Ari Roth News

Mosaic Theater Company of DC today announced that it is a grant recipient of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) program. The invitation-only program seeks to strengthen the organizational capacity and programming of small and mid-size cultural organizations within Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Denver, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. Through the $43 million multi-year initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide unrestricted general operating support as well as arts management training in areas that include fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and board development.

Mosaic Theater Company announces a new initiative to support women playwrights, The Trish Vradenburg Play Commission. The Commission will honor the late Vradenburg's creative wit and contributions to the arts by providing resources and support for emerging women playwrights locally and nationally.

"How Hope Happens," the Fourth Season at Mosaic Theater Company, will open with Marie and Rosetta, written by George Brant and directed by local artist Sandra L. Holloway. This play featuring gospel music, blues, and rock n' roll tells the story of the first rehearsal between Sister Rosetta Tharpe (recently inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame), and her young protegee Marie Knight.

The eighth and final production of Mosaic Theater Company's upcoming fourth season will be Twisted Melodies, a critically acclaimed one-man show about the life and music of troubled genius Donny Hathaway performed by the multi-talented Kelvin Roston Junior. Twisted Melodies is being produced by Baltimore Center Stage and Congo Square Theatre Company in association with The Apollo Theater and Mosaic in a unique three-city co-production.

Mona Mansour is a member of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. 'The Vagrant Trilogy,' which follows a Palestinian family over a forty-year period, is comprised of three of her plays; the Mosaic Theatre production, which opens on June 11th (previews start June 6th), is the first time all three plays will be staged together. 'The Vagrant Trilogy' is part of the 2018 Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival.

The final production of Mosaic Theater Company of DC's third season will be the world premiere staging of The Vagrant Trilogy, written by Mona Mansour and directed by Mark Wing-Davey. The Vagrant Trilogy is comprised of three different one-act plays: The Hour of Feeling, The Vagrant, and Urge for Going. These three plays, combined for the first time in one epic performance, follows Palestinian scholar Adham and his family over multiple generations and in multiple continents.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC announces an eclectic lineup for the 2018-2019 season, offering serious comic release alongside searing indictment; sustaining its commitment to local writers alongside its long-running Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, while championing intercultural encounters and honoring iconic figures in African-American culture. In addition, Season Four is the first season to achieve gender parity for Mosaic's playwrights: four of the plays are written by men, and four by women.

The sixth show of Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Third Season, Paper Dolls, has been officially extended through April 29. Written by Philip Himberg (the Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program) and directed by Broadway director Mark Brokaw, this vibrant and thought-provoking play with songs illuminates the world of five gay male Filipino nurses in Tel Aviv who care for elderly Orthodox and Chasidic men six days a week-and headline a drag show on their day off!

The sixth production of Mosaic Theater Company's third season will be Paper Dolls, written by Philip Himberg (Producing Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program) and directed by Broadway veteran Mark Brokaw. This uplifting, entertaining, and thought-provoking play with songs illuminates the world of five gay male Filipino nurses in Tel Aviv who care for elderly Orthodox and Chasidic men six days a week-and headline a drag show on their day off!

Mosaic Theater Company of DCtakes its acclaimedVoices From a Changing Middle East Festival on tour this winter, bringing several of its seminal Festival productions (I SHALL NOT HATE, VIA DOLOROSA, and the recent film adaptation of WRESTLING JERUSALEM) to the University of Oklahoma, Grinnell College, and Eastern Mennonite University for presentations of each project, and culminating in a special evening at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts where excerpts from all three works will be shared in a single evening. The tour reflects different dimensions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the efforts to achieve reckoning and reconciliation through live performance and discussion, in works performed in English, Arabic, and Hebrew (with translated surtitles).

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Without Borders and Tamizdat join forces to present a timely community conversation exploring the challenges and power of progressive activist theater.

The fifth production of Mosaic Theater Company's third season will be Queens Girl in Africa, written by DC playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings, staged by up-and- coming director Paige Hernandez, and starring Helen Hayes Award winner Erika Rose. This funny, moving, one-woman show tells the story of spunky New York-born heroine Jaqueline Marie Butler's teenage years in civil-war torn Nigeria as she navigates her new home, her budding activist beliefs, and her first love.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Without Borders, The H.E.AT. Collective and Tamizdat join forces to present a timely community conversation exploring the challenges and power of progressive activist theatre. At this cultural moment many in the arts are seeking ways to bring activisminto their work? this symposium will be a platform for sharing ideas and resources. It will inform,empower, recharge, facilitate, and inspire.

The fifth production of Mosaic Theater Company's third season will be Queens Girl in Africa, written by DC playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings, staged by up-and- coming director Paige Hernandez, and starring Helen Hayes Award winner Erika Rose.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Without Borders and Tamizdat join forces to present a timely community conversation exploring the challenges and power of progressive activist theater.

The fourth production of Mosaic Theater Company's third season will be Draw the Circle, a solo show written by and starring Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and directed by acclaimed writer-director-producer, Chay Yew (most recently, director of Oedipus El Rey at The Public Theater).

The third show of Mosaic Theater Company's ambitious third season will be The Real Americans, a one-man show written and starring Bay Area sensation and now NYC-based performing artist Dan Hoyle.

The second show of Mosaic Theater's Season Three, Vicu a & The American Epilogue, has been officially extended through December 3. Written by Jon Robin Baitz (Other Desert Cities; TV's Brothers & Sisters, and Feud Season 2) and directed by Robert Egan, this Trump-inspired satire stars John de Lancie (Star Trek, Breaking Bad) as a real estate mogul about to enter the final presidential debate of the 2016 campaign. It is followed by a haunting post-script set 12 years into the future assessing the state of the nation and all that's been wrought in the election's wake.

Philadelphia Theatre Company continues its 2017-2018 festival-style theatre season with the local premiere of Wrestling Jerusalem, written and performed by Aaron Davidman and directed by Michael John Garc s. This one-man show grapples with identity, history, and social justice and was the impetus for the 2016 film, Wrestling Jerusalem, that has been a selection at film festivals around the country. The gripping performance takes over the stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (480 S. Broad Street) October 18-November 5. Press Night is Friday, October 20 at 8 p.m. Tickets run $25 to $69 and are available at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre box office, online at philatheatreco.org or by phone 215-985-0420.

As previously announced, NYU Skirball will present a series of free events and post-show conversations with artists, writers, educators and Middle East experts, including the newly added Kathleen Chalfant, alongside Oskar Eustis, Tony Kushner, Jim Nicola and Alisa Solomon.