ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN? to Open at Arena Stage This Fall
Set designer Andrew Boyce and lighting designer Donald Holder join the creative team for the Kreeger Theater run.
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Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced that Eric Bentley's Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? will join its Fall 2026 lineup, direct from its Off-Broadway run at New York City Center. Using only the original transcripts from the 1940s House Un-American Activities Committee's hearings that targeted the country's leading artists, this political docudrama reveals the defiance, humor, fear, resentment, and self-preservation inside one of the darkest chapters of American cultural history. Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County), who helmed this summer's New York Times Critic's Pick revival, will also direct this remounting in Arena's Kreeger Theater, running October 17 – December 6, 2026. Press night will be held on Thursday, October 22.
“Bringing Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? to DC right now feels especially resonant,” said Shapiro. “In a city where power, fear, loyalty, and the limits of freedom are constantly in conversation, the questions at the heart of this play feel particularly urgent. I look forward to continuing this journey with our extraordinary team of creatives, and hope that Arena audiences meet this story with the same intensity and curiosity that drew me to it in the first place.”
Featuring the testimonies of artists like Arthur Miller, Jerome Robbins, Paul Robeson, Elia Kazan, Lillian Hellman, Abe Burrows, and Lionel Stander, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? follows a group of entertainers as they confront life's toughest choices: protect reputations, preserve careers, or betray peers. Revealing a climate of intimidation and moral conflict that resonates far beyond its time, this electrifying docudrama plunges audiences into an intense deposition of the 1940s House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, where fame offered no protection and political pressure threatened livelihoods.
“This certainly feels like the right time and place for this revival,” said Arena Stage Executive Producer Edgar Dobie. “We are grateful for the meaningful opportunity to engage local artists to give voice to this very Washington, DC story. Special thanks to Jeffery Richards and his partners for assembling such a brilliant team led by the incomparable Anna D. Shapiro.”
Shapiro will be joined by the New York City Center creative team, including set designer Andrew Boyce (Dana H.), costume designer Johanna Pan (Floyd Collins), two-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer Donald Holder (South Pacific), sound designers Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen for Milbo Music (Purpose), projection designer Brittany Bland (CATS: The Jellicle Ball, Arena's Death on the Nile), and hair and wig designer Brittany Hartman (The Thanksgiving Play). NYC Casting is by The Telsey Office and DC Casting is by Raiyon Hunter, CSA. The stage manager is Morgan R. Holbrook and the assistant stage manager is Dayne Sundman.
The cast will be announced later this month.
The addition of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? to the Arena Stage 2026/27 Season will shift the previously announced season schedule:
- The Fruits of Our Labor will run as originally scheduled, beginning September 10 and running through November 1, 2026 in the Fichandler Stage.
- Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? will run October 17 – December 6, 2026 in the Kreeger Theater.
- Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show will run as originally scheduled, December 4 – 23, 2026 in the Fichandler Stage.
- Prima Facie will run January 8 – March 7, 2027 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.
- Purpose will run March 12 – May 2, 2027 in the Fichandler Stage.
More information about the previously announced NIKOLA – A New Musical will be shared at a later date.
An additional production to run in Spring 2027 in the Kreeger Theater will be announced in Fall 2026.
For more information on the Arena Stage 2026/27 Season, visit arenastage.org.
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