Arena Stage

Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is located at a theater complex called the Mead Center for American Theater. The theater's Artistic Director is Molly Smith and the Executive Producer is Edgar Dobie. It is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Arena Stage commissions and develops new plays through its Power Plays initiative. The company now serves an annual audience of more than 300,000. Its productions have received numerous local and national awards, including the Tony Award for best regional theater and over 600 Helen Hayes Awards.

History

Founding, location, and theaters

The theatre company was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1950 by Zelda and Thomas Fichandler and Edward Mangum. Its first home was the Hippodrome Theatre, a former movie house. 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.

In 1960, the company moved into its current complex on Sixth St, which was built for them by Chicago architect Harry Weese. He also designed the Arena’s Kreeger Theater, which opened in 1970. In 1966, Robert Alexander joined the company and created the Living Stage as a social outreach improvisational theater.

Inclusion and diversity focus

Arena was the first theatre in D.C. to be racially integrated. 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. This made Arena the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway. When Arena Stage reprised the play in 2000 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Mahershala Ali was cast as the male lead. It was his first professional role.

In 1968, the company received a $250,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. Part of it was to be used for the training of Black actors. In 1987, Arena hosted a symposium on nontraditional casting. 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 the latter half of the 20th century, the company traveled abroad. In 1973, they performed Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind in the Soviet Union after being invited by the U.S. State Department to do so. This made them the first regional theater to present U.S. plays in the former USSR.

Arena 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. 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. In 1991, Arena raised $4 million for a cultural diversity grant. This became the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship Program.

In 1981, Arena developed Audio Description for visually impaired audiences. This made the company the first theater to create audio-described performances.

In 1976, Arena Stage became the first theater outside New York to receive a special Tony Award for theatrical excellence.

Original plays and films

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. 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.

During 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. 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. statehood.

In 2021, the company released a three-part commissioned music series called Arena Riffs.

Timeline

Renovation 2008–2010

A major renovation of the facility was undertaken from 2008 through 2010. The architect for the project was Bing Thom Architects, British Columbia, Canada who contracted Fast + Epp consulting engineers to design the main columns for the building. During the renovation, Arena Stage temporarily moved to the Crystal Forum and the Lincoln Theatre.

The Arena’s existing theaters, the Fichandler Stage and the Kreeger Theater, were enclosed along with a new theater, the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle, under a glass “skin”. The entire $135 million complex was renamed "Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater" in honor of supporters Gilbert and Jaylee Mead. The new building includes a central lobby, restaurant, rehearsal rooms, classrooms, production shops, offices, and the Catwalk Cafe. The restaurant, Richard's Place, is closed for the 2021-2022 season. For the first time in the company's history, all staff and operations joined under one unifying roof. The three-stage theater complex is now the second-largest performing arts center in Washington, DC, after the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and is the largest regional theater in D.C. Arena Stage re-opened in October 2010 with “Oklahoma!”

The capacity of its three theaters follows:

*The Fichandler Stage, a theater in the round, seating 680.
*The Kreeger Theater, a modified thrust stage theater, seating 510.
*The Kogod Cradle, a 202-seat space dedicated to new American productions.

Artistic Directors

One of the founders, Zelda Fichandler, was the company's artistic director from its founding through the 1990/91 season. Douglas C. Wager succeeded her for the 1991/92 through 1997/98 seasons. The current artistic director, Molly Smith, assumed those duties beginning with the 1998/99 season.Paller, Rebecc
"From Alaska to DC With Arena Stage's New Director, Molly D. Smith"
''Playbill: Arena Stage'', February 5, 1998 In June 2022, she announced she would retire and leave Arena Stage in July 2023.

Recent production history

2017–2018 season

* ''The Originalist'', by John Strand, directed by Molly Smith. July 7–30, 2017.
*''Native Gardens'', by Karen Zacarías, directed by Blake Robison, a co-production with Guthrie Theater. September 15 – October 22, 2017.
*''The Price'', by Arthur Miller, directed by Seema Sueko. October 6 – November 5, 2017.
*''The Pajama Game'', book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell, music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, directed by Alan Paul. October 27 – December 24, 2017.
*''Nina Simone: Four Women'', by Christina Ham, directed by Timothy Douglas. November 10 – December 24, 2017.
*''Sovereignty'', by Mary Kathryn Nagle, directed by Molly Smith. January 12 – February 18, 2018.
*''The Great Society'', by Robert Schenkkan, directed by Kyle Donnelly. February 2 – March 11, 2018.
*''Hold These Truths'', by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. February 23 – April 8, 2018.
*''Two Trains Running'', by August Wilson, directed by Juliette Carrillo, a co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre

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