Molly Smith directs her 30th production as Artistic Director of Arena Stage with a gritty and relevant take on the Tony Award-winning musical OLIVER!, blending the chaotic worlds of 19th-century Victorian London with 2015 London. Featuring a remarkable score including 'You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'Where is Love?' and 'Food, Glorious Food,' OLIVER! runs October 30, 2015-January 3, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the company in rehearsal below!
The world premiere of Karen Zacarias' DESTINY OF DESIRE runs now through October 18, 2015 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!
Artists Repertory Theatre names ambitious new play development program Table|Room|Stage (T|R|S). This wide-ranging program is led by Director of New Play Development & Dramaturgy Luan Schooler. Artists Rep welcomes playwright Yussef El Guindi to develop his play The Talented Ones as the first project of this notable program.
Fresh off its world-premiere run in Minneapolis, where Star Tribune declared "Akeelah and the Bee triumphs," Children's Theatre Company's new production about an 11-year-old spelling prodigy comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The show is adapted for the stage by veteran playwright Cheryl L. West (Arena's Pullman Porter Blues, Jar the Floor), who partners with celebrated director Charles Randolph-Wright (director of Broadway's Motown and an inaugural resident playwright with Arena Stage, where he premiered his play Love in Afghanistan). Akeelah and the Bee runs November 13-December 27, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater.
The energy and passion emanating from playwright Karen Zacarías is evident immediately upon meeting, and bodes well for a conversation about a genre of storytelling known for its intensity. Zacarías' new play, DESTINY OF DESIRE, having its world premiere at Arena Stage this month, is inspired by, and crafted in the style of a telenovela, a Latin American style of televised series, and one of the first things I wanted Karen to do as we began our talk, was clarify just what was meant by the term “telenovela,” as a storytelling genre.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in partnership with the U.S. Embassies in Zagreb, Croatia and Ljubljana, Slovenia, will send three Arena Stage Voices of Now artists to Zagreb, September 12-18, 2015. The U.S. Embassies will invite 25 college-age youth from vulnerable communities across the region for a seven-day workshop, culminating in an original play performed at the Tresnja Theater in Zagreb.
Arena Stage Executive Producer Edgar Dobie together with Martha's Table President & CEO Patty Stonesifer announce Martha's Table Feeds The Mind-an innovative collaboration to bring the love of language and joy of reading to District families facing economic challenges through a cross-organization book drive. By engaging its patrons throughout the 2015/16 season, Arena Stage seeks to collect at least 2,400 books to build home libraries for about 200 children served through Martha's Table's Healthy Start program.
'Artaud Artaud' is a 'cruel not-masterpiece in one act' written by Matthew Minnicino, directed by Jake Beckhard and perfomed by Artilliers performing company. The play is a comitragic carnival that centers around the godfather of the avant-garde theater, Antonin Artaud. It is a merciless parody of the sensibilities of Artaud's manifesto 'Theatre of Cruelty' and a sympathetic, semi-obsessive portrait of its greatest proponent and his somewhat dual nature. It is a faithful biopic written into a biting satire, yet is at its heart an homage to the messiness of creativity. 'Artaud Artaud' will have its world premiere September 1-15 presented by Theater for the New City's 2015 Dream Up Festival.
Molly Smith directs her 30th production as Artistic Director of Arena Stage with a gritty and relevant take on the Tony Award-winning musical Oliver!, blending the chaotic worlds of 19th-century Victorian London with 2015 London. Smith's new in-the-round staging infuses a modern edge to the classic musical about an innocent orphan thrown into the dark world of double-dealing thieves and conmen, highlighting the disparity between classes and dangerous life on London's streets today. Featuring a remarkable score including 'You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'Where is Love?' and 'Food, Glorious Food,' Oliver! runs October 30, 2015-January 3, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.
Tony Award-winning playwright Lisa Kron will be a featured guest and participant at the launch party of the Women's Voices Theater Festival on September 8 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The invitation-only event kicks off the beginning of the Festival, an unprecedented collaboration among professional theater companies that includes the presentation of more than 50 world-premiere productions of work by female playwrights, taking place this September and October in the nation's capital region. The launch party features a creative conversation between Kron and National Public Radio's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg focused on gender parity in the arts in the Museum's Performance Hall, followed by a celebratory party and toast to officially declare the start of the Festival.
The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a Benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa on August 24 at 8:00 p.m. at Arena Stage at the Mead Center of American Theater directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT and proceeds will benefit Everytown for Gun Safety and the Newtown Action Alliance.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in partnership with the U.S. Embassies in Zagreb, Croatia and Ljubljana, Slovenia, will send three Arena Stage Voices of Now artists to Zagreb, September 12-18, 2015. The U.S. Embassies will invite 25 college-age youth from vulnerable communities across the region for a seven-day workshop, culminating in an original play performed at the Tresnja Theater in Zagreb.
The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a Benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa on August 24 at 8:00 p.m. at Arena Stage at the Mead Center of American Theater directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT and proceeds will benefit Everytown for Gun Safety and the Newtown Action Alliance.
Cape Playhouse Producer, Mark Cuddy, announced the entire 2016 season repertory to a hundred donors at a Celebration Party on Sunday night. It is the first time in its history that the full slate has been revealed during the previous season.
The March on Washington for Gun Control will present a Benefit reading of a Newtown documentary theater piece 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa on August 24 at 8:00 p.m. at Arena Stage at the Mead Center of American Theater directed by Molly Smith. This is a stirring new play that explores the power of community in the face of the tragedy in Newtown, CT.
'Artaud Artaud' is a 'cruel not-masterpiece in one act' written by Matthew Minnicino, directed by Jake Beckhard and perfomed by Artilliers performing company. The play is a comitragic carnival that centers around the godfather of the avant-garde theater, Antonin Artaud. It is a merciless parody of the sensibilities of Artaud's manifesto 'Theatre of Cruelty' and a sympathetic, semi-obsessive portrait of its greatest proponent and his somewhat dual nature. It is a faithful biopic written into a biting satire, yet is at its heart an homage to the messiness of creativity. 'Artaud Artaud' will have its world premiere September 1-15 presented by Theater for the New City's 2015 Dream Up Festival.
The world premiere of Karen Zacarias' DESTINY OF DESIRE runs September 11-October 18, 2015 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The company just kicked off rehearsals, and BroadwayWorld has photos from their meet-and-greet below!
"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel-the world-premiere drama Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage.
