Events Calendar
|
Latest Issue
|
Membership
|
Log In Sign Up
  • Play

    Play

    • A Beginner’s Guide to Soccer
    • You Spin Me Right Round: D.C. Roller Skating 101 in 2021
    • Leading the League: The WNBA’s Natasha Cloud on Breaking Barriers + Inspiring D.C.
    • Spring Has Sprung: 10 Ways To Get Outside in the DMV
    • Play Week Combines Games + Social Impact
    • High and Go Seek Illustration
    • O Captain, My Captain: Washington Spirit’s Andi Sullivan
  • Life

    Life

    • Local Entrepreneurs Infuse CBD into Wellness
    • 19 Entrepreneurs Shaping D.C.’s Cannabis + CBD Industries
    • Upcycling in D.C.: Transforming a Culture of Consumption
    • The Green Issue: Experts + Advocates Make Case for Cannabis Legalization + Decriminalization
    • The District Derp Story
    • Grassfed Media Champions Cannabis Clients
    • Nat Geo Explorer Gabrielle Corradino on Plankton, the Anacostia + Conservation
  • Eat

    Eat

    • The State of Takeout in the District
    • A New Twist on Food Delivery: MisenBox
    • Next-Level Home Dining Experiences in D.C.
    • Foxtrot Market Is Officially Open for Business in Georgetown
    • Food Rescue + Assistance Programs Fill the Gaps in a Pandemic Food System
    • Hungry Harvest Helps to End Food Insecurity
    • Notable Summer Bar + Restaurant Reopenings to Try this Spring
  • Drink

    Drink

    • Pandemic Drinking: Derek Brown Leads the Way to Low-ABV Future
    • D.C.’s St. Vincent Wine Creates Covid-Conscious Experience
    • A New Way to Binge: Sobriety Anchors Business + Being for Gigi Arandid
    • King’s Ransom + The Handover in Alexandria Celebrate a First Year Like No Other
    • Wines of the World Are Just Around the Corner
    • Open-Air Drinking + Cocktail Delivery Changes in the DMV
    • Denizens Brewing Co.’s Emily Bruno: Brewing Change for Community + Industry
  • Culture

    Culture

    • The Artistry Behind D.C.’s Cannabis Culture
    • The Best Movies of 2021…So Far
    • The Survival of the Brutalist: D.C.’s Complicated Concrete Legacy
    • Plain Sight: A Street-Front Revolution in Radical Arts Accessibility
    • A Touch of Danger in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “Romeo & Juliet”
    • Artgence + Homme: Where There’s Art, There’s a Story to Share
    • 21 D.C. Makers + Curators to Follow
  • Music

    Music

    • Emma G Talks Wammie Nominations and the D.C. Music Community
    • J’Nai Bridges: A Modern Mezzo-Soprano in a Changing Opera Landscape
    • Punk Legends The Go-Go’s Talk Four Decades of Sisterhood, Resilience + Zero Fucks Given
    • Ellen Reid “Soundwalk:” Exploring the Sonic Landscape at Wolf Trap
    • SHAED Releases First Full-Length Album in a “High Dive” of Faith
    • Obama + Springsteen Present “Renegades”
    • Christian Douglas Uses His “Inside Voice” on Pandemic-Inspired Debut Album
  • Events

    Events

    • Play Week 4.17-4.25
    • Midnight at The Never Get 4.30-6.21
    • Cannabis City Panel Presented by BĀkT DC + District Fray
    • Browse Events
    • DC Polo Society Summer Sundays 5.9
    • National Cannabis Festival’s Dazed & Amused Drive-In Party
    • Vinyl + Vinyasa 4.30
  • Log In
    Sign Up

Log In Sign Up
Explore All Four Quadrants of the District
QB Jordan Ta’amu Leading D.C. Defenders to Dream Season
Disruptively Weird: Anthony Le’s “Golden Looking Hour” Exhibit
Reboot Beverages Brings Whiskey Back to Mt. Pleasant
True Luxury: Afternoon Tea in D.C.
The Kennedy Center’s RiverRun Festival Inspires Aliveness
Home » Articles » Culture » Spurring Social Change Via the Stage: Mosaic Theatre

Culture

Spurring Social Change Via the Stage: Mosaic Theatre

Share:

November 1, 2016 @ 12:00am | Kaitlyn McQuin

Mosaic Theater Company prides itself on being innovative, inclusive, diverse and, most importantly, uncensored. Although Mosaic is a relatively new company, it is comprised of professionals who are no strangers to taking theatrical risks in the name of social change. In an effort to bridge gaps within the DC community, Mosaic’s mission is to make their theater a “model of diversity and inclusion at every strata, onstage and off.”
On Tap had the opportunity to chat with Mosaic’s founding artistic director, Ari Roth, and resident director, Jennifer L. Nelson, to get the inside scoop on the creation of Mosaic and their upcoming production of Milk Like Sugar.
On Tap: Tell me a little bit about Mosaic Theater. It’s a relatively new company. What prompted its creation?
Ari Roth: We came together to create a new theater company dedicated to values of inclusion, diversity, equity and access, and devoted to programming that’s independent, intercultural, entertaining and uncensored. We’re striving to bring different communities together here in Northeast DC in the interests of creating a new fusion of passionate art enthusiasts and engaged citizens committed to public discourse informed by dramatic, personal stories.
OT: Why does Mosaic focus primarily on social change?
AR: We believe that art can transform consciousness and promote awareness and understanding, and little by little, person by person, and group by group, may be able to change the world. We believe theater is the most immediate, intimate, personalized and public kind of artistic transmission, fusing so many disciplines into something visceral, emotional, intellectual, visual and energizing.
OT: Milk Like Sugar, directed by Jennifer L. Nelson, opens in November. What are you looking forward to most about producing this play?
AR: I want to see a group of young women kicking ass in this play. I want to see them hitting back out at a society that marginalizes and dismisses so many of their dramas as being small and insubstantial. I want to emerge from this play with a sense that vibrant, flawed, fascinating, vital and vulnerable young women are the key to our future and that everything hangs in the balance with their fate.
OT: How do you connect with Milk Like Sugar, and why are you looking forward to directing it? 
Jennifer Nelson: There is little in the MLS details that I personally connect to: I grew up in a stable two-parent home where education and culture were prized above all. Perhaps that is why I am so moved by stories of those who have little or no supportive family life — particularly girls whose vision of themselves goes no further than those of the characters in the play. The play, on the other hand, gives us a chance to see how girls of limited means see themselves and their futures; and how once challenged and presented with other possibilities, their minds begin to open.
OT: How are you hoping “Milk Like Sugar” impacts your audience, and what message are you hoping to translate to the viewers? 
AR: We want laughter, tears, exhilaration, rapt attention, shock and some unexpected uplift and admiration. We need to emerge from this show trusting that our young women can be empowered to figure out how to forge ahead even when carrying burdens of their own, and of their family’s and society’s, making.
JN: The message is that in spite of poverty and limited education, the human spirit yearns for and responds to hope.
OT: What type of conversations are you hoping to spark within the community in response to this play?
AR: There’s a new initiative that’s been launched by the President and First Lady called “Let Girls Learn” that’s designed to help adolescent girls attain a quality education and enable them to reach their full potential. I’d like to see us tap into that huge community right here in our DC schools and neighborhoods. This play is about strong young girls being made vulnerable and vulnerable young girls becoming strong.
Mosaic Theater Company is setting out to change the world, and they’re starting right here in DC. Their second show of Season Two, Milk Like Sugar, by Kirsten Greenidge, which won the Playwriting Obie Award in 2012 and the San Diego Critics Circle Craig Award for Outstanding New Play in 2011, runs from November 2-27. Tickets are $20-$35.
Mosaic Theater Company: 1333 H St. NE, DC; 202-399-7993; www.mosaictheater.org
Share:

Related Articles

No Articles

DISTRICT FRAY MEMBERSHIPS

District Fray members receive unlimited access to our digital content, including new articles published daily. We also have membership options available for locals interested in our print magazine, member events, or first-access tickets and giveaways.

Join Today
COMPANY
About United Fray Team Hiring: Join Our Team!
GET INVOLVED
Become A Member 2023 Media Kit 2023 Editorial Calendar Corporate Wellness Contact: Media Pitches + Advertising Inquiries
EXPLORE
Eat Drink Music Culture Life Play Events Calendar
OUR CITIES
Washington D.C. Jacksonville Phoenix
Subscribe

By clicking submit, you agree to receive emails from District Fray and accept our web terms of use and privacy and cookie policy.

© 2023 District Fray.