1. any one of the 12 legendary peers or knightly champions in attendance on Charlemagne.
2. any knightly or heroic champion.
3. any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
The Paladin Theatre Company was formed as an experiment, in the belief that the following are true:
(1.) Theatre can be accessible without appealing to the lowest common denominator.
(2.) There is a goldmine of 20th century American plays lying fallow at present which the public deserves to see.
(3.) Plays about Texas needn't take place in trailer parks or beauty parlors. Texas plays needn't have lead characters named Earl and Mavis. Nor should Texas plays purport as true regional language certain fabricated idioms of speech that would make the citizenry of this fair land cringe in disgust. Texas is a tapestry of varied cultures and topographies; it is a land of myth, history, and romance: Texans deserves a theatre that expresses these native treasures with pride and intelligence.
(4.) The words "classic" and "boring" do not have to be synonyms.
(5.) A community theatre should take the word "community" as seriously as it takes the word "theatre".
(6.) There is a large contingent of the public who actively avoid theatre, because they feel it is phony, dull, and elitist. They have fled the playhouses for their television sets. The Paladin Theatre Company believes that this situation is the failing of the theatrical community, not the public's.
We at the Paladin Theatre Company believe these things to be veritable holy writ. It is our aim to prove them true for even the most jaundiced and jaded naysayer. We will do it, too, one play at a time.
