Cast Set for ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN? at Arena Stage

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has revealed the company for Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?. Following its Off-Broadway staging at New York City Center, Eric Bentley’s political docudrama will run October 17 – December 6, 2026, in Arena’s Kreeger Theater, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County), who helmed this summer’s New York Times Critic’s Pick revival. Using only the original transcripts from the 1940s House Un-American Activities Committee’s hearings that targeted the country’s leading artists, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? reveals the defiance, humor, fear, resentment, and self-preservation inside one of the darkest chapters of American cultural history. Press night will be held on Thursday, October 22. 

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.

Jason Babinsky (Broadway’s Network) reprises his role from the New York City Center production. He is joined by Edward L. Simon (Arena’s A Wrinkle in Time), Greg Stuhr (Broadway's Good Night, and Good Luck), Stephen Cefalu Jr. (To Kill a Mockingbird National Tour, Arena’s Data), John Leslie Wolfe (Broadway’s Parade, Arena's Mother Courage), Philip Earl Johnson (Angels in America: Millennium Approaches National Tour), Aaron Bliden (Arena’s CrazySexyCool – The TLC Musical), Peter Jacobson (Fox’s House), Rivka Borek (American Conservatory Theater’s Hamlet), Jeff Still (Broadway’s Dog Day Afternoon), and Kevin Mambo (Broadway’s The Color Purple, Arena’s We Are Gathered). Coleman Pedigo (Studio Theatre’s Jonah), Joey Collins (To Kill a Mockingbird National Tour), David Bryan Jackson (Studio Theatre’s People, Places & Things), and Eli El (Arena’s Fremont Ave.) serve as understudies.

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). Zoë Adams serves as associate director. Casting is by Raiyon Hunter, CSA. The stage manager is Morgan R. Holbrook and the assistant stage manager is Dayne Sundman.