This was a year of significant change at Roulette. In October 2025, I stepped into the combined role of Executive and Artistic Director—an opportunity I accepted with enormous respect for Roulette’s singular importance as a home for experimental work, and with a deep sense of purpose and possibility for its future.
FY26 was a year of experimentation, both onstage and off. Artistically, I worked to expand what audiences could encounter on Roulette’s stage while remaining accountable to the artists, histories, and communities that make Roulette what it is today. We made marketing and audience development a greater institutional priority—work you can feel in the space and see reflected in our record-breaking audience growth this past year. We continued public workshops that invited audiences into the ideas and practices that have shaped the avant-garde, and we made these workshops and the performances of our Awarded Artists completely free for Roulette members.
Alongside this growth, we took meaningful steps across the organization to strengthen the experience at Roulette: we worked with our staff, Board, artists, and community to create a new Code of Conduct that articulates how we share space, and we launched a new Hospitality and Audience Services team dedicated to making Roulette more welcoming and connected for everyone.
Through all of this, Roulette’s essential character remains unchanged. It’s a place where artists can experiment freely, audiences can encounter something genuinely unexpected, and adventurous performance becomes part of a living history. I am proud of what we accomplished together this year, encouraged by the ways our community responded, and excited to build on that momentum in the seasons ahead.
Matt Mehlan Executive and Artistic Director
