Our core mission is to sponsor projects of underrepresented artists - women, single parents and reemerging artists - those whose struggle in life has become an obstacle to their art, instead of a catalyst for it.  We maintain a fiscal objective to have 40% of our budget allocated to Artist Fees.

Our vision is to foster community engagement - facilitating seniors to reignite their passion for the arts, and motivating youth toward interdisciplinary expression.  We wish to engage both the residential and artistic community in future performances, as audience members and as artists.  

Our inaugural production, The Hoodie Play, was chosen for inclusion in The Best American Short Plays of 2015-2016, released in August 2017.  It was inspired by the disparate social and cultural impact of fashion – specifically, the hoodie.  It sculpted the development prototype for Voire Dire and had three university productions in the 2018-2019 season. So far this season, there has been another university production and a presentation at the NJ Thespian Society Festival.

The Voire Dire Project is the signature production of Cosmic Orchid.  It is an inter-disciplinary project where four theatrical teams (playwright, actors and director) each develop a one-act play inspired by a work of art.  It culminates in a production of those plays with a corresponding exhibition of the art that influenced them. We produce one cycle each season. Cosmic Orchid was the proud recipient of a Puffin Foundation Grant for the 2019 cycle.

Our Teaching Artistry project, iPower Theatre Collective, is a NYC Middle/High School arts program which uses Integrative Theatre to explore social justice themes and culminates in performances for the school community. A Citizens Committee Grant recipient in its inaugural season 2017-2018, iPower has just been awarded a Chelsea & Hudson Yards Grant for 2020.

Our community outreach pilot project, Personal Story Theatre, uses Integrative Theatre to guide marginalized women through their experiences, promoting healing and empowering themselves toward new beginnings.

In the future, we also hope to commission art inspired by theatre.  Cosmic Orchid is a proud member of ART-NY and is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas.