By Ron Fassler . . . .
Waterwell, a charity whose mission statement is “using storytelling to create a more just and humane society,” held a party in Brooklyn Monday night in celebration of its 20 years as a highly successful New York-based charity. Though there may be some people who still don’t get it, one of the most effective means of educating in these current times—especially through young people—is the enormous healing power of the arts. In this ever-increasingly politically fragmented world, it is a blessing how Waterwell’s bringing together writers, actors and directors to create narratives for the stage can actually improve lives. Their helping to change perceptions through their endeavors in theater, education, and film is essential. And by shying away from propagandizing, significant and important subjects are given breathing room, allowing facts to speak for themselves. In so doing, they prove that thought-provoking, daring and original pieces of work in a non-profit environment can not only be instructive but entertaining as well.
Taking the opportunity to speak to members of its Board of Directors and prominent guests in attendance, I was taken with how every single person was on the same page when it comes to paying it forward. One of its founding partners, Arian Moayed—whom many will know from HBO’s “Succession” (Stewy Hosseini), as well as the recent Broadway revival of A Doll’s House (Torvald)—spoke passionately about Waterwell. Helping to found it at age twenty-two and now at forty-two he marvels at how its fundamental activism has taken off: “Taking civic-minded questions and creating art out of them is not only exciting, but bending theater towards new ways of expression.” Co-chairs of the event, Ruthie Ann Miles, a Tony Award winner for The King and I and now appearing in Sweeney Todd and Taylor Trensch, a former Evan Hansen on Broadway and currently playing opposite Cynthia Nixon off-Broadway in The Seven Year Disappear, spoke of their connection to the organization: “Waterwell brings people together,” Miles said. And Trensch was fervent in explaining how “Waterwell fills [him] with hope about what theater can be.”
Theater director Lee Sunday Evans is Waterwell’s Artistic Director, serving in that capacity since 2018. As she sees it, the mission is to continue the work involving theater produced in non-traditional venues, citing their last big project, The Courtroom, as an excellent example for their future. Based on transcripts of deportation proceedings, not a word was changed (just condensed) in bringing the story of Richard Hanus and what the system does in desensitizing an inhumane process that goes on every single day in New York. Adding to the realistic nature of the piece, it was performed in courtrooms all over the city. “And we were able to fund a film version of it, which will now reach even more people,” Evans added.
Waterwell’s drama program at the Professional Performing Arts School, a public school in Manhattan, brings the discipline of involvement in the arts to a prime audience—teenagers. In conversation with Tom Ridgely, a founding member of Waterwell and one of the people being honored for their work with the organization at Monday night’s event, we talked of the possibility of taking things national. “That’s always been a dream, though still down the road a bit,” he said. “There’s no question that the good that comes out of a program like this among high schoolers is a goal worth shooting for.”
In a 2022 interview Arian Moayed did with Creative Independent he said, “In Iranian culture, we have a phrase: Good thoughts, good words, good deeds. If we just follow that mentality, I think at least we’ll make some better decisions.”
It would appear that starting Waterwell is one of the better personal decisions Moayed has made. And Monday evening, he took a well-deserved bow among his fellow artistic souls in commendation of a job well done—artful work that will continue to flourish for years to come.
For more information about Waterwell and upcoming events, please visit: https://www.waterwell.org
Photos by Hunter Canning (except where otherwise indicated)
