Timothy M. Thompson News

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the launch of Artists Marketplace, a new model for regional theaters to connect art, artists and their artistry directly with patrons.  Patrons will have the opportunity to commission or purchase a work of art from the artists and artisans who have graced Arena's stages. 

Tonight, before a gathering of theatre artists and patrons, theatreWashington announced the winners of the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, drawn from 202 eligible productions presented in the 2015 calendar year. Scroll down for the full list of nominees and winners!

Tonight, before a gathering of theatre artists and patrons, theatreWashington announced the nominees for the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, drawn from 202 eligible productions presented in the 2015 calendar year. Scroll down for the full list of nominees!

World Premiere by Katori Hall examines the lives of four half-sisters and how they deal with the passing of their mother.

Olivier Award-winning playwright Katori Hall returns to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater with the world premiere of her most personal project to date-the fierce comedy-drama The Blood Quilt. Hall is an inaugural resident playwright of Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Institute, and The Blood Quilt is one of three plays from Hall receiving world premieres around the country this season. Hall reunites with director and Howard University alumna Kamilah Forbes (artistic director of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival) following their Broadway collaboration on The Mountaintop. The Blood Quilt runs April 24-June 7, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater.

Artistic Director Molly Smith tackles a unique, in-the-round staging of Bertolt Brecht's powerhouse anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Iconic stage and screen actress and Academy Award nominee Kathleen Turner returns to Arena Stage following her sold-out run of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins to make her professional singing debut as the tough-as-nails matriarch Mother Courage-a single mother determined to keep her family alive and her business afloat during war. Using the David Hare translation, the show fuses politics and satire to paint an unforgettable and provocative portrait of war, incorporating more than 10 pieces of original music composed in a rollicking, gypsy-punk style and performed by cast members doubling as musicians. Mother Courage and Her Children runs January 31-March 9, 2014 in the Fichandler Stage.

This is a Music Man not to be missed. It's filled with great music, superb acting, lovely voices, and superb dancing.

After kicking off the inaugural season of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, shattering all box office records from Arena Stage's 60-year history and rounding up 10 Helen Hayes Awards nominations, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! has returned for a summer run under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith. The revival, featuring the entire original principal cast and most of the ensemble, has already broken more company records by selling the highest number of single tickets for a production in 24 hours when tickets went on sale March 3, 2011. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! began performances on July 8, 2011 and opened July 14. The production runs through October 2, 2011 in the Fichandler Stage. Broadway buzz has surrounded the production since its premiere run. Check out complete photo coverage from the celebrated show below!

After kicking off the inaugural season of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, shattering all box office records from Arena Stage's 60-year history and rounding up 10 Helen Hayes Awards nominations, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! returns for a summer run under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith. The revival, featuring the entire original principal cast and most of the ensemble, has already broken more company records by selling the highest number of single tickets for a production in 24 hours when tickets went on sale March 3, 2011. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! began performances on July 8, 2011. The production officially opens tonight and runs through October 2, 2011 in the Fichandler Stage. Broadway buzz has surrounded the production since its premiere run.

After kicking off the inaugural season of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, shattering all box office records from Arena Stage's 60-year history and rounding up 10 Helen Hayes Awards nominations, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! returns for a summer run under the direction of Artistic Director Molly Smith. The revival, featuring the entire original principal cast and most of the ensemble, has already broken more company records by selling the highest number of single tickets for a production in 24 hours when tickets went on sale March 3, 2011. Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! runs July 8-October 2, 2011 in the Fichandler Stage.

Arena Stage's newest space, the Kogod Cradle, is currently presenting its inaugural presentation, the world premiere of Marcus Gardley's exploration of hate crimes in the American South, 'every tongue confess,' an exploration of hate crimes in the American South.

Arena Stage's newest space, the Kogod Cradle, held its inaugural presentation, the world premiere of Marcus Gardley's exploration of hate crimes in the American South, 'every tongue confess,' an exploration of hate crimes in the American South, according to the Washington Post.

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

Big band sound transforms the Lincoln Theatre into a Duke Ellington jazz club as Arena Stage presents Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies, choreographed by and starring Maurice Hines (Broadway's Sophisticated Ladies and Uptown... It's Hot!) with direction by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena's Guys and Dolls and Blue).

There are two kinds of great solo performers - those who can evoke awed silence in audiences, and those who can stir them to laughter, cheers and impassioned cries of affirmation and awareness. Daniel Beaty - who is part slam poet, part motivational speaker and a completely phenomenal performer - proves that he belongs in the latter category with Emergence-See