Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.)
Theatre Logo
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| Formation | 1950 |
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| Type | Theatre group |
| Purpose | American Plays & Playwrights |
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Artistic director(s)
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Molly Smith |
| Website | arenastage |
Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. It was a pioneer in 1950 of the Regional Theater Movement.
It is located at a theatre complex called the Mead Center for American Theater since its opening in 2010 after extensive renovation; this included construction of a third small theater in a complex with two stages: one a theatre in the round and the other a proscenium style. The Artistic Director is Molly Smith and the Executive Director is Edgar Dobie. It is the largest company in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights.
It commissions and develops new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute. Established in 1950, 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.
The theatre company was founded in Washington, DC in 1950. 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 Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and the Kennedy Center.
In 1960, the company moved into its current building complex, which was built for them. The theater company's home is near the Washington, D.C. waterfront on the Potomac River, at 1101 Sixth Street SW.
One of the founders, Zelda Fichandler, was its 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.
Arena Stage was one of the first not-for-profit theaters in the United States and was a pioneer of the Regional Theater Movement. Arena was the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway; its 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. In 1973, it was the first regional theater invited by the U.S. State Department to tour behind the Iron Curtain. In 1976, Arena Stage became the second theater outside New York to receive a special Tony Award for theatrical excellence. (The first went to Robert Porterfield of the Barter Theatre in 1948.)
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