Timeline DateĪrena Stage is founded as the first racially integrated theatre in Washington, D.C. In 2021, the company released a three-part commissioned music series called Arena Riffs. The company also produced three films: May 22, 2020, a docudrama that follows D.C.-Maryland-Virginia residents and captures a day in their lives during the pandemic Inside Voices, which features the stories of kids during the pandemic and The 51st State, about D.C. ĭuring the coronavirus pandemic, Arena Stage launched the Artists Marketplace as a way for people to commission or purchase work from the artists who have worked with the company. Including works by Jacqueline Lawton, Eve Ensler, Rajiv Joseph, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Sarah Ruhl, Lawrence Wright, Eduardo Machado, Aaron Posner, John Strand, Craig Lucas, Kenneth Lin, and Nathan Alan Davis. In 2016, Molly Smith announced the Power Plays initiative to commission 25 original plays and musicals over the next 10 years to showcase American history from 1776 to modern day. In 1976, Arena Stage became the first theater outside New York to receive a special Tony Award for theatrical excellence. This made the company the first theater to create audio-described performances. In 1981, Arena developed Audio Description for visually impaired audiences. This became the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship Program. In 1991, Arena raised $4 million for a cultural diversity grant. In the U.S., to promote cultural diversity, Zelda Fichandler included plays from the Soviet Union, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Austria, East and West Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Canada, and Australia in the theater's repertoire. Īrena Stage also became the first American theater company to be invited to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 1980, and then attended the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in 1987. This made them the first regional theater to present U.S. Lee’s Inherit the Wind in the Soviet Union after being invited by the U.S. In 1973, they performed Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. In the latter half of the 20th century, the company traveled abroad. In 1989, the company received a $1 million grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to train minority actors, directors, designers and administrators, and to produce plays from non-white cultures. In 1987, Arena hosted a symposium on nontraditional casting. Part of it was to be used for the training of Black actors. In 1968, the company received a $250,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. When Arena Stage reprised the play in 2000 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Mahershala Ali was cast as the male lead. This made Arena the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway. It's production The Great White Hope, which opened at Arena Stage in 1967, went on to Broadway with its original cast, including James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in the lead roles. Inclusion and diversity focus Īrena was the first theatre in D.C. In 1966, Robert Alexander joined the company and created the Living Stage as a social outreach improvisational theater. He also designed the Arena’s Kreeger Theater, which opened in 1970. In 1960, the company moved into its current complex on Sixth St, which was built for them by Chicago architect Harry Weese. In 1956, the company moved into the gymnasium of the old Heurich Brewery in Foggy Bottom the theater was nicknamed "The Old Vat." The brewery was demolished in 1961 to make way for the approaches to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and the Kennedy Center. Its first home was the Hippodrome Theatre, a former movie house. in 1950 by Zelda and Thomas Fichandler and Edward Mangum. The theatre company was founded in Washington, D.C. History Founding, location, and theaters Its productions have received numerous local and national awards, including the Tony Award for best regional theater and over 600 Helen Hayes Awards. The company now serves an annual audience of more than 300,000. Arena Stage commissions and develops new plays through its Power Plays initiative. It is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. The theater's Artistic Director is Molly Smith and the Executive Producer is Edgar Dobie. It is located at a theater complex called the Mead Center for American Theater. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. Waterfront station (Washington Metro) Metrobus (Washington, D.C.)Īrena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. For the stage type, see Theatre in the round. This article is about the theatre in Washington, D.C.
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