The Outfit Theatre Company is 11 friends and colleagues who want to make the kind of theater that they want to make.

This may seem like a pointless tautology, but in the world of commercial theater, survival often requires a single-minded focus on what other people want.

"It's really difficult to do new works. It's difficult to do shows that are important, because people rely on their season ticket holders," says Outfit president Christian Doyle, "and their season ticket holders want to see The Sound of Music every year."

That's where a small, homeless company like The Outfit - formed in 2009 by a group of Tacoma and Olympia community theater veterans - comes in. "The theaters here are giving us a chance to do shows they might not be able to do if it were up to their board," continues Doyle of stages like the Lakewood Playhouse and Tacoma Little Theatre that act as temporary homes for The Outfit to put on their works, like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which will debut this weekend at the Lakewood Playhouse. "They get the show in there that they wanted to see, and the theater can't get blamed if it goes badly."

This includes darker, lesser-known material like The Transylvanian Clockworks, described by Doyle as "A very sexy, edgy show", connecting the Dracula myth with the Jack The Ripper murders of Victorian England. The Transylvanian Clockworks, performed by The Outfit, will be shown as Tacoma Little Theatre's late-night, Halloween production this year.

Doyle sees the youth of his company, and the flexibility it has when choosing plays, as key to expanding theater's audience beyond the norm. "We've made it our job to inform the community that (theater) is still around, it's still pertinent, and it's not just for that 30-50 age range that buys season tickets every year," says Doyle.

"I've been teaching youth theater for several years, and trying to instill that love for the craft in kids, and that's been very rewarding."

The Outfit made its debut fundraising for Lakewood Playhouse, with an improv sitcom called Joe's Diner. And while their first scripted production will be Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, preceded by Fifteen Minute Hamlet, also by Stoppard, the company already has their eyes on the real thing.

"We're really looking to do Hamlet sometime this year. We've already got a director lined up, one of the founders of Seattle Shakespeare, who wants to produce it with us," says Doyle.

Other plans for the future include a reprise of their first triumph, Joe's Diner. "It was not only hugely successful as a benefit, but it was an incredible amount of fun," says Doyle.

Beyond plays to produce, The Outfit's vision looks ahead to a unified South Sound theater community. Vice president Mark Peterson, currently performing as Othello with Theatre Artists Olympia, says, "I want to make the theater scene in Olympia and up here one big world."

Doyle adds, "We're doing this because we want to stay local. We want to keep doing what we love and we don't want to move to Seattle, or god forbid L.A., to do it."

Though it's clear The Outfit is a close-knit group of friends and colleagues, Doyle and Peterson are quick to dispel any notions of a closed company. "We want to always make sure we are inviting people to come join us," says Doyle. "For our first couple shows we've tried to keep (artistic staff) in-house, but we are considering outside directors."

Ultimately, the company is about that opening tautology: wanting to do theater they want to do.

As Doyle sums it up, "Local theater is the best place to tell your stories. And that's why we are doing theater, because we all love telling stories."

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

Through Aug. 15, 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $16.50-$22.50, pay what you can Thursday, July 22 and 29 at 8 p.m.
Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood
253.588.0042