Intersections in The Washington Post Today!

Atlas Performing Arts Center stages diverse Intersections arts festival

The Washington Post
By Lavanya Ramanathan
Friday, February 19, 2010

The Atlas Performing Arts Center's new Intersections arts festival -- a three-week event with more than 50 performances beginning Friday at the H Street NE complex -- celebrates a nation characterized by myriad convergences of culture.

But for inspiration, the organizers had to look only so far as the Atlas District itself.

"H Street has historically been an intersection," says Mary Hall Surface, the festival's artistic director, citing the various communities -- Italian, Jewish, African American -- that have called the neighborhood east of Union Station home.

To stage the festival, which continues weekends through March 7, Surface and Atlas put out a call for shows that combine genres or cross the boundaries of race, age and class. The Washington Savoyards responded with "Treemonisha," a rarely performed opera by Scott Joplin; Speakeasy DC culled a diverse cast for the monologue show "Wetbacks, Aliens and Towelheads: Stories From the First Generation"; and Haitian American Kathleen Gonzales offered her one-woman show about homecomings, "The Bridge of Bodies," with a pledge to donate proceeds to Haiti relief efforts. There are also plenty of free concerts, children's performances and even visual art as part of the festival, of which The Post is a sponsor.

"You think about it as a menu," Surface says. "We really were looking for pieces that had an intersection of styles, or we were looking for collaborations, where companies were coming together in a way they have never done before.

"So you've got your fusion cuisine, then you've got your contrasting things -- ones that taste better when you put them together -- and your classic dishes."

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To read our article in The Washington Informer