Key financial support and acclaimed leadership team of Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth and Producing Director Serge Seiden build a firm foundation for inaugural season (Washington, D.C.). Momentum fueled by a national outpouring of financial support and the commitment of outstanding artistic leadership is propelling the new Mosaic Theater Company of DC toward an auspicious launch..
Once the dream of Founder and Artistic Director Ari Roth, this major addition to Washington’s thriving theater scene moves closer to reality with a $250,000 challenge grant from The Reva and David Logan Foundation to
support Mosaic Theater’s ambitious inaugural 2015-2016 season. The grant will provide a 1-to-1 match for new and increased donations received through July 1, 2015.
“I am delighted and proud to receive this generous support from a foundation that shares Mosaic Theater’s commitment to social justice,” said Roth. “Mosaic Theater will use this grant to nurture and create inclusive, uncensored and transformational art with a purpose: to inspire progressive social change.”
Roth began forging Mosaic Theater following his well-documented separation from Theater J after an 18-year run as artistic director. During his tenure, he built the fledgling theater into the largest, most respected Jewish theater in North America, while expanding its mission to incorporate the exploration of universal themes and the celebration of cultural heritage. A producer, playwright, director and educator, Roth has produced more than 129 productions, including 44 world premieres; orchestrated the renowned Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival to dramatize and explore intercultural issues; and co-founded the Peace Café to foster community dialogue informed by the common experience of works of art.
For 25 years, Seiden has worked with Studio Theater, where he advanced from positions as stage manager and literary manager to the role of producing director. At Studio he has directed 35 productions as well as plays and musicals presented at Adventure Theatre-MTC, Theater J, MetroStage, Olney Theatre Center, and Synetic Theater. Under Seiden’s direction, last year’s production of Bad Jews” ran 15 weeks, broke Studio box office records andRoth’s vision for Mosaic Theater has attracted several of the city’s most talented and seasoned theater artists, including Serge Seiden, who is partnering with Roth as Mosaic Theater’s Producing Director. “Mosaic Theater well describes our community, and we want to make a theater that reflects that,” Seiden said. “It embraces community, leans intochallenge and aspires to the highest level of artistry.” Seiden received four Helen Hayes Award nominations, including Outstanding Director.
Jennifer Nelson joins Mosaic Theater as Resident Director of Artistic Development, bringing more than 40 years of experience as an actor, playwright, administrator, professor and director and two-term president of the League of Washington Theatres. She is senior advisor for special programming at Ford’s Theatre, and previously served for 11 years as
the producing artistic director of the African Continuum Theatre. She is also a veteran of Living Stage Theatre Company at Arena Stage, and has directed productions at Ford’s, Round House, Woolly Mammoth, Theater of the First Amendment, Theater J and more. Her play, Torn From the Headlines, won the Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Most Outstanding New Play. Anchored at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in the District’s vibrant H Street NE corridor,Mosaic Theater will provide a welcoming space for probing drama and debate. Beginning this fall, the company’s inaugural season of entertaining and thought-provoking plays will be supplemented with an array of additional programs, including the annual Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival. Bringing a mix of communities together both onstage and off, Mosaic Theater will provide an open space for its audiences, community members and neighbors to grapple with some of the most pressing social and political issues of our time, contributing to and broadening the civic and interfaith conversations in Washington and nationwide.
Lorna Mulvaney rounds out Mosaic Theater’s leadership as General Manager and Associate Producer. She brings a breadth of knowledge in theater management and finance, having recently managed staffing, scheduling, supervising and execution of Studio Theatre’s 11-show season. Her experience includes work with the Washington Performing Arts Society, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, and Hartford Stage.
While assembling a seasoned team, Roth has enlisted a 19-member board of directors, including many of Washington’s leading arts advocates, which recently adopted Mosaic Theater’s bylaws.
The full list of Mosaic Theater board members and officers, as well as the inaugural 2015-2016 season, will be announced later this spring. Mosaic Theater received its certificate of incorporation from the District of Columbia as a domestic not-for-profit corporation on Dec. 24, 2014, and is applying to the IRS for tax exempt status. Under the federal code, contributions to organizations awaiting their letter of determination from the IRS have a 13-month window for gifts to be considered tax deductible from the time of incorporation.
Tax-exempt donations are being made to Mosaic Theater Company of DC, c/o Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Donors that require confirmed 501(c)(3) status to make a gift may donate through the theater’s official fiscal agent, Culture Capital, at 975 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. Culture Capital also accepts gifts via wire, direct debit and stock transfer. Donors may contact Ari Roth at 202-399-7993 (x150) or ari(at)mosaictheater.org.
