Since its founding in 1991 by Wesley and Shaun Nethercott, Matrix Theatre Company has become a nationally recognized theatre that has created over 80 productions and new scripts. All of these have been produced through a collective playwriting process with, for, and about the people of Southwest Detroit.

Principles of Matrix Theatre Company

Matrix Theatre Company is given its voice by the community from which it arises. The makers of Matrix are part of the culture from which the work is drawn. The people who are the subjects of the work are part of its development from inception through presentation. Their stories and histories inform their work, their feedback during the creation process shapes it. The audience is not consumer of, but participants in the performance.

Matrix Theatre Company grows out of a commitment to place. It is grounded in the local and specific, which, when rendered faithfully and creatively, can affect people anywhere.

The historical, traditional and indigenous are integral to Matrix Theatre Company, and valued for their ability to help us maintain continuity with the past, respond to the present, and prepare for the future.

Matrix Theatre Company strives to be inclusive in its producing practices.

Presentation of the work is made in partnership with community organizations. Performances are held in meeting places where the entire community feels welcome. Ticket prices are kept affordable.

Matrix Theatre Company recognizes that management structures and business practices are value-laden; they affect the mission, goals and creative processes of organizations through their structure and practices, self-reliance and collective responsibility.

Matrix Theatre Company is linked to the struggles for cultural, social, economic and political equity for all people. It is fundamentally a theatre of hope, and often of joy. It is recognized that to advocate for equity is to meet resistance, and to meet with no resistance indicates a failure to enter the fight.

This list is adapted from From the Ground Up: Grassroots Theatre in Historical and Contemporary Perspective by Dudley Coccke, Harry Newman and Janet Salmon-Rue, a report on a two-and-a-half day symposium entitled "Grassroots Theatre in Historical and Contemporary Perspective," convened in October 1992 at the Center for Theatre Arts at Cornell University.