MISSION

Goat in the Road Productions (GRP) is an ensemble theater company that creates dynamic original plays and fosters young artists to bring to life the untold stories of our New Orleans communities.

OUR VALUES

During the 2020-2021 season, Goat in the Road convened a committee to make its work more equitable, safe, and satisfying for performers, designers, and artists. GRP’s staff, board, and ensemble adopted the following list of values:

Joy: a spirit of fun and celebration 

Trust: transparency and clear communication 

Liberation: creating a space where we feel free and safe in our bodies & our spirits

Shared Responsibility: leaderful rooms

Radical Creativity: originality and the celebration of discovery

OUR BELIEFS

We believe that art and storytelling can be tools for change in the world by increasing empathy and understanding.  This can be the foundation for individual and political action that makes the world a more equitable, more empowered place for all.  

We believe a live event organization should be a community hub – a place where audiences can reflect and debate.  

We believe that collaboration creates meaningful, electric work that can illuminate complex ideas and encompass multiple truths. 

OUR WORK

We strive to honor the diverse voices that are part of our community, lifting up untold and under-told stories.  

How? 

THROUGH EDUCATION INITIATIVES:
Play/Write and Goat in the Schools, which elevate and celebrate student voice.

THROUGH MAKING PLAYS:
WITH OUR ENSEMBLE - We create collaboratively. Our ensemble creation process includes multiple voices and spans at least one, but usually multiple workshop periods of creation and feedback. Our goal is to create performance stories that are useful, relevant, entertaining, and engaging to our community. 

WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS - We regularly partner with community organizations to explore historical moments and/or themes that help our community reflect on important contemporary issues, and examine why inequities exist. 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

"New Orleans" resides in the neutral territory/trading zone/area of changing lands that is called Bulbancha; Choctaw for “place of other languages”. Bulbancha was an important trading area between three significant waterways: Bayou St. John, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Mississippi River. This area has been historically characterized by cultural interactions of people from distinct linguistic communities including, but not limited to the following Nations: Houma, Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Biloxi.

Africans, Native Americans, and all mixtures of these two groups were wrongfully enslaved for centuries in these lands.

This land acknowledgment was written by Dr. Denise Frazier and Dr. Jeffery Darensbourg.