Bread & Water Theatre was officially founded in the fall of 2000, by J.R. Teeter, and marked with an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, the classic tragedy of the learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power.
BWT next produced Night Passengers (2001) by Candide Carrasco. What first appears to be the beginnings of a one-night-stand becomes a tale of two lost souls falling in love. The woman is a mature and sophisticated French ex-patriot. The man is a young college student afraid of big city life.
Bread & Water Theatre formally incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in 2003 and later achieved 501(c)3 tax exempt status with the IRS (2004). This started a long process of codifying BWT's mission statement and process of operation. During this time the theatre produced The Yellow Wallpaper, The Little Prince and reintroduced The Rainbow Theater Festival to the Rochester area.
With a dedicated ensemble of actors working on stage and off to provide the best possible theatrical experiences to our audience, BWT looks to the future with the below mission statement as our guide:
"This theatre is committed to making the arts accessible and affordable to a broad-based audience and acting as a positive agent of change in its community. Under the artistic direction of J.R. Teeter, BWT develops theatre that speaks to our living, evolving, and dramatically-changing world through new works of drama, original adaptations of classic texts, rejuvenation of rare plays and aspires to be a major force in American theatre, providing audiences with challenging contemporary drama and innovative community outreach programs."
