Arena Stage Announces $25 Tickets for Remaining 2008/09 Season

Arena Stage offered a round-the-clock sale, The Arena Stage New Deal, which made available a limited number of $25 tickets for the preview performances of each upcoming show. This one-day sale acknowledged the theater's responsibility to make high-quality entertainment accessible to all during the economic downturn. The response to this deal from the D.C. community was tremendous; during the sale, the theater sold 6,661 tickets for revenue (including applicable fees) totaling almost $200,000.

In response to the success of The Arena Stage New Deal, Arena will now offer $25 New Deal Tickets, a block of $25 tickets for each remaining performance during Arena Restaged Part One, available beginning Friday, December 12. This block will be limited to: the last four rows in Crystal City and the upper balcony at the Lincoln Theatre.

The Arena Stage New Deal 24-hour sale more than doubled the previous highest grossing day at Arena, which was about $90,000 in December 2002. During the first two hours of the sale, from midnight to 2 a.m., 1,400 tickets were sold; there was even a line at the box office that included a woman in her sleeping bag. Several preview performances sold out, and the theater created 229 entirely new patron accounts.

During this difficult economic moment, patrons have demonstrated their desire to escape, relax and enjoy a good production. As a nonprofit theater, Arena Stage has an obligation to provide such an opportunity at an affordable price.

Artistic Director Molly Smith remarks, "Arena Stage has been a cultural hub for our community for almost 60 years. We have rejoiced in the plentiful times and have endured the lean ones together. Arena is proud to offer this new price tier to meet the needs of our patrons who want to see quality work, but who may not be able to spend more on a ticket this year."

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith, Washington, D.C.-based Arena Stage has become the largest theater in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Founded in 1950 by Zelda Fichandler, Thomas Fichandler and Edward Mangum, Arena Stage was one of the nation's original resident theaters and has a distinguished record of leadership and innovation in the field. With the opening of the new Mead Center for American Theater in 2010, Arena Stage will be a leading center for the production, development and study of American theater. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 200,000. For more information please visit www.arenastage.org.

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