Our company was founded as The Chekhovians in the fall of 2022 by a Swiss Portuguese, an
Indian and an Italian actor. In an industry where immigrant actors and actors from marginalized
communities often face barriers due to immigration status, language, cultural differences and
access to networks, we made it our mission to give a platform to these artists with their stories
and talents. We are actively building a diverse community of many backgrounds and walks of life.

In the beginning the majority of our actors were on their student visas, collecting first experiences on the stage. We have since grown together and most of the actors who have worked with us have gone on to successfully obtain O-1 visa status, using their work with our company as key evidence of their professional merit.
Our productions are steppingstones toward professional stability: we offer resume-building
credits, creative visibility, and legitimate work experience that directly support visa applications
and therefore career advancement in the U.S. arts landscape.

We have started out as a theater company with a focus on Anton Chekhov’s work. We have since changed our name to Arkadia Theatre Company, to branch out, realize different works, classic as well as contemporary, established as well as original.
We produce works that question class systems and cultural power structures, who expose the
personal cost of societal inequity. We believe this work is urgently needed in today’s
sociopolitical climate.

We believe that casting is more than just an artistic choice – it’s a social one. Representation
matters. Seeing oneself in the people on stage, seeing your own identity, culture or lived
experience reflected can have a lasting impact. Especially for communities who are often
unheard and underrepresented.
Our mission includes making theatre more accessible. Not only in who gets cast but also who
gets to attend. We are committed to reaching young adults, immigrant communities and lowincome audiences by offering affordable and whenever possible free admission to our
productions.

We are taking breaking barriers and conventions a step further and infuse them into the concept and designs of our shows. Especially for the classics we believe in “re-imagination” rather than “re-making”. We love to let the writing and the nuanced performances of our artists speak without drowning it under overproduced sets. For our last productions we chose expressionist stagings, with stylized sets and symbolic elements rather than superfluous, hyper realistic productions.

We believe that audiences are ready for diverse casts as well as new, imaginative, innovative
forms of theater.