Photo Source: Seth Rozin
InterAct was founded in 1988 with the mission to educate and entertain its audiences with thought-provoking productions, and uses theater as a tool to foster positive social change in schools, the workplace, and the community. The theater is known for producing plays that explore issues of social, cultural, and political relevance and dramatizing complex and often controversial issues. InterAct’s productions have provided work for over 500 local artists. The company's outreach program uses the interactive power of live performance and dramatic role-playing to cultivate tolerance and understanding, promote cultural diversity, and improve relations in its community.
The Rosetta LeNoire Award recognizes "outstanding artistic contributions to the universality of the human experience in American theater." The award is given annually 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 established in 1988 in honor of the actress Rosetta LeNoire, who was also the first recipient. In addition to her body of work in the theater, she worked with the then-titled Actors' Equity Association's Ethnic Minorities Committee and was the founder of the AMAS Repertory Theatre Company, an organization dedicated to maintaining an "interracial company" of actors.
