Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater

A Wrinkle in Time

Jun 12 – Jul 20, 2025

A world-premiere musical of the classic young adult novelMeg Murry's father was experimenting with time travel and the fifth dimension when he mysteriously disappeared. Now, Meg, her...

We Are Gathered

May 16 – Jun 15, 2025

A new play about queer love and forest magic from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of MoonlightWilson and Free met in a dark park searching for fun not expecting to...

Fake It Until You Make It

Apr 3 – May 4, 2025

In Larissa FastHorse's uproarious comedy, a collision of friends and foes within the non-profit sector sets the stage for a whirlwind of competition, chaos, and...

The Age of Innocence

Feb 28 – Mar 30, 2025

Against the lavish backdrop of 1870s New York, where hypocrisy thrives and hidden passions simmer, Karen Zacarías brings Edith Wharton's timeless masterpiece, The Age of Innocence,...

The Bedwetter - A Musical

Feb 4 – Mar 16, 2025

COMEDY LEGENDS AREN’T BORN. THEY’RE MADE…IN MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Death on the Nile

Nov 30 – Dec 29, 2024

In Ken Ludwig's thrilling adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot becomes entangled in a web of deceit and desire aboard a cruise...

Data

Oct 31 – Dec 15, 2024

Data is Matthew Libby's intriguingly suspenseful and relevant new play that takes you behind the locked doors of Silicon Valley. Its protagonist is Maneesh, a brilliant...

The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence

Jun 6 – Jul 14, 2024

Using its hallmark style of percussive dance-theater, Step Afrika!’s The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence tells the story of one of the largest movements of people in United...

Unknown Soldier

Mar 29 – May 5, 2024

Cleaning out her grandmother’s home, Ellen Rabinowitz discovers the photograph of an anonymous soldier tucked away in a box of keepsakes. And so begins Unknown Soldier, a...

Tempestuous Elements

Feb 16 – Mar 17, 2024

Born into slavery in North Carolina, Anna Julia Cooper was a visionary Black feminist and educator in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and only the fourth...

Mindplay

Jan 19 – Mar 3, 2024

Drama Desk Award–nominated theatermaker and mentalist Vinny DePonto guides us on an entirely new theatrical event in which your thoughts play a leading role. A...

Swept Away

Nov 25 – Jan 14, 2024

When a violent storm sinks their whaling ship off the coast of New Bedford, Mass., the four survivors face a reckoning: how far will they...

Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show

Dec 8 – Dec 17, 2023

The world’s first holiday show incorporating the African American tradition of stepping, Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is a feast for the eyes and ears. You’ll laugh, you’ll...

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Oct 13 – Nov 12, 2023

When the Commander-in-Chief publicly calls his wife a “See You Next Tuesday,” all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks breaks loose. In this searingly funny Broadway hit, POTUS follows how...

Exclusion

May 5 – Jun 25, 2023

A reluctant historian is thrown out of her element when her acclaimed book about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is optioned by a larger-than-life...

Ride the Cyclone

Jan 13 – Mar 5, 2023

In Ride the Cyclone, the lives of six teen chamber choir singers are cut short in a freak roller coaster accident. Stuck in the afterlife, a...

Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show

Dec 9 – Dec 18, 2022

As the world’s first holiday show highlighting the African American tradition of stepping, Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is a feast for the eyes and...

Sanctuary City

Oct 21 – Nov 27, 2022

Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok brings us the powerful story of two young DREAMers who fight to establish a place for themselves in America, the...

Holiday

Oct 7 – Nov 6, 2022

An up-and-coming Wall Street lawyer from a working-class family aspires to quit and enjoy life once hes made enough money, a prospect that doesnt thrill...

My Body No Choice

Oct 20 – Nov 6, 2022

In My Body No Choice, Molly Smiths final directorial venture for Arena Stage, eight of Americas most exciting female playwrights share what choice means to...

American Prophet

Jul 15 – Aug 28, 2022

Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena’s "Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story", Broadway’s "Motown the Musical") returns to Arena Stage with a ground-breaking musical about Frederick Douglass,...

Drumfolk

May 31 – Jun 26, 2022

Electrifying percussive dance fused with contemporary art forms fuels Step Afrika!’s latest production, "Drumfolk," inspired by the Stono Rebellion of 1739 and the Negro Act...

Catch Me If You Can

Mar 4 – Apr 17, 2022

Humor, music and dance drive this rousing musical based on true events and a critically acclaimed film. See how charming, young con man Frank Abagnale...

August Wilson's Seven Guitars

Nov 26 – Dec 26, 2021

The lives of seven friends are irrevocably changed when their old friend and blues singer Floyd Barton reappears with a chance of a lifetime. Infused...

Toni Stone

Sep 3 – Oct 3, 2021

History is filled with trailblazers and Toni Stone was one of them. Considered a pioneer, Toni Stone is the first woman to play baseball in...

Waiting Room: A New Film by Voices of Now Ensembles

Jun 6 – Jul 5, 2021

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is pleased to announce the premiere of Waiting Room: A New Film by Arena Stages Voices...

Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak On It!

Oct 23 – Oct 30, 2020

Fannie Lou Hamer, Speak On It! is a captivating call to action and look at the impassioned freedom fighter who became one of the most...

Jubilee

Apr 26 – Jun 2, 2019

The world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers shattered racial barriers in the U.S. and abroad, entertaining kings and queens. For centuries, the bold a capella African American...

Arena Stage Gala 2019

May 21

The 2019 Arena Stage Gala will be a night to remember....

Junk

Apr 5 – May 5, 2019

As the brilliant and calculating Robert Merkin prepares a hostile takeover of a family-owned manufacturing company, he is not concerned about crossing the line to...

JQA

Mar 1 – Apr 14, 2019

Complicated, passionate and difficult, John Quincy Adams was a brilliant diplomat, ineffectual one-term President and congressman known for his eloquence, arrogance and integrity. This unique,...

Kleptocracy

Jan 18 – Feb 24, 2019

It is one of the most pivotal moments in history?—?the Soviet Union has collapsed. In the ensuing rampage of hyper-capitalism, the Oligarchs, a new class...

Camp Open House

Jan 12

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater will host its second annual Camp Arena Stage Open House on Saturday, January 12, 2019 from...

Indecent

Nov 23 – Dec 30, 2018

In 1923, the Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s Yiddish drama God of Vengeance set the stage for an explosive moment in its theatrical history. The...

Anything Goes

Nov 2 – Dec 23, 2018

The SS American has set sail from NY to London. Aboard, the lovelorn Billy has stowed away on a mission to stop the marriage of...

Turn Me Loose

Sep 6 – Oct 14, 2018

This intimate and no-holds-barred drama chronicles Dick Gregory’s rise as the first Black comedian to expose audiences to racial comedy. His comedy spared no one...

Arena Stage Community Day 2018

Aug 25

Snow Child

Apr 13 – May 20, 2018

Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel The Snow Child, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is reborn as a magical new musical with a bluegrass-infused score. The...

Two Trains Running

Mar 30 – Apr 29, 2018

It’s 1969 and the Civil Rights Movement is sending tremors through Pittsburgh’s Hill District. At the center of the community is Memphis Lee’s diner, slated...

Hold These Truths

Feb 23 – Apr 8, 2018

There is a Japanese proverb that says, “The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hit.” In 1941, one American, the son of...

The Great Society

Feb 2 – Mar 11, 2018

Robert Schenkkan’s Tony Award-winning play All the Way set the stage for President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s sudden ascent to the White House. In its D.C....

Sovereignty

Jan 12 – Feb 18, 2018

Some wounds refuse to heal. Mary Kathryn Nagle’s daring new work, which debuts as the fourth production in Arena Stage’s Power Plays initiative, travels the...

Nina Simone: Four Women

Nov 10 – Dec 24, 2017

Velvet-throated songstress Nina Simone hypnotized audiences with her signature renditions of standards from the American songbook. But on September 15, 1963, a devastating explosion in...

The Pajama Game

Oct 27 – Dec 24, 2017

The Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory is a tiptop model of efficiency—so why are things getting so steamy? It could have something to do with how hard...

The Pajama Game PJ Party & C*CKtail Hour

Dec 2

Wear your pajamas and join Arena Stage and 94.7 Fresh-FM for a special cocktail hour after the performance of The Pajama Game – hosted by...

The Price

Oct 6 – Nov 5, 2017

Everything has a price—even our dreams. Victor Franz has returned home to settle his late father’s estate. In an attic overflowing with memories and furniture...

Native Gardens

Sep 15 – Oct 22, 2017

Good fences make good neighbors…right? From the outrageous mind of playwright Karen Zacarías (Destiny of Desire) comes this hot new comedy about the clash of...

The Originalist

Jul 7 – Jul 30, 2017

Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in The Originalist. This smash-hit show from 2015 returns to offer audiences...

Smart People

Apr 14 – May 21, 2017

Do our belief systems stem from our environment, or are some prejudices hard-wired into us? With barbed wit, Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly) explores the...

A Raisin in the Sun

Mar 31 – Apr 30, 2017

Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking masterpiece follows the Younger family yearning for a better life far from the cramped confines of their Chicago tenement. Hope arrives in...

Intelligence

Feb 24 – Apr 9, 2017

Inspired by true events, Intelligence is a fictionalized account of a covert operative who, tasked with protecting the national security of the United States post-9/11,...

Watch on the Rhine

Feb 3 – Mar 5, 2017

Four-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl) leads an ensemble cast as Fanny Farrelly in Lillian Hellman's suspenseful masterpiece...

Roe

Jan 12 – Feb 19, 2017

The lawyer: a young, brilliant, courageous woman arguing Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court. The plaintiff: a complex, single woman seeking to end an...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Feb 5

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Feb 4

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Feb 3

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Jan 29

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Jan 28

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Jan 27

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

Lillian Hellman Festival

Jan 25

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater continues the company’s season-long Lillian Hellman Festival by hosting free programming, including staged readings, panel discussions...

26 Pebbles

Aug 24

26 PEBBLES explores the power of community in the face of unimaginable tragedy. On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and...

The Blood Quilt

Apr 24 – Jun 7, 2015

Welcome to the Jernigan Gals’ Quilting Corner. Gathering at their childhood island home off the coast of Georgia, four disconnected sisters meet to create a...

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Apr 3 – May 3, 2015

Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play (and the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama League and the Drama Desk), Vanya and Sonia...

The Originalist

Mar 6 – Apr 26, 2015

Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero (Red) returns to Arena Stage as one of America's most brilliant and polarizing figures: Supreme Court Justice Antonin...

King Hedley II

Feb 6 – Mar 8, 2015

King Hedley has returned, but to reign for how long? With an angry scar down the length of his face and seven years of prison...

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Jan 16 – Feb 22, 2015

Get your deerstalker cap on— the play’s afoot! From the Tony Award-winning mastermind of mayhem, Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor), comes a fast-paced comedy...

Fiddler on the Roof

Oct 31 – Jan 4, 2015

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of an American classic! More than just a poor milkman, Tevye is a humble Jewish father who finds his devotion to...

Five Guys Named Moe

Nov 14 – Dec 28, 2014

Need to chase the blues away? Pull up a seat at the Funky Butt Club to celebrate the fresh, feel-good music of “The King of...

Our War

Oct 21 – Nov 9, 2014

An esteemed collection of some of America’s finest playwrights, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award and Olivier Award, has been assembled to create...

The Shoplifters

Sep 5 – Oct 19, 2014

Meet Alma, a career shoplifter who prefers the “five-finger discount” over some lousy senior citizen deal, whose elaborate life of petty crime is halted by...

Healing Wars

Jun 6 – Jun 29, 2014

World premiere. June 6–29, 2014 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle A pioneer in the world of contemporary dance, Liz Lerman’s newest theatrical dance...

Camp David

Mar 21 – May 4, 2014

World Premiere March 21–May 4, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater Sixty-two miles north of Washington, D.C., nestled in Catoctin Mountain Park, lies the clandestine retreat...

Mother Courage and Her Children

Jan 31 – Mar 9, 2014

January 31–March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage profits off the very war that steals her children from her one by...

The Tallest Tree in the Forest

Jan 10 – Feb 16, 2014

Tectonic Theater Project’s World Premiere Presentation January 10–February 16, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater Bursting with soulful music and poetic storytelling, The Tallest Tree in...

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Nov 29 – Jan 5, 2014

November 29, 2013–January 5, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Broadway and Arena Stage favorite Kenny Leon (every tongue confess) returns to direct a new adaptation...

Tappin' Thru Life

Nov 15 – Dec 29, 2013

A co-production with Alliance Theatre and Cleveland Play House November 15–December 29, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater Broadway legend and Tony Award nominee Maurice Hines...

Love in Afghanistan

Oct 11 – Nov 17, 2013

World premiere by Resident Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright October 11–November 17, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle From resident playwright Charles Randolph-Wright (Blue, Cuttin’...

The Velocity of Autumn

Sep 6 – Oct 20, 2013

Exclusive Pre-Broadway Engagement September 6–October 20, 2013 in the Kreeger Theater In a simple Brooklyn brownstone, 79-year-old Alexandra lives a solitary existence with her fleeting...

One Night with Janis Joplin

Jun 21 – Aug 11, 2013

With a voice like whiskey and a laugh like pure joy, Janis Joplin took the music scene by storm. Simultaneously rough and vulnerable, Joplin was...

Smokey Joe's Cafe

Apr 25 – Jun 8, 2013

April 25–June 8, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage Staged by Randy Johnson, the visionary behind One Night with Janis Joplin, Smokey Joe’s Café—The Songs of...

Other Desert Cities

Apr 26 – May 26, 2013

After a six-year absence, Brooke Wyeth returns to her Reaganite parents’ Palm Springs enclave for the holidays. But the warm desert air turns chilly when...

The Mountaintop

Mar 29 – May 12, 2013

Hailed as “daring, rousing and provocative” by Entertainment Weekly, The Mountaintop is Katori Hall’s bold reimagining of the last night of the historic life of...

Mary T. & Lizzy K.

Mar 15 – Apr 28, 2013

Writer-director Tazewell Thompson (dir. M. Butterfly, Yellowman) stitches together an insider's look at the unlikely friendship between First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her talented...

Metamorphoses

Feb 8 – Mar 17, 2013

“THE SOUL WANDERS IN THE DARK, UNTIL IT FINDS LOVE. AND SO, WHEREVER OUR LOVE GOES, THERE WE FIND OUR SOUL.” Back in D.C. for...

Good People

Feb 1 – Mar 10, 2013

Good People By David Lindsay-Abaire Directed by Jackie Maxwell In the Kreeger Theater February 1 – March 10, 2013 Enter South Boston’s Lower End, where...

The Grand Parade (of the 20th Century)

Feb 6 – Feb 10, 2013

Immerse yourself in the “unpredictable and imaginative” (American Theatre) world of acclaimed theater troupe Double Edge Theatre. Inspired by the multi-layered paintings of Marc Chagall,...

My Fair Lady

Nov 2 – Jan 6, 2013

Just as Molly Smith’s record-breaking production of Oklahoma! was enthralling audiences at Arena Stage, her fresh reinterpretation of My Fair Lady set the all-time box...

Pullman Porter Blues

Nov 23 – Jan 6, 2013

Pullman Porter Blues A world-premiere co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre By Cheryl L. West Directed by Lisa Peterson In the Kreeger Theater November 23, 2012...

One Night with Janis Joplin

Sep 28 – Nov 4, 2012

written and directed by Randy Johnson in the Kreeger SEPTEMBER 28 – NOVEMBER 4, 2012 With a voice like whiskey and a laugh like pure...

Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins

Aug 23 – Oct 28, 2012

by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel directed by David Esbjornson in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle AUGUST 23 – OCTOBER 28, 2012 Academy Award...

A Time to Kill

May 6 – Jun 19, 2011

Ruined

Apr 22 – Jun 5, 2011

In war-torn Congo, Mama Nadi keeps the peace between customers on both sides of the civil war by serving everything from cold beers to warm...

At Home at the Zoo

Feb 25 – Apr 24, 2011

American master Edward Albee has outdone himself once again with a riveting new drama that expands on The Zoo Story, the one-act that launched his...

The Edward Albee Festival

Mar 5 – Apr 24, 2011

In addition to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and At Home at the Zoo, Albee enthusiasts can experience a never-before-attempted feat: a festival featuring staged...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Feb 25 – Apr 10, 2011

You’re invited for drinks with George and Martha. As wickedly hilarious today as when it first shocked audiences, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an...

The Chosen

Mar 8 – Mar 27, 2011

A Theater J Production An Award Winning Adaptation The much beloved story of two boys, two fathers, and two very different Jewish communities in Williamsburg,...

The Arabian Nights

Jan 4 – Feb 20, 2011

In ancient Baghdad, a courageous young girl postpones her execution by weaving magical tales for the troubled king. Genies and jesters, lovers and thieves spring...

Let Me Down Easy

Dec 31 – Feb 13, 2011

Called “the most exciting individual in American theater” by Newsweek magazine, Anna Deavere Smith (Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles) explores the power of...