past seasons

By Angelo Parra
Directed by Joe Brancato
Musical arrangements & starring Miche Braden

​ Mosaic’s Season Three launches with this hit Off-Broadway musical celebration of the legendary Bessie Smith, whose life was as large and outrageous as her talent. Starring Miche Braden, reprising the role she originated Off-Broadway, The Devil’s Music re-imagines Bessie’s final electrifying evening after she and her band are turned away by a whites-only theater. This is a musical celebration not to be missed, packed with a trove of Bessie’s all-time hits—songs like “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do.”

An area & world premiere by Jon Robin Baitz
Directed by Robert Egan

​ From the Pulitzer Prize-finalist and Tony-nominated playwright of Other Desert Cities, comes this hit, Trump-inspired satire about an Iranian tailor and his apprentice who struggle to make a custom-suit out of vicuña wool for an unlikely customer—a real-estate tycoon preparing for the final presidential debate. Originally produced to acclaim during the 2016 election, this newly updated version is followed by a world premiere epilogue drawn from the playwright’s own headline-making experience in DC on the night of the inauguration at the hands of a Trump supporter. Baitz reimagines the incident as experienced by the tailor’s apprentice, Amir, who comes to be a witness to history, only to find himself a casualty of it.

In rep with Draw the Circle
Written & performed by Dan Hoyle
Directed by Charlie Varon

​ Inspired by 100 days travelling in a van through small-town America, actor/journalist Dan Hoyle enacts a multi-character encounter with the people at ground zero of our country’s growing economic inequality and polarized politics. Hoyle’s quest to “break the liberal bubble” sends him on an unforgettable journey into the lives of the real Americans: union coal miners, rural drug dealers, anti-war Veterans, and closeted gay creation theory experts...among others. Part of the series "Transformational Journeys: Inspired Singular Explorations."

Written & performed by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen
Directed by Chay Yew ​

Gender transition can be a test for any household—but when Mashuq Mushtaq Deen comes out to his conservative Muslim family, traditional values and Western ideals collide in an hilarious and moving immigration journey unlike any other. Told entirely from the point of view of family and friends, yet performed by Deen himself, Draw the Circle is a moving story about survival, transition, and unconditional love. Part of the series "Transformational Journeys: Inspired Singular Explorations."

World premiere by Caleen Sinnette Jennings
Directed by Paige Hernandez

​Mosaic’s first commission brings the world premiere sequel to Caleen Sinnette Jennings’ “sweet-spirited solo show” which the New York Times described as one of the breakout hits of DC's first Women's Voices Theatre Festival in 2015. Now part of the 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Queens Girl in Africa picks back up with Jacqueline Marie Butler as she and her family sail to Nigeria following the assassination of her father’s close friend, Malcolm X. Performed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Erika Rose (In Darfur, An Octaroon, Unexplored Interior…), this is a touching coming-of-age story of a woman finding her place in Civil War-torn Nigeria. Part of Mosaic’s new Locally Grown initiative, and concluding the series "Transformational Journeys: Inspired Singular Explorations."

American premiere by Philip Himberg
Directed by Mark Brokaw

Based on the film by Tomer Heymann
In Association with Stanley Buchthal and Bob and Co, Ltd

​ This vibrant and thought-provoking musical illuminates the world of five Filipino guest workers in Tel Aviv who care for elderly Orthodox men by day—and headline a drag show by night! Based on the true story behind a 2006 Israeli documentary, Paper Dolls is a rich, unforgettable karaoke musical about the challenges that migrant workers face while yearning for citizenship. This American premiere plays as part of the 2018 Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival.

By Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm
Directed by Serge Seiden

​ Back by popular demand, Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm’s “breathtakingly on-point new comedy” (Washington Post) returns for a special encore remount after its sold-out run became one of the first breakout DC hits of 2017. This irreverent examination of growing up Black in America features two unlikely allies—Marquis and Tru. Suspecting that Marquis has lost his “blackness,” Tru pens a manual entitled Being Black for Dummies which sends the two on a whirlwind journey through a world of cheerleaders, 2Pac, Nietzsche, Apollo, and Dionysus.

By Mona Mansour
Directed by Mark Wing-Davey
In dramaturgical collaboration with The Public Theater ​

The life of a displaced Palestinian family spanning four decades, and the trenchant pull of home. The Hour of Feeling introduces us to Adham who journeys to the UK on the eve of the Six Day with his new wife, Abir, to deliver a career-defining lecture. In The Vagrant, Adham, up for professorship, must respond to terrorist incidents in London and Lebanon. Part of the 2018 Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival.

By Terry Teachout
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
Starring Craig Wallace

It’s March 1971 at the Waldorf Astoria, and Louis Armstrong has just played one of the final performances of his extraordinary career. Unwinding backstage, the legendary ‘Satchmo’ recounts the events—and regrets—that led him to a place of stature in danger of being stripped away. Helmed by Eleanor Holdridge and starring DC-favorite Craig Wallace, this one-man, three-character powerhouse play with music dives into the complicated relationships between Armstrong, his embattled Jewish manager Joe Glaser, and his fiercest competitor and critic, trumpeter Miles Davis.

By Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson

​What’s the power of friendship in a world where young women of color have so very little? For sixteen year-old Annie Desmond, growing up in a small city is all Galaxy phones and texts from boys. But when one of her friends proudly boasts that she’s expecting, the allure of Coach diaper bags and an infant’s constant company propels the group into a life-altering “pregnancy pact.” Torn between her allegiance to the pack, her ambitions for college, and the promise of a future with a boy named Malik, Annie must make a choice for the future she wants, even if it’s not the future she’s being pushed to pursue.

By Philip Dawkins
Directed by Natsu Onoda Power

​Meet Mama Darleena Andrews, a 67 year-old transgender woman and the inimitable etiquette instructor at “The Center,” an organization for Chicago’s homeless and LGTBQ youth. Her students are as diverse in background as they are in identity, united by a feeling of other-ness in the heart of a city that’s left them behind. But for “Mama Darlin,” triumph over poverty and prejudice begins with lacing up and fitting in—playing the part with class and with charm.

By Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm
Directed by Serge Seiden​

A timely, irreverent examination of growing up black in America by rising-star local playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm. Marquis, a book smart prep-schooler from suburban Maryland, meets Tru, a street savvy Baltimorean, in a holding cell. Tru thinks Marquis has lost his “blackness” and pens a manual entitled Being Black for Dummies, as they navigate a world of cheerleaders, Black Lives Matter, 2Pac, Nietzsche, Apollo, and Dionysus—each vying for Marquis’ future.

By Athol Fugard
Directed by Joy Zinoman
In rep with A Human Being Died That Night

​The first show in Mosaic Theater’s South Africa repertory, this landmark classic from South Africa’s most acclaimed playwright, Athol Fugard, is a harrowing fable of two brothers bound by blood and separated by color. The light-skinned Morris and his darker-skinned brother Zachariah share a one-room shack in Port Elizabeth, where their childhood memories form a bond that runs deep. But when Zachariah’s pen-pal, a white woman, announces her intention to meet him in person, it is Morris who cloaks himself in the clothes and mannerisms he learned while “passing” in white society in order to pose as his brother.

By Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela | Adapted by Nicholas Wright
Directed by Logan Vaugn

The second part of Mosaic Theater’s South Africa repertory, this tense confrontation recounts the black, African psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s gripping interrogations of Apartheid-era torturer and assassin Eugene de Kock, known by many as “Prime Evil.”

By Hanna Eady & Edward Mast
Directed by John Vreeke

​ A gripping mystery set in a run-down automobile repair shop in old Herzliya, this American premiere by Palestinian playwright Hanna Eady and Seattle-based writer with Edward Mast elegantly dramatizes the smoldering tension between a Palestinian mechanic and an attracted, conflicted Israeli Jewish woman from his past.

Four Pinteresque scenes deftly unfold a story of love, betrayal, guilt, and challenge.

By Jay O. Sanders
Directed by Derek Goldman

Mosaic Theater Company launched its inaugural season with a world-premiere epic about the madness and majesty of Rwanda. Raymond, a young film student at NYU, is compelled to return to Rwanda to uncover the roots of violence that transformed his country and obliterated his family, including his beloved grandfather, a master storyteller whose legacy Raymond seeks to redeem. “A kaleidoscopic new play of epic dimensions,” (Washington Post), this assiduously researched, highly theatrical tapestry takes us on a personal journey of discovery as Raymond keeps alive the stories of his country, as a Hutu government minister falls in love with a Tutsi woman, and the head of UN peacekeepers — propelled by the ghost of Mark Twain and haunted by those he was unable to save — struggles with his own will to live. Staged by Derek Goldman (Our Class, In Darfur), this production takes place in the 260-seat Lang Theatre.