Angela Mitchell: What’s next for you as a writer and director?

Steve Cosson: Well, several things – directing a play by Anne Washburn at the Humana Festival, The Devil at Noon, something I’m doing independently. At The Civilians, we are working on our musical about the Los Angeles porn industry, called Pretty Filthy, and we’re doing a second workshop of that this Spring, and then we are gearing up for a production next year of our play The Great Immensity.

And then there’s more but that’s probably enough.

Angela Mitchell: How do you define yourselves, versus how you’re perceived as a group?

Steve Cosson: I would say that it’s an ongoing project for us to try to articulate what we do for the field. It’s interesting being an American theatre company because, for whatever reason, this country isn’t organized the same way that many other countries are organized, in which a theatre company creates work and may not have a building for it. And especially in New York, I find if you are an independent company, you're most likely to be referred to as a downtown troupe, and that might be how many of these companies started, in a sense, but I think that we’ve certainly evolved and changed, just as many other companies that get that description have changed. We feel like we are still in the process of defining ourselves, and trying to articulate what we do, and the value of what we do.

I think for us, a big part of the story that doesn’t get told is that we’re not limited to Off-Broadway, and that we’re working with major theatres around the country.

And sometimes that’s a challenge -- how do you make that correspond to you, the size of your staff? Or the size of your budget? Or the usual markers?

Angela Mitchell: What lessons do you feel other performing arts groups can learn from your approaches?

Steve Cosson: The greatest thing we have to share is the model of many successful partnerships. And the idea that partnership isn’t just about producing. We’re able to develop and create a kind of show that couldn’t be created just by commissioning one writer. When we team up with an institutional theatre, then the work that we’re doing may satisfy for further things in their mission as well, or accomplish things they want to do as a theatre. Working together, we can create, ultimately, a kind of work that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

And I think the trend at the moment is toward more of this, and that more and more theatres are recognizing the value of having those kinds of collaborations.

Angela Mitchell: Here’s hoping -- meanwhile, thanks so much for talking with me.

The Civilians is celebrating its tenth anniversary with "Benefit X," at 7 p.m. on May 2, 2011, at (le) poisson rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York City). The evening will include drinks, dancing, and a performance of some of the most notable Civilians songs and scenes from the past ten years, with scheduled performers including Laura Benanti and Mark Kudisch. For more information, visit http://thecivilians.org/benefit2011.html.