News Desk

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces virtual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival

Now in its 61st year, the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, announces the festival will be presented for the first time all-digital. From June 5 to...

LA TI DO revises LA TI DOnline launch to support Black Lives Matter

LA TI DO Productions (LTD) has delayed its launch of LA TI DOnline to create space for the communities its connected to in support of focusing on Black Lives Matter protests resulting from the deaths...

ARTSFAIRFAX announces $100,000 emergency COVID-19 grants program

ARTSFAIRFAX today announced $100,000 in available funding through the newly created Emergency Relief and Recovery Grant Program. Funding will provide critical support to Fairfax County and the Cities...

Studio Theatre welcomes ten new commissioned artists

Building on over 40 years of producing powerful contemporary theater, Studio Theatre is embarking on the largest round of commissioning in its history. They are awarding grants to ten...

Applications now open for $500 microgrants to emerging writers and composers

A new arts program—Emergent Seed—is offering $500 microgrants and the opportunity for emerging writers and composers in the DC Metro area to have their work broadcast in virtual events. Committed to...

Signature Theatre postpones ‘Mamma Mia!’ at The Anthem until 2021

Mamma Mia! at The Anthem DC will not run June 25 – July 5, 2020 as previously scheduled. Signature Theatre has worked with our sponsors Amazon and Max Productions and our partners at The Anthem and...

Young Artists of America at Strathmore announces virtual summer camp program

Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) is thrilled to announce Virtual Summer Performing Arts Intensives, an online version of their award-winning summer musical theater program. While COVID-19...

DMV-area organizations continue to cancel and postpone events due to COVID-19 pandemic

After a month of cancelations, DMV area organizations continue to postpone or cancel shows and events, as well as make changes for their 2020-2021 season. The following list reflects those...

Major-media reviewers voice worries about returning to the theater

Twice a month, Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal; Elisabeth Vincentelli, contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker; and Peter Marks of The Washington Post get together on “3 on the...

Faction of Fools Theatre Company announces new Co-Directors

At a time when theater companies around the country must push back production schedules, their missions are amplified to plan future productions that will uplift, transform, and heal. At Faction of...

Spooky Action shifts new play readings to YouTube

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Spooky Action Theater’s New Works in Action play-reading series has been shifted to a virtual meeting space on the company’s YouTube channel. “We are excited to explore...

Adventure Theatre honors API Heritage Month with streaming special events

Though the sea of online content is deep at the moment, that’s not stopping Adventure Theatre MTC. They are diving right in with a full lineup of API Heritage Month storytimes, interviews, and digital...

When shows go on again, audiences across America will be slow to show up, says new survey.

Shugoll Research, a national marketing research company in Bethesda, Maryland, is releasing a Phase III study of theatergoers and their intent to return to the theater when it reopens after the...

Theater artists to envision the future in Saturday chats online from Olney

In a time when connection is more important than ever, Olney Theatre Center is revamping its Streaming Saturdays, a live online discussion series featuring the perspectives of a wide range of theater...

Brave Spirits Theatre kicks off festival of playreadings from the early English stage

Brave Spirits Theatre announces a virtual summer staged reading festival celebrating the history plays of the English early modern stage. A supplement to BST’s two-year Shakespeare’s Histories...

Pandemic Theatre launches ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ as 5-part web series

Amongst the chaos of COVID-19, another brand-new theater company has sprung up in the DC area. Pandemic Theatre, founded by local actor and theater maker Acacia Danielson, is turning to digital...

Many theatergoers in no hurry to go back to Broadway, new survey finds

Shugoll Research, a national marketing research company in Bethesda, Maryland, is releasing a new study of theatergoers and their intent to return to the theater when it reopens after the coronavirus...

IN Series produces first ever fully digital opera performance season

As performing arts organizations worldwide struggle to schedule live performance seasons in the midst of a global pandemic, DC’s IN Series leads the charge onto the digital stage by programming an...

Mosaic Theater Company promises provocative 2020–2021 season

In the face of global crisis and economic uncertainty, Mosaic Theater Company of DC draws inspiration for its new season from a nucleus of towering yet under-appreciated figures in history. These...

Local playwrights write short scripts you can download for free

In the wake of COVID-19 theater closures, DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre, The Public Theater of NYC, and The Repertory Theatre of St....

Round House Theatre premieres ‘Homebound’ web series

Round House Theatre is making streaming news with their project Homebound, a new web series bringing together DC-area playwrights, actors, and designers to explore life under stay-at-home orders in...

Quotidian Theatre Company to close, a casualty of COVID-19

Those of us in the arts are all getting used to a new normal. Unfortunately, a return to any kind of normal will not be possible for some organizations. And, sadly, it turns out that Quotidian Theatre...

Shakespeare Theatre Company hosts ‘Twelfth Night’ viewing party

Shakespeare Theatre Company invites audiences to celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday by attending a viewing party of the National Theatre of London’s 2017 production of Twelfth Night on Thursday,...

Mosaic Theater welcomes Psalmayene 24 as playwright-in-residence

Mosaic Theater Company and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have announced the illustrious recipient of their National Playwright Residency Program Grant—Veteran DC playwright, director, and Helen...

World’s largest celebration of Shakespeare to mark the Bard’s birthday

The Folger Shakespeare Library is partnering with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for the world’s largest celebration of Shakespeare—inviting audiences all over the...

When theaters reopen, will DMV audiences return? Survey says it’s iffy.

What follows is sobering news about the challenges ahead for the DMV theater community. We at DC Theater Arts share this information in a spirit of solidarity and with determination to do all we can...

Round House Theatre announces full 2020–2021 season

Round House Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Rilette and Managing Director Ed Zakreski recently announced the six shows that will constitute Round House Theatre’s 43rd season. All shows will be...

Arts Barn previews compelling 2020–2021 season

Arts On The Green, the organization that provides indispensable arts programming at a collection of venues on the beautiful Gaithersburg campus, has recently offered audiences a sneak peek at the...

1st Stage announces dynamic 2020–2021 season

1st Stage, a vibrant professional company in Tysons, Virginia, recently announced their dynamic 2020-2021 season. This 13-year-old organization has grown from a grassroots collective of local artists...

Full schedule of Quarantine Fest live play readings

Quarantine Fest—an all-day marathon of live readings of flash-created 10-minute plays—livestreams Sunday, April 19, 2020, with 26 new plays from Adventure Theatre MTC and another 26 new plays from...

Olney Theatre Center announces ambitious 2020–2021 season

During a recent live-streamed event, Olney Theatre Center Artistic Director Jason Loewith unveiled a lineup of 17 plays, concerts, and presentations coming in 2020–2021 as part of the company’s 83rd...

Flying V announces new full-time managing director

In the midst of these unprecedented and uncertain times, Flying V has some good news: the company has hired Katherine Offutt as its new full-time managing director. “We genuinely cannot express how...

The Kennedy Center and NSO reach new agreement in the face of COVID-19

After several days of collaborative discussions, Kennedy Center leadership and the musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) have reached a new agreement, a significant step in stabilizing...

Pipeline Playwrights to stream free plays in progress

Pipeline Playwrights, a Northern Virginia–based collective of women playwrights, presents its first set of online offerings, Playwrights at Work! starting on April 20, 2020. This brand new non-profit...

Contemporary American Theater Festival rescheduled to July 2021

For the past thirty years, the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, has produced and developed new plays in rotating repertory. DC Theater...

Signature Theatre’s ‘Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes’ now available for streaming

Beginning Monday, March 30, 2020, Signature Theatre patrons will have the ability to watch the world premiere production of Easy Women Smoking Loose Cigarettes by DC playwright Dani Stoller from their...

Arena Stage temporarily furloughs a majority of its staff

Arena Stage announced on Saturday, March 28th that it will temporarily furlough the majority of its staff starting on April 13th. 88 employees will be furloughed at that time. Furloughed employees...

Olney Theatre Center makes ‘The Amateurs’ available online for one week, offers other online content

Olney Theatre Center’s production of The Amateurs by Jordan Harrison and directed by Jason King Jones will be available to stream online beginning Saturday, March 28 at noon through the end of Sunday,...

COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund established for Washington theater community

As the world reels from the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Washington theater community— both institutions and individuals — alongside other entertainment and freelance industries, face financial...

Contemporary American Theater Festival hosts season announcement online

Shepherdstown, WV: For the past decade, the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University has hosted a Shepherdstown Sneak Peek. Originally scheduled to be held at the Marinoff Theater...

Solas Nua celebrates 15th anniversary season with ‘Cyber Craic’

Washington might be stuck at home this St. Patrick’s Day but that’s not stopping Solas Nua from celebrating the best of Irish culture. Over the next two weeks, the DC Irish arts group will be posting...

Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence Mo Willems to host ‘Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems’

(WASHINGTON)— The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ first-ever Education Artist-in-Residence, Emmy Award®–winning writer and New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Mo...

1st Stage announces thirteenth season

1st Stage Tysons has announced its thirteenth season, opening in September 2020. September 10 – October 11, 2020 Mlima’s Tale by Lynn Nottage directed by José Carrasquillo Pulitzer Prize Winner and...

Multidisciplinary arts platform Indicoe relaunches as Alveo Creative

Online arts platform Indicoe recently rebranded and relaunched itself under the name Alveo Creative. As Alveo Creative, the company will continue to promote collaboration and support for artists, but...

New theater company in Takoma Park announces inaugural season and open auditions

There’s a new theater in town. Encore Theater Company, a new nonprofit theater based in the Takoma Park community, has announced its inaugural season. The 2020/21 season will feature two intimate,...

Arena Stage announces 2020-21 season

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie have announced the theater’s ten-show 2020/21 Season. This season, more than half of the playwrights and directors are...

Monumental Theatre Company Presents Regional Premiere of ‘Head Over Heels’

Head Over Heels, a jukebox musical comedy featuring music by The Go-Go’s, will launch its first D.C. metro area production opening Monumental Theater Company’s 2020 season. With a book by James...

All the world’s on stage as Shakespeare Theatre Company announces 35th anniversary season

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Simon Godwin announced the Company’s 2020/21 Season to a gathering of dedicated theatergoers at the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh on...

2020 Helen Hayes nominations are announced

At a February 3, 2020 celebration honoring theatre excellence on stages across the Washington area, theatre artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered in the National Theatre’s...

Washington Theatre to honor Victor Shargai with a region-wide dedication on February 14

The following news was released today by theatreWashington: The Washington theater community remains in mourning over the loss of Victor Shargai, long-time theatreWashington board chair, theater...