400,000 People, 17 Productions, Five Radio Dramas, Four Short Films, 20+ Advocates

Ripple Effect Artists, Inc. (REA) addresses injustice and causes social impact through art – primarily by producing masterful plays – presenting them along with talk-back discussions in partnership with educators and advocacy groups. These events, our education, and our game-changing philanthropy cultivate empathy, shift audiences from APATHY to ACTION, and create a RIPPLE EFFECT in the larger community. Ripple Effect Artists is an Actor’s Equity 501(c)3 theatre company.

Ripple Effect Artists: Season Spotlight on Totalitarianism

This year, Ripple Effect Artists turns its attention to one of the defining issues of our time: the rise of totalitarian control.

At the center of our season is an Off-Broadway Equity production of George Orwell's 1984. Professional actors and a distinct directorial vision bring the story to life as an immersive, visceral experience. The production traces, step by step, how total control over a population is built: surveillance, manufactured truth, the erosion of language, and the isolation/manipulation of the individual. Audiences won't just watch the process unfold. They'll feel how gradual and how ordinary each step can seem.

The performances are paired with panel conversations hosted in partnership with the Human Rights Foundation. Together with HRF, we'll invite audiences into talk-back discussions about how tyranny can be confronted around the world, and about the warning signs of pending authoritarianism and dictatorship in the United States. Theatre has always been a rehearsal for how we might respond to the world as it is. This season, we ask what each of us can do.

Why This Season, Why Now: Tyranny by the Numbers

The data below comes from Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2026 report, covering calendar year 2025:

20 consecutive years of decline. Global freedom has been in decline for two decades, and the struggle for global freedom has reached an ominous milestone after 20 consecutive years of deterioration. Freedom House Freedom House
54 countries worsened; only 35 improved. Freedom House found 54 countries experienced deterioration in political rights and civil liberties, while only 35 registered improvements. Freedom House
Just 21% of the world lives in freedom. Only 21 percent of the world's people live in countries rated Free, down from 46 percent two decades ago. Freedom House
Autocracy is growing. Of the 59 countries rated Partly Free in 2005, 19 have dropped to Not Free, while just 9 have improved to Free. Freedom House
Billions affected in a single year. The declines in 2025 affected more than 40 percent of the world's population. Freedom House
The United States is not immune. Freedom House cited worsening congressional gridlock, escalating assertions of unilateral executive authority, rising threats and reprisals for nonviolent speech, and weakened anticorruption safeguards, which brought the US score to its lowest level since the 0-100 scoring began in 2002. Freedom House

What You Can Expect

A visceral, immersive staging of 1984 by professional Equity actors
Panel conversations with the Human Rights Foundation/Other Foundations featuring voices from the global human rights movement
Audience talk-backs on practical ways to resist and prevent authoritarianism at home and abroad

Join us for a season that asks not only "How does tyranny take hold?" but "What will we do about it?"

Your generous support will fund:

-Actor's salaries

-Theatre Rental

-Marketing Materials

-Other artistic personnel stipends

-Hosted talk-back conversations and Non-violent Dialogue conversations (At least 10)

-Support for HRF

Ripple Effect Artist

Our 18th season! Using the power of theatre to Address Totalitarianism

Team Members