaudeville slang—a “civilian” being anyone outside of show business—and we coined the term “investigative theater” to describe our combination of a creative process with field research and in-depth residencies with specific communities. This approach would yield numerous revelatory, exuberant and critically-acclaimed new plays and musicals. 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 wildly inventive 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.

Over time, The Civilians has evolved; while we still maintain a multi-disciplinary group of Associate Artists, we now work with artists from across the theater field as a whole. We expanded our support of new works by both established and early career artists with commissions and programs like our R&D Group for writers, directors and composers; a cabaret series for new musicals; and more. At the same time, our purpose remains rooted in the founding vision of our company—to investigate our lived experience, interrogate the stories that shape our society, and awaken new thinking through the experience of live theater.

The Civilians’ shows are brought to audiences through our New York producing season, touring, and co-productions with leading Off-Broadway and regional theaters such as The Public Theater, Vineyard, Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, Humana Festival, Children’s Theater Company, Goodman Theater, ART, La Jolla Playhouse, Paris’ Théâtre de la Ville, London’s Gate Theatre and Soho Theatre, and many others. Notable achievements include two BAM Next Wave Festivals and serving as the first theater company to be an artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the first to deliver a performance as a TED talk at the main TED Conference. We’ve received multiple awards and nominations from the Obies, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes, Helen Hayes, the Prague Quadrennial and Edinburgh Fringe First.

Production Highlights
• After the Playwrights Horizons NY premiere of Anne Washburn’s Mr Burns, a post-electric play, the show became one of the top ten produced shows in the following American season. And it was recently ranked the 4th best play of the past 25 years by The New York Times.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art selected the company as the first theater company to be artist-in-residence, 2014-2015.
• The New York Times, Time Out New York, and The New Yorker all included In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards in their Top 10 lists for the 2010-11 season.
• José Rivera’s Another Word for Beauty, developed inside Bogotá’s national women’s prison and premiered at the Goodman, marked one of the highest profile US/Colombian theater collaborations to date.
• The Great Immensity was the first major American play about climate change, produced at the Kansas City Rep and The Public Theater and supported by a landmark grant from the National Science Foundation.
• The Undertaking opened in 2016, and was a New York Times Critics Pick, playing to sold-out audiences at the BAM Next Wave Festival. BAM selected the show for its Brooklyn/Paris exchange, leading to a engagement at Paris’ Theatre de la Ville.
• Gone Missing was recently revived in 2018 in the prestigious New York City Center Encores! Off Center series; the production was a New York Times Critics Pick.

Programs
• R&D Artists Group: A peer group of writers, directors, composers and other artists working on projects of their own design over the course of a season, and culminating in the Findings reading series each Spring.
• Investigative Cabaret: An ongoing cabaret series and popular free podcast.
• Extended Play: An online hub for investigative and socially-engaged theater that explores the creative process, community, and new innovations in storytelling. extendedplay.thecivilians.org
• Education Program: Serves high school and college students in New York, and across the country.