Oran Sandel

Oran Sandel and Tiffany Freeman in Creative Cauldron's Aesop's Fables in 2010.

Jennifer Goldsmith

The company of Arena Stage's Living Stage Theatre Company, the preeminent theatre for social change founded by Robert A. Alexander in 1966.

Oran Sandel with children at Creative Cauldron.

Oran Sandel

Oran Sandel was part of a theater movement. Through his work with the Living Stage Theater Company, and beyond, he dramatically transformed the cultural landscape of Washington, DC.  He understood creativity and justice to be intimately woven together.  Through theater we can heal.  And in doing so, we can create new ways of being together in the world.  Oran’s lifelong work was about gathering the collective brilliance of a room through the power of play.  In lieu of one memory, below is a poem comprised of words from some of the many people whose lives Oran changed. - Anu Yadav, writer and performer

He was a man I hoped to become.
a provocateur,
a magic-maker,
who ignited sheer joy,
a fierce defender of creation and
guide into one’s own imagination,
Raising his fist against injustice,
while daring us all
to revel
in the beauty
of our own creative genius.

Warrior and healer,
he always saw the child within
and invited us
to play.

I remember him at a workshop, lifted high in the air,
carried joyfully around the gym
by members of Lorton Voices,
the prison theater company he helped inspire.

I remember when he and Roberta
offered us a place to stay
when we were homeless.

He pushed us to do
and be
more than what we thought possible.
And he was right.

Because of Oran
I am
a better artist
teacher
mother
father
political radical.
Because of Oran
I show up in the face of fear
because he lived it every day.

Because of Oran
I am compassionate,
I never settle,
forged in the image of the creator,
standing on the shoulders of those who came before us,
Striving to transform
fear
into sunshine and light
with each and every breath I draw.

Because of Oran
I create,
I decide to live with joy,
I am wiser, fiercer, more playful,
I am more.

Because of Oran I am.

Because of Oran I am.

Because of Oran I am.

- Christine Alexander, Quique Avilés, Weusi Baraka, Lisa Biggs, Mary Caroline Davis, Tanisha Christie, Patrick Crowley, Vanessa Deutschmann, Kelly Gardner, Kristin Horton, Q. Terah Jackson, Monica Mohindra, Patrick Prebula, Wendy Nogales, Ellie Walton, Anu Yadav and others.

ORAN SANDEL was a performer and teaching artist in the Washington area for almost four decades. Many of those years (the 1970’s) were spent in fledgling ventures like New Playwright’s Theater, Back Alley Theater and Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, or with better established theaters like The Harlequin Dinner Theater, until he landed with Arena Stage’s Living Stage, where he spent the next 23 years bringing theater to the forgotten people of the DC area. After leaving his position as Artistic Director there in 2001, he worked as a freelance consultant, teacher, writer, director, and performer, working with the Washington Revels, the Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater, the Smithsonian Scholars in the Schools program, Creative Cauldron, Shakespeare Theatre Company, CenterStage, The Theatre Lab, and Adventure Theatre. Oran died Oct. 19 at his home in Silver Spring, MD. He was 64.

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