Mosaic Theater Company Will Host THE SPARK 2025 Benefit

Mosaic Theater Company’s benefit The Spark 2025 will honor philanthropists Joan P. & David O. Maxwell, for their dedication to new plays, and award-winning playwright Mona Mansour, for her commitment to art and activism. The event will take place February 8 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center from 3-6:30pm. Visit https://mosaictheater.org/spark-benefit for more info.

The Spark 2025 is a uniquely Mosaic event with performances from Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-Winner Ar’iel Stachel and Jeff, BTA and Black Excellence Award-Winner Kelvin Roston, Jr. The event will also highlight the company's ten years of impact and feature a sneak peek of the 2025-26 Season, delicacies from Busboys & Poets, signature cocktails and more. All proceeds support Mosaic’s bold and ambitious productions, education programs, and engagement efforts.

Joan P. & David O. Maxwell

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. 

Mona Mansour

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. 

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