Forum Theatre (Washington, D.C.)

Forum Theatre

Company logo
Formation	2003
Type	Theatre group
Location	Washington, D.C.
Artistic director(s)	Michael Dove
Website	http://www.forumtheatredc.org/

Forum Theatre is a non-profit theatre company based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2003, it produces three shows per season and is in residence at the H Street Playhouse. The company focuses on plays that feature storytelling and theatricality. The company also aims to host productions dealing with topics that lend themselves to post-show discussions, which the theatre hosts in the lobby.

Forum Theatre was founded in 2003 by Kelly Bartnik, Michael Dove, Paul Frydrychowski, and Mark Wright. Instead of using a single performance method, Forum would explore storytelling styles and artistic media. The founders had backgrounds in film, dance/movement, music, visual art, and theatre.

The company also aimed to bring new or seldom-performed plays to Washington, using the shows to promote artistic expression and discussion. The company’s first productions were a collection of Samuel Beckett short plays and a movement and video piece called All Things Seen, based on Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit.

The company performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, Warehouse Theater, Church Street Theater, The University of Maryland, The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and Round House in Silver Spring, Maryland before taking up residence at the H Street Playhouse in northeast DC in June 2007. Its production history includes the world premieres of Israeli playwright Ami Dayan’s UpShot and a new translation of The Gas Heart commissioned by the company, along with the DC premieres of Hamletmachine, Václav Havel's The Memorandum, Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, and Don DeLillo's Valparaiso.