The District has been called many things: Divided City, Dank City, Diamond City. John Muller, 23, calls it DreamCity.

Muller, who wakes up early and goes to bed late, spent most of his time at GW working with the city and starting his own non-profit. At first, he said he was frustrated that no one would listen to how he planned to confront the socio-economic hardships of the District, but then he started DreamCity Theater Group, which focuses on civic engagement. It became a platform for him to speak to the world and usher in new artists. DreamCity became a unifying voice for the community. It was a way to shake things up.

“There are no rebels with a purpose anymore,” Muller said. “I’m a rebel, but not in the way you think. I mean a rebel that’s organized, that meets with the city council and accomplishes something through hard work.”

DreamCity produces politically charged plays that Muller writes from his experiences “beating his feet out in the streets” of Washington. His most famous production is “The 70,” a play written with his friend Justin McNeil about the 70 bus through the eyes of “Mr. Wonderful,” a driver on the last day of his route. “The 70” was performed at last year’s Hip Hop Theatre Festival and at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

“In the audience there were the blackest black people and the whitest white people, the richest rich and the poorest poor,” Muller said. “You don’t see that in theater.”

Muller is working on a new play called “Southside,” about a young man who was shot in a D.C. high school in 2004, but it is told from the perspective of two mothers preaching non-violence. He’s also working on “Mayor for Life,” a play about Marion Berry told from the perspective of a homeless man. Muller uses his life experience and puts it on paper. After working at a CVS on Georgia Avenue, where he said customers would try to swap dope for candy, he wrote “DreamCity Avenue.” After working for a private investigator, he wrote “Big City Spy Guy.” For Muller, DreamCity is a break from cultural imperialism. It is symbolic of the clash between the old guard and new generation.

Muller, who also started a group called GW Mentors that pairs GW students with students from the Ward 7 higher achievement program, has big plans for DreamCity. He wants to get grants to buy his own theater space. He wants to win a MacArthur Fellowship and maybe one day a Pulitzer or the Nobel Prize.

“This is not just a pipe dream,” he said,” I refuse to lose.”