history
Neworld Theatre was the lovechild of Founding Artistic Producer Camyar Chai, who conceived the company while at the University of British Columbia, birthing it with co-conspirators Mara Coward and Tom Scholte.
From these humble beginnings Neworld Theatre has remained pretty humble. An artist-run company with 2 Artistic Producers and a full-time Managing Producer, we ROCK THE WORLD.
First productions were primarily folk-style adaptations of classical Iranian texts and/or myths, reflecting both Camyar's cultural background and the sizeable population of Persian Canadians in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver. While mostly produced with no resources (ie: Camyar's credit card), over two or three years these shows developed a strong following in the Iranian-Canadian community, regularly selling out the 250 seat Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Early productions included Love, Quest and Evening in a Strange Land.
Numerous productions of the multiple-award winning plays about Mordecai Vanunu by Camyar Chai and Mara Coward, and a national tour of the show with Rumble Productions (www.rumble.org), marked the company's first foray into non-didactic, politically-engaged productions and national touring, both of which have become company signatures.
Devil Box Cabaret (1999), a site-specific collective creation based on the play The Four Boxes by Iranian writer Bahram Beyzaee, marked both a move toward a more hybridized performance style and Neworld's full emergence as a significant company in the independent theatre scene. Winning numerous awards and selling out its run, Devil Box anticipated the move to site-specific work that has dominated recent independent Vancouver theatre.
For the next three years (1999 – 2002) the company produced the Leaky Heaven Circus. What was meant to be a 'one-off' millennium project became a four-show phenomenon that culminated in the formation of a new company, The Leaky Heaven Performance Society (www.leakyheaven.com).
In 2005, longtime Neworld associate Marcus Youssef became an Artistic Producer, and Adrienne Wong joined the AP team soon after. In 2007, Camyar took on a new challenge as Executive Director of Leave Out Violence (LOVE) BC, and Marcus and Adrienne engaged Managing Producer Kirsty Munro.
