Twenty-five years ago, a group of upstart punks decided to start a theatre company. Today, One Yellow Rabbit is a Calgary theatrical institution whose ensemble includes co-artistic directors Blake Brooker and Michael Green, and ensemble members Denise Clarke, Andy Curtis, Onalea Gilbertson and sound designer Richard McDowell.

To celebrate the company’s 25th birthday, the Rabbits are throwing a Silver Jubilee bash (Thursday, June 12 at the Jubilee Auditorium) featuring scenes from their old hits, and friends like icon Canadian actor and playwright Daniel MacIvor, former Kid in the Hall Bruce McCullough and Citizen Pochsy’s Karen Hines.

In the spirit of reminiscing, here are a few essential dates from the last 25 years of one of Calgary’s most iconic theatre companies.

• 1982 — Year one — Blake Brooker, Michael Green, Jan Stirling, Gyl Raby and Nigel Scott meet at Brooker’s home for their first exploratory meeting. Soon after, Peter Barnes’s Leonardo’s Last Supper, the company’s first production, opens in the Off Centre Centre, and then at the first Edmonton Fringe Festival.

• 1983 — Actor and dancer Denise Clarke joins One Yellow Rabbit.

• 1985 — The Rabbits open The SkyRoom, their first theatre.

• 1986 — OYR composer and sound designer Richard McDowell contributes to the score of Changing Bodies, his first production with the company; The SkyRoom closes when the building is sold.

• 1987 — A big year — The Rabbits get their second home in the “Secret Theatre,” originally intended to be a “future cocktail lounge.”

The first High Performance Rodeo (then the “Secret Elevator Experimental Performance Festival”) goes “up” in the downtown SOMA building.

Actor Andy Curtis joins the company playing holocaust denier Jim Keegstra in Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp, the group’s trademark piece, which premiered on May 28.

• 1992 — Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Arthur Lutz includes Ilsa under his publication ban, effectively halting a remount of the production; Brooker testifies on March 13 and is afterward told his statements may be cause for prosecution (neither he nor One Yellow Rabbit are prosecuted).

• 1995 — Renovations to the Secret Theatre transform it into the “Big Secret Theatre.”

• 2002 — Onalea Gilbertson joins the Rabbit ensemble.

• 2003 — Theatre critic and former Fast Forward editor Martin Morrow publishes Wild Theatre: The History of One Yellow Rabbit.

• 2006 — The 20th annual High Performance Rodeo

• 2008 — Silver ears — The Rabbits remount Ilsa.