They tried to bury us. They didn't realize we were seeds.
 VISION
Community enlightenment based on the core beliefs of feminism.

MISSION
We are a non-profit, charitable (798 690 483 RR0001) organization in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada that responds to the persistent and universal need for promoting, understanding and embracing the core beliefs of feminism. Through professional theatre and related initiatives, we work to change hearts and minds.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES
  • We challenge discrimination and stereotype in all forms
  • We produce stories where at least 50 per cent of the text is spoken by character(s) facing gender-based barriers
  • We offer opportunities to all genders with a focus towards people who identify as women or others facing gender-based barriers
  • We respond to issues that affect women and girls and others facing gender-based barriers in our community
  • We re-examine universal stories traditionally told by straight white abled males, through a feminist lens
  • We strive to work through an intersectional lens for gender parity
CORE PRINCIPLE
Feminism: The belief in political, economic, personal, and social equity for women.

CORE BELIEFS
  • Sexism exists
  • Sexism against women and others facing gender-based barriers (misogyny) is enduring, pervasive, systemic, cultural, and ingrained
  • All genders should have equal rights and opportunities
  • All genders are the intellectual and social equals of each other
  • All genders should be recognized and treated as equals
  • Systems of oppression and discrimination are interdependent and span all social categorizations such as race, class, gender, ability, parental status, size, age, and sexual orientation as they apply to a given individual or group

PerSIStence Theatre recognizes the limits of using binary language. Systems of oppression are interdependent and the patriarchy affects everyone in different ways. Our activism includes those all those facing gender-based barriers and we recognize the intersections of oppression experienced from many perspectives such as by those who are transgender, non-binary, 2SLGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, racialized, Deaf, disabled, and people with lived experience.​
PerSIStence Theatre Company Inc is an Affiliate Member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre (PACT), a Category A member of the Association of Professional Theatre of Newfoundland and Labrador (APTNL), and an organizational member of the Playwright's Guild of Canada and the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC).

Company Herstory

PerSIStence Theatre Company was founded in early 2017 with a mission to “respond to the persistent and universal need for promoting, understanding and embracing the core beliefs of feminism through professional theatre and related initiatives.” Officially incorporated as a non-profit on April 25, 2017, the board of directors worked quickly to become a professionally run organization, with the first Annual General Meeting on June 12, 2017. The company received sustaining funding for professional arts organizations from Arts NL in 2020 and achieved charitable status in 2021.

The organization’s activities include professional theatre, professional development opportunities, special projects and community outreach.

Professional Production History

2017 2018 2019
2020
2021
2022-2024
2024
St. John’s is home to a rich, diverse, and vibrant urban Indigenous community. Located on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Beothuk, the lands and waters in and around the City have traditionally served as a gathering place for the Mi’kmaq. The broader region of Newfoundland and Labrador continues to be home to diverse Indigenous Peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. We honour and pay respect to the past, present, and future caretakers of these territories.

We also must acknowledge the labour theft extracted from people of African descent, used to build European wealth and economies globally, and in the Canadian nation state, including Newfoundland and Labrador’s shipbuilding and cod fishery industries, through the violence of trans-Atlantic enslavement.

We thank both First Light and the office of the Vice-Provost of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism at Memorial University for crafting and sharing these words that provide us with important perspectives.