Ari Roth, the theater producer, playwright, director and educator, returns to the Washington DC theater scene this month, offering the first of four new-to-DC plays, along with the long-running “Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival” as part of a new creative partnership with A. Lorraine Robinson, the veteran director, producer and educator. Under the new banner Voices Festival Productions (
VFP), the two promise to develop and produce plays that stimulate debate and discourse, introspection and awareness, informed by revelation of our underlying humanity in all its color and complexity, finding resonance between those living with conflict in the Middle East and closer to home, in our nation’s capital, along the seams of our nation and its very real and perceived divides. Voices From a Changing Middle East at Fringe: Losing/Finding Home, Part I – The first of VFP’s shows, in association with Capital Fringe Festival, is THE GATE, written and performed by Robbie Gringras. Washington Theatre, 3222 M Street NW in Washington, DC (formerly Forever 21 Georgetown.)
$15 Tickets: www.capitalfringe.org/events/the-gate
Do iron fences make good neighbors? Should the gate that faces the local Arab village be locked shut, or should it remain open? Udi, who lost his brother in the War of Independence, fights for the gate to be closed. Yiftach, an aging peacenik, must do all he can to signal openness to his Palestinian cousins. And Amal, the caterer from the Arab village, just wants someone to open the gate so she can get home after a long day. How can we remain open? When must we close up? And what does a thought-provoking story about a gate tell us about our world today? THE GATE runs 45 minutes with a 15-minute Q&A talk back.
