Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company Receives AEA’s Rosetta LeNoire Award

InterAct Theatre Company, an Actors' Equity Small Professional Theatre in Philadelphia, PA, has been named the recipient of AEA's prestigious 2012 Rosetta LeNoire Award.   The Award will be presented to InterAct's Founding/Producing Director Seth Rozin at Association's Eastern Regional Membership meeting on Friday April 13, 2012 in New York City. 

The Rosetta LeNoire Award, established in 1988, recognizes outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in American Theater.  The Award is given to an individual, theater or producing organization with an exemplary record in the hiring or promotion of ethnic minorities, female actors and actors with disabilities through multi-racial and/or non-traditional casting.  The award was named in honor of the actress Rosetta LeNoire, who was also the first recipient, not only because of her body of work in the theatre - and her work with the then-titled Actors' Equity Association's Ethnic Minorities Committee - but also for founding the Amas Repertory Theatre Company, an organization dedicated to maintaining an "interracial company" of actors. 

Founded in 1988, InterAct's mission is to educate, as well as entertain its audiences, by producing world-class, thought-provoking productions, and by using theatre as a tool to foster positive social change in the school, the workplace and the community. The theatre is known for producing plays that explore issues of social, cultural and political relevance, dramatizing complex and often controversial issues with artistic integrity and fairness.

Under the helm of Founder/Producing Director Seth Rozin, InterAct has presented 78 mainstage productions, including 32 world premieres, two US premieres and over 30 regional premieres since its inception.  The company has received 52 Barrymore Award nominations and 18 Awards, including the Brown Martin Philadelphia Award, and the Ted and Stevie Wolf Award for New Approaches to Collaboration. InterAct's productions have provided work for over 500 local artists. 

InterAct also has a highly-acclaimed outreach program, that uses the interactive power of live performance and dramatic role-playing, to cultivate tolerance and understanding, promote cultural diversity, and improve the human relations in its community in local classrooms and the community. 

Actors' Equity Association represents more than 49,000 professional stage actors and stage managers nationwide. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society.  Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans.  AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.

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