Photo Flash: Arena Stage Hosts Ninth Annual Military Thanksgiving

Every year hundreds of D.C.-area military families must spend the Thanksgiving holiday away from loved ones. In gratitude for their service, Arena Stage invites 200 wounded warriors, service men and women and their families to a complimentary dinner and performance of the musical Disney's Newsies at the Mead Center for American Theater. Since the first Military Thanksgiving in 2011, Arena Stage has served nearly 1,700 military members and their families with the annual event.

The evening will include remarks from Lieutenant General Nadja West (Ret.), 44th Army Surgeon General and former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Command.

"As a theater resident in our Nation's Capital, we experience with every step we take the enduring freedoms our military members and their families make real for us all," shares Executive Producer Edgar Dobie. "So, we look forward each year to sharing a meal and a show with members of our community on whose service we so deeply rely. It is important for us all to recognize the real gifts in our lives and to share them. We do so with immense pleasure every Military Thanksgiving here at Arena Stage."

Arena Stage is working primarily through the USO-Metro to distribute the tickets irrespective of rank. Additional tickets are distributed through the Washington, D.C.-Virginia Medical Center Caregiver Support Program, Luke's Wings and the Southeast Veterans Service Center. It is anticipated that about 200 service men and women and their families will experience this special event.

Military Thanksgiving is generously sponsored by Discovery Communications, Northrop Grumman Corporation, GEICO and The Wawa Foundation.

Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information, contact Shayla Hines at SHines@ArenaStage.org or 202-600-4030, or visit arenastage.org/militarythanksgiving.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie, is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. Arena Stage produces plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit, and presents diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Arena Stage is committed to commissioning and developing new plays and impacts the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement. Now in its eighth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. arenastage.org.