Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's Community Engagement department has been selected to participate in a pilot program with the United States Department of State to set up theater education workshops in cities across India this fall. These workshops are based on theVoices of Now program, a drama program created 10 years ago at Arena Stage that offers young artists the unique opportunity to devise and perform a piece of theater based on their own writing. Four members of Arena Stage's Community Engagement department will leave October 8 for a two-and-a-half-week journey to four cities in India.
Iconic stage and screen actress Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater to star in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, as the feisty, unforgettable political journalist. Written by twin-sister journalists Margaret Engel and Allison Engel and directed by David Esbjornson (Broadway's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? and Driving Miss Daisy), the D.C. premiere kicks off Arena Stage's 2012/13 season playing August 23 through October 28, 2012 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.
Coinciding with AIDS 2012, the biennial International AIDS Conference in D.C. July 22-27, 2012, Arena Stage hosted a special benefit performance of The Normal Heart along with the Washington AIDS Partnership Monday, July 23 at the Mead Center for American Theater. View photos below!
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announce the inaugural round of recipients for the Leadership U[niversity] program. Six early-career theatre leaders will receive One-on-One grants for professional development via mentorships at TCG Member Theatres. Eight mid-career and veteran theatre professionals at TCG Member Theatres will receive Continuing Ed grants for learning opportunities to advance their leadership skills. The overall intent of this program is to strengthen the field by developing the individuals who are the core and the future of theatre.
13P, the innovative collective of 13 playwrights, is about to culminate the mission it set forth upon its founding in 2003: to produce one play by each of its members. Pulitzer Finalist, TONY Award nominee and MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient Sarah Ruhl (P#13) is creating a new, chamber version of her Melancholy Play (2001) with the composer Todd Almond and Davis McCallum, who directed a version of the work in 2002.
Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the company's professional training school, has announced its Fall 2012 schedule of classes now open for enrollment. ESPA will offer new classes including Comedy Writing, Advanced Libretto and Lyric Writing and Dialects 2: Russian. ESPA will also be offering two new workshops: Writing for TV: Making the Transition from Stage to Screen and The Pilot. Additionally, Tanya Barfield, whose show The Call is part of Primary Stages mainstage 2012-2013 season, will be teaching a special workshop, Finding Your First Draft.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's Artistic Director Molly Smith has announced that this July 2012 D.C.-area arts manager and artist David Snider will become the company's Director of Artistic Programming. Snider will be leaving Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT), where he has served since 2005 as producing artistic director and CEO, to bring his multi-faceted, award-winning talents to the artistic team of Arena Stage.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces that the documentation and dissemination activities of the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) will be relocated to Emerson College's Office of the Arts beginning July 1, 2012 in order to provide the research and academic setting these programs now need for their continued growth.
Mixed Blood Theatre announced today that its 2012-13 season will open October 5 with the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL, which will also be part of the second Center of the Margins festival. The triple-feature mini-fest will be followed in February 2013 with the culture clash comedy-of-bad-manners ELEMENO PEA and a bilingual world premiere based on Julia Alvarez' bestselling novel IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES to be staged in April 2013.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's Artistic Director Molly Smith and Executive Director Edgar Dobie announce thatnationally renowned arts marketer Chad Bauman will return to Arena Stage in July 2012 in the new role of Associate Executive Director. Bauman was most recently Director of Marketing and Membership for The Smithsonian Associates, and before that he led the communication and audience services efforts for Arena Stage for nearly five seasons. Khady Kamara, who was named Interim Director of Communications after Bauman's departure, has recently been appointedSenior Director of Marketing and Communications.
SPACE on Ryder Farm, a not-for-profit artist workshop center announces its 2nd season. Housed on an operating organic farm in picturesque Brewster, NY, SPACE will host over 100 artists as they develop 40 projects.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater produces the 2011 Tony Award-winning production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, directed by George C. Wolfe. Wolfe, who directed the show's sold-out Broadway engagement last season, mounts the professional D.C.-area premiere of this production, which features returning Broadway cast members Patrick Breen and Luke MacFarlane, among others. Presented by special arrangement with Daryl Roth, The Normal Heart runs tonight, June 8-July 29, 2012 in the Kreeger Theater.
13P, the innovative collective of 13 playwrights, is about to culminate the mission it set forth upon its founding in 2003: to produce one play by each of its members. Pulitzer Finalist, TONY Award nominee and MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient Sarah Ruhl (P#13) is creating a new, chamber version of her Melancholy Play (2001) with the composer Todd Almond and Davis McCallum, who directed a version of the work in 2002.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's production of Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, helmed by Artistic Director Molly Smith, stars Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee for Broadway's Finian's Rainbow) as Marian the librarian, joined by Burke Moses (original Gaston in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Harold Hill. The Music Man runs through July 22, 2012 in the Fichandler Stage.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater's production of Meredith Wilson's The Music Man, helmed by Artistic Director Molly Smith, stars Kate Baldwin (Tony Award nominee for Broadway's Finian's Rainbow) as Marian the librarian, joined by Burke Moses (original Gaston in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast) as Harold Hill. The Music Man runs May 11-July 22, 2012 in the Fichandler Stage.
