Amy Austin

The 40th Helen Hayes Awards will take place on Monday, May 20, 2024 at The Anthem, on the District Wharf, with a celebratory party to follow.

Tonight, at a celebration honoring outstanding theatre on stages across the Washington area, theatre artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered at the ATLAS Performing Arts Center for Theatre Washington's announcement of nominees for the 40th Helen Hayes Awards.

The recipient of the 2024 Victor Shargai Leadership Award has been announced as Rebecca Medrano, collaborative leader, co-founder, and executive director of GALA Hispanic Theatre, the National Center for Latino Performing Arts.

The Writers Strike is (likely) coming to an end - with a tentative agreement, Hollywood has taken a major step toward getting back to work. In New York, major changes to the leadership landscape are pending as both Carole Rothman and André Bishop announced that they will be departing posts at Second Stage and Lincoln Center Theater, respectively.

Theatre Washington announced the return of Theatre Week, a three-week-long celebration of the launch of the 2023-2024 theatre season in the Washington, DC region. Learn more about the Theatre Week events here!

Theatre Washington has announced that they are relocating their headquarters and office space to Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company at 641 D Street NW, Washington, DC.

GALA Hispanic Theatre will host its annual Noche de Estrellas benefit event honoring three extraordinary leaders at St. Francis Hall on Monday, May 8th at 6:30 pm.

Nominations have been announced for the 37th Helen Hayes Awards, which will be presented on Monday, May 22. Nominees include productions from Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre and more.

The DC Arts Education Alliance (comprised of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts and 16 arts partners) announced the formation of the Arts Institute for Creative Advancement, a year-long education and apprenticeship program in technical theater to launch in January 2023, in which participants will be paid to learn and work.

The Board of Directors and Advancement Committee of Theatre Washington, in partnership with Craig Pascal, retired community banking executive and husband of Victor Shargai, are thrilled to announce the recipients of the inaugural Victor Shargai Leadership Award: Edgar Dobie, collaborative leader and Executive Producer at Arena Stage, and Paige Hernandez, acclaimed multidisciplinary artist.

Theatre Washington, the service organization for Washington, DC-area theatres, and Limelight Insights by Shugoll, a national marketing research company headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, conducted an online survey about whether regional theatre-goers want the current mask and vaccination requirements in theatres to end on April 30, 2022 or subsequent months.

Theatre Washington, the service organization for Washington, DC-area theatres, and Limelight Insights by Shugoll, a national marketing research company headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, conducted an online survey about whether regional theatre-goers want the current mask and vaccination requirements in theatres to end on April 30, 2022. The study is based on 2,128 responses from DC area theatre-goers from March 14-March 17. Despite indoor mask and vaccination mandates terminating in many local jurisdictions, significantly more audience members respond negatively than positively about ending these requirements in theatres. Based on the survey results and in consultation with partner theatres, Theatre Washington has extended the Unified Mask and Vaccination Policy to April 30, 2022, and will be reviewing it further through the launch of the new season in August/September.

Theatre Washington has announced that nominations are open for a new award in honor of beloved DC-area theatre champion Victor Shargai. For more than 50 years, Shargai was an avid supporter of the Washington, DC region's theatre community and its artists.

Theatre Washington, in coordination with their partner theatres, announces an extension and updates to the previously implemented policies requiring vaccination and mask-wearing at theatre venues across the Washington, DC region.

Ford’s Theatre Society announced that audiences and the company of A Christmas Carol raised $22,109.83 for Theatre Washington’s Taking Care Fund during performances of this season’s A Christmas Carol.

Ford’s Theatre Society announced that the company of the 2021 production of A Christmas Carol has selected Theatre Washington’s Taking Care Fund as recipient of this year’s donation drive inspired by the themes of charity in Dickens’s holiday classic.

theatreWashington announces further details for the 36th annual Helen Hayes Awards, which were originally scheduled to take place at The Anthem on May 18, 2020.

Theatre people pre-date the gig economy.  Itinerant performers entertained villages centuries before the first theatre building was constructed.  And Shakespeare's Globe Theatre often had to lay off the whole company because of epidemics of plague.  Now, in the Washington, DC area, ninety theatre companies have had to cease operations because of covid-19.  Many of those who work in them as actors, designers, lighting, sound, and costume staff, directors, and box office personnel do not have benefits such as sick leave and health insurancea?'they just get paid show to show.  Fifty productions had to be cancelled and twenty more, which were about to open, never will.

Tonight, at a celebration honoring theatre excellence on stages across the Washington area, theatre artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered in the National Theatre's Helen Hayes Gallery for theatreWashington's announcement of nominees for the 36th Annual Helen Hayes Awards, which will be presented on Monday, May 18 at an event at the Anthem.

The Washington theatre community remains in mourning over the loss of Victor Shargai, long-time theatreWashington board chair, theater lover, and philanthropist, who passed away peacefully at home on December 24, 2019. For decades, Victor dedicated himself to celebrating theater artists and strengthening the theater institutions in the Washington D.C. region. As a champion and a supporter, he believed fervently in theater's power to transform lives and communities.