Check out OUR Spark 2025 photo gallery!
ABOUT THE EVENT
This festive, engaging, and uniquely Mosaic event will feature exclusive performances highlighting the company's ten years of impact, a sneak peek of our 2025-26 Season, delicacies from Busboys & Poets, signature cocktails and more - all to support our bold and ambitious productions, education programs, and commitment to new work.
The Spark 2025 Honorees
David & Joan Maxwell are passionate about the Arts and have been engaged with numerous arts organizations over their many years of philanthropic service.
David joined Fannie Mae in February 1981, serving as chairman and CEO of the Federal National Mortgage Association for 10 years. Earlier, he served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Secretary of Administration and Budget Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1955-1959.
Joan was the palliative care chaplain at George Washington University hospital for several years, serving patients with life-threatening illnesses. She is the author of Soul Support: Spiritual Encounters at Life’s End and the co-author of two other published books. She was the Senior Research Associate for many years at the Greater Washington Research Center, a nonprofit think tank that was folded into the Brookings Institution. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she received a Master of Theological Studies summa cum laude from Wesley Theological Seminary and was endorsed as a hospital chaplain by the Episcopal Church.
For 25 years Joan and David operated the Jovid Foundation, aimed at helping people in or at risk of long-term poverty to become more self-sufficient. They have served on the boards of several foundations and nonprofit organizations.
Joan P. and David O. Maxwell, longtime Mosaic and DC theater supporters, for their dedication to new plays
Mona Mansour is a Lebanese-American playwright and TV writer. Her credits include: Unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mosaic Theater), The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater, Mosaic), The Way West (Steppenwolf Theatre, Labyrinth Theater), and We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War (Golden Thread). She conceived of the play Beginning Days of True Jubilation, about a start-up gone bust, with her theater company SOCIETY. With Tala Manassah, she has written Falling Down the Stairs. Their play Dressing is part of Facing Our Truths: Short Plays about Trayvon, Race and Privilege.
She started as an actor, performing in the famed Groundlings Sunday Company in Los Angeles. As a writer, she got her start when she was chosen to be part of The Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group. Awards and fellowships include the Steinberg, the Kesselring Prize, The Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, the Whiting Award, Middle East America, MacDowell, and New Dramatists.
Her newest project is a musical, Beautiful Little Fool, with composer Hannah Corneau and directed by Michael Greif. Mona was a producer-writer for NBC’s long-running series New Amsterdam, and is creating a series for Fisher Stevens’ Highly Flammable.
Mona Mansour, award-winning playwright, for her commitment to art and activism
Performers
Kelvin Roston, Jr.
Jeff Award, BTA Award, and Black Excellence Award-winner
Ari’el Stachel
Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Emmy-winner
The Spark 2025 Benefit Committee
Craig Benson, Committee Chair
Mosaic Board Member, Community Leader, and Arts Advocate
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Jeffrey Banks
Stephen Clay
Michael Singer
Myrna Sislen
Susan Clampitt (Tributes for Joan P. and David O. Maxwell)
Liz Steinglass
Stephen R. Stern (Tributes for Mona Mansour)
Our Supporters
Sponsors
Fervor
Busboys and Poets
Flame
Cathy & Bob Solomon
Flare
Susan Clampitt & Jeremy Waletzky
Jane Lang & Robert Kapp
Flash
Craig Benson
Frank Guzzetta & Paul Manville
Craig Pascal
Elizabeth & David Steinglass
Eugene M. Lang Foundation
Lee's Flower and Card Shop Inc.
Frank & Emily Vogl
Flicker
Nancy Beckley
Dana Brewington & Bill Tompkins
Leonade Jones
Dianne & Herbert Lerner
BENEFIT HostS
Arena Stage
Sherry Anstrom & Decker Hiemstra
Jeffrey Banks & Stacie Lee Banks
Jordan Lloyd Bookey & Felix Lloyd
Deborah Carliner & Robert Remes
Jill Chessen
Kevin Cuddy
David & Jean Grier
Myrna Fawcett
Edward Grossman & Rochelle Stanfield
Kay Kendall & Jack Davies
Juanita & Melvin Hardy and Millenium Arts Salon
Cornell Harris
Laura & Ted May
Trudy & Gary Peterson
Leslie Scallet-Lieberman
Michael Singer & James Smith
Myrna Sislen & Bill Rice
Mayor Jeffrey Slavin
Stephen Stern & Margaret Hahn Stern
Studio Theatre
Mimi Tygier & Rob Rubin
Have questions? Please contact Dina Soltan, Donor Relations Manager at dina@mosaictheater.org or 202-738-9134.