D. Lynn Meyers believes in the power of a theater that is focused on the contemporary- the here and now. As she says, “For the last 20 years I have spent time here [at the Ensemble Theater] believing that a theater dedicated to new works, new ideas, socially conscious material… just plays that speak to the social heart of who we are that would attract a younger audience, that would help transform a neighborhood.” Meyers discusses how she came to run the theater in OTR at the time when the city was encouraging here to pick up and move it to a “safer” part of town. “It was either quit and fail or move forward. And that’s the choice you get to do every day. You can settle. You can quit. You can move forward. So I’m hoping today that you’ll walk away feeling that change is terrifying because it’s 99% of the time positive, and if we don’t change we die. If we don’t change, if we don’t take our next breath, we die.”