Our Purpose
Bringing people together through theatre that celebrates diversity, identity and belonging.
Authenticity
We create theatre with integrity and quality.
Our Vision
To shape an equitable world through theatrical experiences that foster radical empathy and intercultural exchange.
Our Mission
Encounter Theatre disrupts the status quo by creating bold, inclusive theatre that challenges perspectives and sparks urgent cultural dialogue.
Our Vision and Mission in Action
Encounter Theatre’s vision—to shape an equitable world through theatre—drives our commitment to fostering radical empathy and intercultural exchange. By creating bold, inclusive theatre, we challenge perspectives and spark urgent cultural dialogue, truly embodying our mission to disrupt the status quo.
Our work is deeply embedded in the communities we serve, empowering CaLD and First Nations artists to shape the stories we tell, ensuring that all voices are heard, and that theatre remains a catalyst for meaningful change.
About Us
Diverse artists. New perspectives. Connected communities.
At its core, Encounter is not simply producing shows — we are building the conditions under which a more representative, artist-led sector can thrive. Our work engages deeply with intercultural and intergenerational dialogue, combining high-calibre professional practice with community-rooted processes that centre artists and collaborators with lived experience.
Encounter has premiered major works including Children of the Sea and Nightwalks with Teenagers, both commissioned and presented in collaboration with Perth Festival. These productions were critically acclaimed for their emotional depth, formal inventiveness, and community engagement, with The West Australian praising Children of the Sea as “poetic, urgent, and alive with cultural complexity”. Our programming now includes fellowships for emerging CaLD and First Nations producers and directors, international co-productions, and creative development labs that seed new interdisciplinary work.
Every project we lead and partnership we form is in service of our vision and mission — not to tick boxes, but to redefine what excellence, access, and leadership can look like in contemporary Australian theatre.
Participation and Inclusion
We prioritise inclusion by empowering undervalued artists.
Creativity
We blend artistic and cultural practices with aligned partners.
Leadership
We promote social change by inviting audiences into our vision.
Our History
In its short history, Encounter has developed a distinctive voice within the national arts ecology — one that combines radical inclusion with formal experimentation and a clear artistic vision. We are not a multicultural theatre company; we are a theatre company that prioritises inclusion as an artistic and structural imperative.
Encounter Theatre was established in 2022 in response to a structural gap in Western Australia’s cultural sector — one that became sharply visible through founder Jay Emmanuel’s personal experience. Despite building a thriving career on the East Coast and internationally, Jay found few meaningful opportunities to create, perform, or develop ambitious work in Western Australia.
There was limited infrastructure to support culturally diverse artists, few producers or decision-makers with lived experience of structural exclusion, and little space within major institutions for different ways of making and thinking about theatre. These challenges were not isolated. They pointed to a systemic absence: a lack of investment in artists from all backgrounds to lead the kind of inclusive, contemporary theatre Western Australia deserves.
Encounter Theatre emerged from this context — not as a reactionary community project, but as a bold, professional theatre company grounded in rigour, artistic ambition, and a commitment to reshaping who gets to make and lead the work.
Support Encounter.
Support Encounter to Dream Big in 2025 and beyond.
With your support, we can continue to develop bold stories, expand how we tell stories, support emerging to mid-career creatives, and pursue ambitious community engagement activities while strengthening sustainability practice.
