Dear friend,

This year, we premiered a new work for the first time in five years.

In Corpo was an audacious, ambitious original musical that was, like so many of our productions, something that we had never done before. It was beautiful, thought-provoking, and full of songs that we’re still singing in the shower months later. As critic Joey Sims wrote, “In Corpo is perfectly timed: a musical that
understands technology’s wonders alongside its limits, and prizes human connection above all else.”

It was also one of the most challenging processes we’ve ever been through as a company. If you’ve been following the state of American theater in the past year, you already know some of the things we were up against: rising costs of materials, labor shortages, and less funding. Despite these hurdles, In Corpo was
made possible through the incredible hard work of a giant team of artists and production staff, and the unfailing support of our partners, donors, and board.

We're so proud and grateful for what we were able to make together, and we were doubly thrilled to share it with both new and old members of our community. Thank you!

Since closing the show, we’ve been asking big questions about what’s next. Some questions, like how to create long-term sustainability without sacrificing our robust, collaborative development process, are still up in the air. Yet we can’t help but feel excited by the possibilities for reinvention and a reinvestment
in our values, and continuing to make theater that asks us and our collaborators to bring our whole selves.

At the finale of In Corpo, the characters realize that their only means of escaping their indifferent universe is through working together. Making the show reinforced how true this is for us as well. As we work in 2024 to stay financially and spiritually afloat at a time when all sorts of resources are low, we believe that the only way we can get through this is by being together.

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We are recommitting to our community. We have a new cohort of Deceleration Lab artists whose work we’ll be supporting in 2024 and the germs of a new feminist comedy, The Marx Sisters, that we’re excited to explore. We’ll also be hosting salon-style gatherings to share artistic experiments, snacks, and conversation. We’re making beautiful things and we want to keep making beautiful things with our community, by our community, and for our community.

If you share this vision, we ask you to join us. Please consider donating to The Assembly.

With love,

The Assembly (Stephen, Ben, Emily, Jess & Meredith)

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Coming in 2024

• An interactive installation (picture Our Town meets Build-a-Bear) created by Minna Lee.

• Devin McCallion Fletcher’s exploration of the relationship between the brain and our sense of self.

• A collaboration between Lillian White, Erin Amlicke, and Marlena Ospina that—in true anarchist fashion—upends everything you think you know about the days of the week, the people who count them, and what to do with the ones we have.

• A feminist riff on the Marx Brothers created by The Assembly!