Episode Details

Ariel Fristoe: Theater as a Civic Commons

What happens when theater stops asking audiences simply to watch and starts inviting communities to listen, speak, and act?

In this conversation, Bill Cleveland talks with Ariel Fristoe, founder and Artistic Director of Out of Hand Theater in Atlanta, about a lifetime spent reclaiming theater’s oldest purpose—not entertainment alone, but civic life. Together they explore how storytelling, conversation, and community partnerships can become practical tools for reducing polarization, strengthening democratic participation, and helping neighbors encounter one another as fellow human beings rather than strangers.

From foster parenting to community organizing, from performances in living rooms to citywide dinners on racial equity, Ariel describes a practice built on a deceptively simple recipe: Art to open hearts. Information to open minds. Conversation to inspire action.

In this episode:

• Why theater originally existed as a civic commons—and why Ariel believes it should become one again.
• The story behind Decatur Dinners, where more than 1,200 strangers gathered in homes across one city for conversations about race.
• Ariel’s vision for a modern “federal theatre project” that would put artists to work helping communities address their most pressing challenges.
• How community conversations created through theater can strengthen civic participation and democratic life.

ART IS CHANGE Episode 184

Notable Mentions

People

• Ariel Fristoe — Founder and Artistic Director of Out of Hand Theater, nationally recognized for developing theater-based civic engagement models that combine performance, dialogue, and community action.
• Bill Cleveland — Host of Art Is Change, artist, researcher, and founder of the Center for the Study of Art & Community.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Civil rights leader whose vision of the “Beloved Community” profoundly influences Ariel's work and the mission of Out of Hand Theater.
• Bryan Stevenson — Civil rights attorney, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of Just Mercy. Ariel references his conviction that hope is the enemy of injustice.
• Malunga Casquelourd — Congolese cultural leader and teaching artist whose work at San Quentin Prison used traditional storytelling, music, and movement to create dialogue across prison factions.
• Nikki Young — Playwright whose work appears in the Decatur Dinners performance excerpt featured in this episode.
• Jesenia Ingram — Atlanta actor performing the excerpt from Nikki Young's play during the Decatur Dinners segment.
• Brian Goldstone — Journalist and anthropologist whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book There Is No Place for Us examines housing insecurity and the working poor in Atlanta.

Organizations & Initiatives

• Out of Hand Theater — Atlanta-based theater company working at the intersection of art, civic engagement, and social justice thro