Edgar Dobie News

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie announce the 2019/20 lineup for the company's 70th season. The season reflects Arena Stage's commitment to championing diverse voices. Arena is committed to leading the way in gender equity and racial diversity by reflecting those values both on and off the stage. This season over half of our playwrights and directors are represented as women and people of color. The 70th anniversary also celebrates Arena's vision to produce new work with three world premieres, including the seventh Power Play, a decade-long initiative focused on stories of politics and power from 1776 to present day. As part of Arena's mission to serve artists on a national, regional and local scale, three exciting collaborations will take place with the Dallas Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and American Conservatory Theater. 

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater kicks off the 2019/20 Season with a free Community Day and Props Sale on Saturday, August 24, 2019 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mead Center (1101 Sixth Street, SW). The day will feature an Arena Stage Prop Sale with beautiful pieces from Arena Stage productions up for sale; performances from award nominated tap dancer Leo Manzari (Arena Stage's Sophisticated Ladies, Tappin Thru Life and Hoizer's music video for a?oeAlmost (Sweet Music)a??); and a behind-the-scenes Q&A with our Arena Stage Production Team to discuss some of Arena's most exciting productions!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in association with American University, will pilot an Artistic Director Intensive Program beginning July 21, 2019. Ten new artistic directors of theaters from across the country will participate in this pioneering program. This initiative is designed to support, connect and advance new artistic directors in their demanding work.

Arena Stage is diving into rehearsals for Ann, the tale of Texas Governor Ann Richards. Get a peek inside opening night!

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in association with activist and actress Jjana Valentiner, will hold a public, nonpartisan 11-hour marathon reading of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Report.

Actor and performer Kathleen Turner headlined the Gala, with her one-woman cabaret. Arena Stage is excited to present the Beth Newburger Schwartz Award to Nina Totenberg, in recognition of her ground-breaking reporting in the broadcast world and her continual support of the arts.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater presented the American Voice Award to U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA) on Thursday, May 9, 2019.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in partnership with Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, At-Large Councilmember Robert White, Jr. and the D.C. Department of Employment Services, opens its doors for the 12th semi-annual D.C. Career Fair Wednesday, April 17, 2019 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Mead Center (1101 Sixth St., SW). Throughout the past five years, Arena Stage has partnered with more than 100 participating organizations and served a combined total of nearly 8,000 community members by hosting regular career fairs.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts hosts more than 120 outstanding theater students from colleges and universities across the nation as part of the 50th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), which runs April 16-20, 2019 in multiple locations throughout the Center. The Center also announced the national awardees for the KCACTF. Selected awardees and representatives will be brought to Washington, D.C. for an expense-paid trip to participate in the National Festival. These student artists from across the United States have been recognized for their outstanding work from the eight regional festivals that were held January 8 through February 28, 2019.

Broadway In Boston announced today that individual tickets for the Boston premiere of DEAR EVAN HANSEN will go on sale Sunday, March 24, 2019. Dear Evan Hansen will play the Citizens Bank Opera House July 10 - August 4 as part of the 2018-2019 Lexus Broadway In Boston Season.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia and the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, sent four Arena Stage Voices of Now (VON) devisers/directors to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina for three weeks from January 26-February 17, 2019. The artists worked with three ensembles of young people, two in Croatia and one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and through workshops and rehearsals, three original plays were created and performed by the ensembles. The U.S. Ambassador to Croatia attended one of the performances featuring the Croatia ensemble's piece, and much to the students' delight, they were featured on the evening news.

Dear Evan Hansen comes to Charlotte's Belk Theater March 19-24 as part of the 2018-2019 PNC Broadway Lights. In advance of the start of performances, the production announced today that it will host a digital ticket lottery offering fans the chance to purchase a limited number of $25 tickets available per performance.

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie announce the 2019/20 lineup for the company's 70th season.

Arena Stage presents Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author Ayad Akhtar's (Arena's Disgraced) timely tale Junk. Inspired by the real junk bond giants of the 1980s, Akhtar explores how the riveting, hostile takeover of a family-owned manufacturing company paved the way to expose the rise of greed, power, race and wealth that led to reshaping the rules of Wall Street and the world.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced that it has partnered with GalaPro to provide closed captioning in all three performance spaces. This new service will be available at Arena Stage beginning Friday, March 8 with the production of Aaron Posner's world-premiere JQA, running March 1 - April 14 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie are pleased to recognize Lindsey Brittain Collins as an Emerging Leader at the 2019 Arena Stage Annual Gala. The Gala will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at the Mead Center for American Theater (1101 Sixth Street, SW).

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces three additional commissioned playwrights as a part of Power Plays, an ambitious initiative commissioning and developing 25 new plays and musicals from a diverse mix of writers, composers and lyricists over the course of 10 years. Playwrights Kia Corthron, Idris Goodwin and Octavio Solis join previously commissioned playwrights with projects underway, including Aaron Posner, whose Power Play JQA, an inquisitive and provocative look at America's sixth president, enjoys its world premiere in Arena's Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle March 1 through April 14, 2019.

The first national touring production of the 2017 Best Musical Tony Award-winner Dear Evan Hansen will return to Chicago by popular demand for a limited 12-week engagement July 7 through September 27, 2020, at Broadway In Chicago's James M. Nederlander Theatre (24 W. Randolph). Individual tickets for the Dear Evan Hansen return engagement will go on-sale to the public Tuesday, February 19, 2019, at 10 a.m. Central, and pre-sale tickets will be available starting Monday, February 18 through Broadway In Chicago's eblast and Dear Evan Hansen's social media channels.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater Executive Producer Edgar Dobie and Artistic Director Molly Smith announce Jon Gossett will join the company this month as chief development officer. Gossett most recently held the position of chief advancement officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Producer Stacey Mindich announced today that the North American tour of Dear Evan Hansen, which launched September 25, 2018 in Denver, has recouped its investment at a remarkable pace-after only 12 weeks on tour.