The story
History
Founding, location, and theaters
The 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."
In 1960, the company moved into its current complex on Sixth Street, which was designed 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. From 2008 to 2010, the complex was renovated and a third theatre was added, together with a variety of support spaces. The new complex, with the theatres under a glass skin, was named as the Mead Center for American Theater. Its outdoor terrace overlooks the Southwest Waterfront.
Inclusion and diversity focus
Arena was the first theatre in D.C. to be racially integrated. Its production The Great White Hope, which opened at Arena Stage in 1967, was transferred to Broadway with its original cast, including James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in the lead roles. Arena was 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 encouraged by the U.S. State Department to do so. This made them the first regional theater to present U.S. plays in the USSR.
In 1980 Arena Stage was the first American theater company to be invited to the Hong Kong Arts Festival. It 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 audience members. 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.
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Original plays and films
In 2016, artistic director 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. These have included 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 the D.C. statehood movement.
In 2021, the company released a three-part commissioned music series called Arena Riffs as part of its reopening.
Renovation and new construction, 2008–2010
A major renovation of the facility was undertaken from 2008 through 2010. The architect for the project was Bing Thom Architects of Vancouver, 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 under a glass "skin" together with a new theater, the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. 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 also includes a central lobby, restaurant, and the Catwalk Cafe, and such support spaces as rehearsal rooms, classrooms, production shops, and offices. 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 were 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. It 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.
Original works
Camp David by Lawence Wright
Celia and Fidel by Eduardo Machado
Change Agent by Craig Lucas
Dear Evan Hansen
Exclusion by Kenneth Lin
The High Ground by Nathan Alan Davis
JQA by Aaron Posner
Loose Ends by Michael Weller
The Originalist by John Strand
Tintypes, conceived by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle
From Wikipedia’s article on Arena Stage, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4