澳门六合彩

Playwright, producer, director, educator and provocateur, Ari Roth has added fresh verve to an already lively Washington theater scene by heading outside its well-worn flightpaths. In launching his latest project--Mosaic Theater Company of DC--Roth has set the goal of producing theater that is simultaneously entertaining and engaged in issues of social justice. As important, Roth has made expansion of the Mosaic content and audience a primary artistic goal. His emphasis on post-performance programming--including panel discussions, Peace Cafes, race and identity workshops and open microphone artistic response forums--regularly incorporates the diversity of his audiences into what transpires on stage. A show at Roth鈥檚 theater pulls back a corner of the curtain on what the U.S. Census Bureau already tells us about our country: more than ever, we are and will always be a colorful medley.

The company鈥檚 fall 2015 inaugural show--the world premiere of Jay O. Sanders鈥� 鈥淯nexplored Interior鈥�--captured these foundational qualities. Sanders鈥� play forces the audience and actors to bear witness to Rwanda鈥檚 genocidal civil war pitting neighbor against neighbor in a violent spiral of death and destruction. Beautifully staged by Derek Goldman and powerfully performed by a stellar fourteen-member cast, Roth鈥檚 new company told the horrific story of genocide with complexity, depth and texture while weaving together several compelling layered plots into a vividly horrifying appraisal of violence. 鈥淯nexplored Interior鈥� proved to be an ambitious yet risky launch for a new company trying to attract new audiences. As DCTheatreScene website reviewer Jessica Pearson recorded at the time, the Mosaic production was 鈥渁 beautiful and moving piece of theatre and, most of all, it is important because it confronts issues that American theatre audiences would rather ignore and 鈥楿nexplored Interior鈥� cannot be ignored.鈥�

Mosaic鈥檚 second season began with a poignant, moving and humorous production of Terry Teachout鈥檚 one actor play 鈥淪atchmo at the Waldorf鈥� featuring a bravura performance by veteran Washington actor Craig Wallace. Set in the jazz master Louis Armstrong鈥檚 Waldorf Astoria dressing room at the end of his career, Armstrong鈥檚 monologue takes the audience through the racism, tawdriness and criminal thuggery that constantly reigned in the career and life of one of the twentieth century鈥檚 seminal musicians. Reminiscences of towering conflicts between an African-American musician and a Jewish manager define the ever-present limits for an American career of genius constrained by racism, antisemitism, criminality and endless greed.

The second season recently closed with an exploration of social justice through voices directly from the Middle East. Palestinian-American actor-writer Hanna Eady and U.S. writer Edward Mast鈥檚 two-character play 鈥淭he Return鈥� takes the audience on a voyage of discovery as an Israeli woman returns from the U.S. to find an Arab-Palestinian auto mechanic who has paid a terrible price for a brief rooftop dalliance with her thirteen years earlier. Powerfully performed, 鈥淭he Return鈥� confronts audiences for their own assumed sense of privilege which asserts itself in relationships among society鈥檚 betters and those who serve them. For an audience comprised of Middle Easterners, Americans Jews and Muslims, African American and white Americans, the agonizing interplay on stage simultaneously tells a story of Israelis and Palestinians and of insider and outsider lovers at home.

Roth and Mosaic have found an ideal home for the company鈥檚 signature commitment to 鈥渢ransformational, socially-relevant art鈥� in the Atlas Performing Arts Center, a renovated former cinema in the increasingly trendy H Street NE Corridor just beyond the shadow of the United States Capitol Building. Once a major shopping street for the city鈥檚 African Americans, H Street fell on bad times following the civil unrest in response to the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lying fallow for more than three decades, H Street began to revive as a Hipster haven anchored since 2006 by a renovated Atlas movie theater that has come to serve as a pioneering performing arts center. As Roth understands more than most, the recent wave of gentrification has added but a patina of Hipsterdom to the already rich and textured community that predated it.

When moving to the Atlas, Roth purposefully set out to diversify his board by inviting long-time Washingtonians and African Americans to join in. From Mosaic鈥檚 first season, plays focusing on the Middle East alternated with those about American race relations. Interestingly, before its premier season鈥檚 end, Roth discerned not only an overall growth in the company鈥檚 audiences, but its diversification as well. African Americans began appearing for Middle East-oriented productions; while previous supporters of his work as director of the D.C. Jewish Community Center鈥檚 Theater J started buying tickets to plays about the Black experience. Similarly, he has brought the neighborhood鈥檚 young vibe into the house with productions of new plays focusing on what it means to come of age in today鈥檚 America such as 鈥淢ilk Like Sugar鈥� and the enormously popular 鈥淗ooded: or Being Black for Dummies.鈥�

Mosaic鈥檚 success builds on Roth鈥檚 earlier accomplishments which have long garnered a multitude of admirers within the Washington theater community and beyond. The son of Holocaust refugees, Roth grew up in Chicago before attending the University of Michigan, where he discovered the power of theater. Previously, his theatrical experience had been limited to playing in the band of a high school production of 鈥淕odspell.鈥�

Subsequently teaching at Michigan, Brandeis and New York Universities as well as at Carnegie Mellon and George Washington University, Roth not only wrote about theater, he wrote theater.聽 While still at Michigan, he won two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama given by Arthur Miller.

In 1989, Washington鈥檚 Arena Stage commissioned Roth to write 鈥淏orn Guilty,鈥� a work based on Peter Sichrovsky鈥檚 interviews with the children and grandchildren of Nazis 鈥淪chuldig Gleboren.鈥� The play moved from Washington to Off-Broadway in New York in 1993, earning rave reviews--The New York Times labeled the play 鈥渟earing drama鈥�--before it continued on to Chicago and beyond. That work鈥檚 2002 sequel 鈥淭he Wolf in Peter鈥� enjoyed critical success while a somewhat autobiographical 2013 prequel--鈥淎ndy and The Shadows鈥�--further extended Roth鈥檚 creative reach.

Ari and his wife, NGO executive Kate Schecter, moved to Washington at the end of the 1990s when Kate landed a job at the World Bank; and Ari secured an appointment as Artistic Director of Theater J. Over 18 seasons at Theater J beginning in 1997, Roth produced 129 productions including 44 world premieres and new productions from the Middle East.

Roth鈥檚 term at Theater J came to an end in 2014 as some vociferous stakeholders in the Greater Washington Jewish Community (including a group self-identified as Citizens Opposed to Propaganda Masquerading as Art, or COPMA) expressed their concerns over what they saw as an anti-Israeli bent in the company鈥檚 repertoire. As COPMA exerted pressure on both the boards of trustees of the DCJCC along with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, Roth鈥檚 departure became a public spectacle, capturing the attention of the Washington and national press and theater communities. At one point, over 100 artistic directors of U.S. theater companies published an open letter in Roth鈥檚 support.

Roth quickly moved on to his new venture, Mosaic, which has established itself as an important fixture on the Washington scene. The company鈥檚 engagement with various local communities over painful issues swirling around race and class in contemporary America provide an indispensable platform for discussions which must--but too often don鈥檛--take place about the nature of Washington as an urban community. Roth and Mosaic, however, present more than a listening post. The company presents high quality dramatic art.聽

In reviewing 鈥淭he Return鈥� for The Washington Post, critic Nelson Pressley began: 鈥淚t took Mosaic Theater Company no time to forge a social justice identity beyond the Jewish lens of Theater J where Mosaic Artistic Director Ari Roth had worked for nearly two decades until his firing at the end of 2014. But the Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, begun in 2000 under Roth at Theater J, continues at the impressive young Mosaic as one of the most valuable streams in Washington theater.鈥澛�

That stream, in turn, contains company members, supporters, audiences and communities who collectively carry Roth鈥檚 artistic vision to new levels.

Artistic Visionaries and Community Creators

The power of the performing arts to nurture inclusive communities has been praised widely in recent years; so much so that 鈥渃reative placemaking鈥� is now seen as a powerful tool in community development. The supportive role of community in fostering artistic innovation is less acknowledged. This series highlights the work of visionaries for whom creating communities of students, prot茅g茅s, audiences, and donors has become a strategic element in transforming their arts.