Arena Stage

Five recent releases for summer reading by and about key women in the theater

Among the recently released theater publications are works by one twice-nominated and two Tony-winning women playwrights, and two books about the woman who founded a major company in DC and headed a...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Hayley Podschun

A triple threat of the stage and screen, Hayley Podschun keeps rewinding the clock on her proverbial “fifteen minutes of fame” with credits that include everything from Broadway (Hello, Dolly;...

The blues in ‘Seven Guitars’ at Arena Stage are exhilarating

The play sings to us about the African American genius for finding a way to make a way out of no way.

‘I have to live in hope’: Tazewell Thompson gets personal

In rehearsal for August Wilson’s ‘Seven Guitars’ at Arena Stage, the renowned director opens up about the future of theater and America.

Arena’s ‘Celia and Fidel’ could not be more timely: Heather Velazquez

The deliciously comic young actress, who aspires to be Castro’s comrade (and stand-in for his late mistress), talks about her role in her cousin’s play.

Meet the dramaturg for ‘Hadestown’

Ken Cerniglia, a Catholic University grad, has been instrumental in developing work at the Kennedy Center and on Broadway.

A powerful and meaningful ‘Celia and Fidel’ at Arena Stage

A new play based on a fight between Cuba’s most influential female revolutionary and its most notorious political leader.

Final inning for ‘Toni Stone’ is a fans’ outing at Nats Park

Views from the free streaming event courtesy of Arena Stage

Hear how youth feel about the pandemic in ‘Waiting Room’ from Arena Stage

In a video they devised, young people show the critical thinking, problem solving, and empathy we need to get us out of the mess we are in.

Thoroughly enjoyable ‘Toni Stone’ gets a hero’s welcome at Arena Stage

You don’t need to be a baseball fan to be inspired by this amazing story.

Why Toni Stone’s story needs to be told: A Q&A with Santoya Fields, who stars as the trailblazer at Arena Stage

The ballplayer who slugged it out against race and gender stereotypes in the 1950s shows what it takes to play the game today.

Hear voices of Generation COVID in ‘Waiting Room’ from Arena

New film highlights stories of more than 100 student artists during the pandemic.

Arena Stage to roar back with mix of bubbly and soul

2021/22 season to feature inspiring dramas, a high-energy musical, contemporary dance, electrifying music, diverse voices.

‘A More Perfect Union’ from Arena is a thrilling musical accomplishment

I love what you stand for, but I hate the way you lie. to save our soul your secrets need to die. I still love you. God, I still love you. Look me in the eye. Tell me where you’ve been. — lyrics from...

Women composers to revel this weekend at WoCo Fest 2021

Cellist Amanda Gookin joined the legions of artists whose lives were upended when the pandemic robbed them and their public of sharing music in the same space. But that all changes on Saturday, June...

An exhilarating ‘Freewheelin’ Insurgents’ by Psalmayene 24 from Arena Stage

Nobody knows how the crisis that we are currently experiencing is going to turn out. The questions What are we to do? and How are we to go on? are at the center of The Freewheelin’ Insurgents, the...

32 actors to perform Alan Sharpe’s ‘Screen/Plays’ on Black Pride Weekend

African-American Collective Theater (ACT) begins its 29th consecutive season with readings of Screen/Plays—12 original short plays by Founding Artistic Director Alan Sharpe. The latest installment of...

Cheryl L. West on her Broadway-bound musical about Sister Rosetta Tharpe

In an exclusive interview, the book writer for ‘Shout Sister Shout!’ shares the joy and bravery of the Godmother of Rock ’n’ Roll.

Shots from the vaccination site at Arena

Arena Stage has partnered with DC Health and MedStar Health to support and provide an accessible and safe location to help steadily vaccinate DC residents. The site will operate Thursdays to Sundays...

A personal relationship to America’s racial reckoning wraps up Arena Riffs

A More Perfect Union—a new concept-album-inspired music piece written and conceived by award-winning composer and lyricist Rona Siddiqui (Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfgan, One Good Day)—will be the...

The Bengsons create new indie-folk musical for Arena Stage

Shaun and Abigail Bengson met in New York City at a party and after talking, decided to start a band together. Their first rehearsal turned into their first date, and three weeks later, they were...

A riveting E. Faye Butler lifts up Black history as Fannie Lou Hamer

Sarasota, Florida’s Asolo Rep continues its 2021 outdoor season with the Rolling World Premiere of Mississippi native Cheryl L. West’s Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Originally...

Ken Ludwig on his parents’ love story and the lost art of letter-writing

When I interviewed Ken Ludwig about his latest play, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, which opened at Arena Stage more than a year ago, I was curious about his parents—the Jack and Louise of the title—and the...

Essential Theatre resurrects a heart-wrencher, ‘The Resurrection of Alice’

“If you like theatrical storytelling—the kind that catches you by the heartstrings, gets you all wrapped up, then doesn’t let loose until the very end—you’re going to love The Resurrection of Alice.”...

Theater will have to be less racist to survive: A Q&A with Soyica Colbert

Although Shakespeare Theatre Company’s acclaimed The Amen Corner had to shut down in March before its run was done, the production proved fortuitous for STC’s future: It brought Director Whitney White...

E. Faye Butler to rock the vote as Fannie Lou Hamer at Arena Stage

Two-time Helen Hayes Award winner E. Faye Butler returns to Arena Stage to take on the iconic role of civil and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in Cheryl L. West’s play Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak...

Roundabout Theatre among dozens nationwide to stream ‘It Can’t Happen Here’ from Berkeley Rep

In 1935, with the ascent of Hitler and Mussolini and the rise of fascism in Europe, Sinclair Lewis (the first writer from the US to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature) published his...

Free ‘Flash Acts’ theater festival to spotlight U.S. and Russian artists

The Forum for Cultural Engagement has announced Flash Acts, a free six-day, bilingual, virtual theater festival October 8 to 13, 2020. This one-of-a-kind performance festival brings together 20...

Arena Stage docudrama makes case for making DC ‘The 51st State’

In our current political and cultural stressful times, how can theater make a difference, not just to those who are in-person patrons but to a wider community in the DMV and into American hinterlands?...

Sheldon Epps Joins Ford’s Theatre Leadership Team

Sheldon Epps will join the Ford’s Theatre leadership team as Senior Artistic Advisor. He steps into the new role as the theater reevaluates its 2020–2021 season amid the national reckoning for racial...

Ignorance of the Black theatrical canon is no excuse, by Courtney Baker-Oliver and Steven A. Butler, Jr.

The authors of the following two op-eds are cofounders of DC’s acclaimed Restoration Stage, Inc., whose focus is “restoring the Black family—one story at a time.” Collaborating as director (Courtney...

Camp Arena Stage—DC’s longest-running daycamp for the arts—goes online

When COVID-19 first struck last winter, most of us in the theater world—audiences as well as those on or off stage—thought the crisis would end in a couple of weeks. No such luck. Theaters, along with...

Arena Stage announces new season to begin in January 2021

In a swift pivot, Arena Stage has recently announced an upcoming season that reflects their commitment to compelling, dynamic work packed with drama, humor, music, and first-class storytellers. The...

Youth respond to COVID-19 in heartfelt ‘Inside Voices’ film from Arena Stage

For school-age children, their world has turned upside down because of COVID-19. Over the past three months, children and youth have lived from a distance in a virtual world, lived with a muffled...

In ‘May 22, 2020’ from Arena Stage, a day in the life of the COVID DMV

“I read the news today, oh boy… / the news was rather sad…” That day was May 22, 2020. In a leap into film docudrama creation, Arena Stage’s Artistic Director Molly Smith chronicles a sad day in the...

A challenge to theaters to reopen now—outdoors

When are the Small Box theater companies going to throw off the straightjacket of conventional space-bound theater and explore alternative venues? Black Lives Matter Plaza was created overnight with a...

Rehearsals in PPE and other big changes to expect when theaters reopen in DC

We will open again. The COVID-19 virus will neither darken nor silence us even with the many scary unknowns before us. We know reopening for DMV theater will happen. The date may be uncertain, but...

Lessons in creative coping during COVID-19: A conversation with Rick Davis, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University

With college and university campuses in the DMV area closed because of COVID-19, distance learning is now the norm. But how do students in the performing and visual arts continue their education and...

Molly Smith: “Our job as artists is to remind our fellow human beings that better days are coming”

“In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.” —Bertolt Brecht (motto to Svendborg Poems) When I saw the blooming cherry blossoms this year, I...

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...

Arena Stage’s ‘Celia and Fidel’ explores the influences on Cuba’s revolutionary leader

Part of Arena Stage’s ongoing Power Plays, the world premiere of Celia and Fidel transports the audience back to a time when Fidel Castro was not just a name in the history books, but a feared...

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...

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s ‘Mother Road’ brings powerful journey to Arena Stage

William Joad is a proud Oklahoma farmer with roots to the land as old and deep as the fields his family has tended for generations. But after decades of dedication, dust and sweat poured into the...

Behind the lines: A talk with Hend Ayoub, the actor whose performance in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ radiates fury, hope, and joy at Arena Stage

“Read the book. But see the play first!” That’s what Hend Ayoub—the actor who plays Mariam, the empowered first wife of A Thousand Splendid Suns—told me about the show, now in its first DC run at...

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ at Arena: women fighting their forever war

You will not this season see a more beautiful, emotionally wrenching portrayal of profound love than in Arena Stage’s production of Ursula Rani Sarma’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Based on Khaled...

American Pops Orchestra cleverly re-imagines ‘The Pied Piper’ at Arena Stage

The weather outside was surely cold and cranky. But the outside world could be quickly forgotten as the American Pops Orchestra (APO), led by Maestro Luke Frazier, gently took children and adults by...

Ken Ludwig on ‘Dear Jack, Dear Louise,’ a long-awaited stage celebration of his parents’ long-distance romance

There’s a lovely new play at Arena Stage, but you’ll have to rush if you want to see it. That’s because the play—Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise—will be off and running before the year ends,...

Dark Horse Theatre Company, theatreWashington’s newest member, kicks off 2020 with ‘The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later’

Dark Horse Theatre Company is the newest member of theatreWashington. As readers of DCMTA are aware, theatreWashington is the organization dedicated to supporting and representing the Washington, DC...

Arena Stage premiere of Ken Ludwig’s ‘Dear Jack, Dear Louise’ reminds audiences of the incredible power of letter writing and human connection

Separated by thousands of miles and yet connected through hundreds of letters, Dear Jack, Dear Louise by Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Lend Me a...

Disney’s ‘Newsies’ at Arena Stage is the good news DC needs right now

From the moment you enter Arena Stage’s Fichandler Stage, an intimate theater-in-the-round where everyone has a seat close to the action, you’ll be transported to turn-of-the-19th-century New York,...