Change. Along with death and taxes, it’s pretty much unavoidable. As we bid farewell to summer and welcome cooler temperatures, we’re reminded that change is an essential condition of humanity. This month’s column looks to change and the disruptors that drive it; creative practitioners that ask tough questions, or pioneer a new art form, or take the wheel of an organization to steer it through turbulent waters.
Behind the Curtain
I bumped into Jarrod Bennett (the new Executive Director of H Street’s Atlas Performing Arts Center) at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in early September, where we were celebrating the launch of DC Theatre Week. This was Bennett’s first official engagement in his new position and, with his easy smile, warm demeanor and infectious ion for the arts, it was easy to see why he’s been chosen for this important role. I sat down with him to chat about his plans for this important community resource.
What originally triggered your love for performing arts?
“As a kid I was an instrumentalist, and I hearing John Coltrane and telling my mom I want to be the jazz guy. Being introduced at a young age and in an open environment that allowed me to experiment with instruments really gave me a foot in the door. When I got to High School, I realized that I could sort of sing and seeing the music director’s influence on our jazz group with 6 singers really solidified my need to be in the arts. I’ve been in the arts in some shape and form since high school.”
Douglas Yuell leaves some big shoes to fill after 10 years at the helm. Will you stay the course or plot a new trajectory for Atlas?
“A lot of the year has already been planned, but we’re in the process of planning Intersections (the Center’s annual performing arts festival). I do see some new programs coming in. I brought in our open mic nights, and I really want to continue building the relationships we have with our current partners but also bringing in new ones. As we start planning for next year, hopefully some new exciting programs are to come, especially around arts education. That’s a big ion of mine.”
H Street – where at the Atlas Performing Arts Center is located – has been buffeted by challenging economic conditions, the rising cost of doing business, and crime. How does the Center plan to tackle this?
“The Atlas was built to revitalize H Street, and I feel like we’re back in the space where the Atlas needs to be at the forefront of helping businesses and people on H Street thrive. Last year, as Director of Operations, we started partnering with preferred vendors on H Street. We’re driving business back to H Street.”
Your favorite piece of theater you’ve watched recently and why?
“Mexodus was phenomenal. I had no expectations and hadn’t read anything about it. I just wanted to Mosaic Theater. It was the coolest thing that I’ve seen in a long time. From a technical perspective, the way they made that happen was phenomenal to me.”
What do you feel is the responsibility of theater in DC today?
“We’re a very charged environment. What I think theater and the arts in general is doing is allowing people to say things that people may not hear in a normal conversation, and that may open their minds a little more. In general, the arts being an avenue for having those conversations is very important. I hope the Atlas continues to be a place where productions can spark those conversations and help people to understand each other’s perspectives a bit more. I think the world needs more of that.
Want to meet Bennett in person? the Atlas’s Sing Out Piano Bar Open Mic Night every second or third Wednesday of the month, where the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington – of which Bennett is a member – perform selected musical numbers along with the H Street community. Check their calendar online for more information. www.atlasarts.org
In the Spotlight
Prayer for the French Republic, Theater J
Showing Oct 30 – Nov 24
www.edcjcc.org
A pointed glare aimed in your direction. Narrowed eyes. A bigoted comment muttered under the breath. If you’ve ever been a victim of discrimination, you’ll know that icky feeling is hard to forget, and that’s something that New York based playwright Joshua Harmon has been exploring through his work over 10 years. Hayley Finn, Theater J’s Artistic Director, is directing Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic as part of the theater’s 2024/25 season. She’s acutely aware of the play’s ability to tackle tough questions about hate, safety and identity in a fraught political environment.
Harmon’s play focuses on five generations of a French-Jewish family living in in 2016, as Marine le Pen’s far right National Rally party invokes the specters of antisemitism and illegal immigration in a heated bid for political power. “The play has a period in which it exists which resonates and reverberates and shifts as our world changes.” says Finn. “We consciously picked this play to do in this moment because we see it as very relevant to our country. Joshua (Harmon) was certainly very aware of the parallels happening in this country and happening in . Those themes are very important and pressing, and we must confront them.” In Harmon’s play, Molly visits her aunt Marcelle in , leaving American shores and Trump Republicanism behind to arrive just in time for le Pen’s extreme far-right rhetoric and the incitement to violence that it invariably provokes. A shocking attack on Molly’s cousin Daniel –for wearing his yarmulke – forces the Benhamou clan to grapple with decades of inherited trauma connecting the present with the Jewish holocaust.
The weighty themes of Prayer for the French Republic are examined through the familiarity and vulnerability of family, Finn explains, which Theater J’s performance space amplifies to great effect. “This version feels very different because it’s on our stage and not a Broadway stage, so we’re leaning into the intimacy of the work. It’s really about those intimate family conversations which play very well within Theater J. The play delves into the dynamics of family that we’re going to recognize. The language and the dialogue is sharp. It has heavy themes for good reason, but there’s a sense of humor and levity, and we go from the very serious to the mundane and back and forth.”
As audiences take their seats to watch Harmon’s play during a presidential election that feels like déjà vu, never have Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s words rung truer: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Special Mention
The Alliance for New Music-Theatre is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Duane Gelderloos and Susan Galbraith—the Alliance’s Executive Director and Artistic Director respectively—have woven an ever-expanding network of DMV composers, librettists, poets, musicians, actors and playwrights that are remixing a medley of artforms to craft intellectually stimulating, socially conscious programming for audiences across the region.
Gelderloos, Galbraith and their team are celebrating a successful run of The Man Ray Project: Caesar & the Mannequin at the Atlas Center for Performing Arts but are already working on their next series of projects. A special opera, to debut in April next year, will be released to celebrate DC Emancipation Day on April 16.. DC Emancipation and the Right to Vote will be composed by Ward 8’s Ronald ‘Trey’ Walton, in collaboration with Citizens of Georgetown and Mount Zion UMC as a commemoration of this momentous day in our city’s history, and the invaluable contributions made by its Black citizens residing in Georgetown.
Also not to miss this month will be The George Fulginiti Series: Cabaret, Cocktails, & Conversation designed, as Galbraith says, to generate “cross-cultural ideas about cabaret” by fusing Jazz with Cuban rhythms and even the musical flavors of ’s Weimar Republic. Check the Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s website regularly for updated schedules. www.newmusictheatre.org
