"Rose worked over the course of five decades as producer and director of theatrical events imbued with an urgent impulse to change the thinking and assumptions of audiences on a range of social issues.In Ossie Davis' "Purlie Victorious" and the musical "Purlie", the issue was racism; In "Shenandoah", the issue was war; in "Sun Flower", the issue was women's rights; and in "My Old Friends", the issue was old age.