Arena's

In just one season, Arena Stage programs teach more than 1,350 drama workshops for students and teachers, and prepare more than 900 students to perform on Arena's stages.

Benefit Gala Highlights Arena Stage Community Outreach 2010

(Arena's annual spending had been around $14 million a year prior to that, the theater says.) "The starting point is the fiscal challenges," says Mark Shugoll, who presided over Arena's board of trustees for the duration of the renovations.

Remodeled Arena Stage may transform D.C. theater and the city Peter Marks 2010

* "Like Water for Chocolate" Sept. 9-Oct. 30, the world premiere of a "pre-Broadway" musical adaptation of Laura Esquivel's magical realist novel, will be staged in Arena's Kreeger Theater.

Backstage: Arena Stage's 2011-12 season; Michael Kahn directs opera in Dallas Jane Horwitz 2011

In just one season, Arena Stage programs teach more than 1,350 drama workshops for students and teachers, and prepare more than 900 students to perform on Arena's stages.

Benefit Gala Highlights Arena Stage Community Outreach 2010

* "The Book Club Play" Oct. 7-Nov. 6 by Washington-based Karen Zacarias, one of Arena's current resident playwrights, will get its second local production, using what Smith calls an "explosive rewrite" by Zacarias that was workshopped at Arena last summer.

Backstage: Arena Stage's 2011-12 season; Michael Kahn directs opera in Dallas Jane Horwitz 2011

As is the case with "Lolita," directed by Round House Theatre's Blake Robison, the readings of many of the plays are being guided by other theater companies in town that are coming to Southwest Washington at Arena's invitation.

Edward Albee Festival starts at Arena Stage 2011

Steppenwolf's "Virginia Woolf," the troupe's first stab at an Albee play, is anchoring Arena's festival of Albee works that will run into April.

Tracy Letts, a playwright at home in role as an actor 2011

Included are two full productions: one by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and Arena's own staging of "At Home at the Zoo," a pairing of 1959's "The Zoo Story" with a prequel to it that he wrote a couple of years ago.

Edward Albee Festival starts at Arena Stage 2011

David Dower, Arena's associate artistic director and the guiding force behind the festival, says the all-inclusiveness evolved in conversations with the playwright.

Edward Albee Festival starts at Arena Stage 2011

* "You, Nero" Nov. 25, 2011-Jan. 1, 2012 by Amy Freed - another of Arena's resident writers - is a comedy about the ancient Roman emperor and his public relations problem.

Backstage: Arena Stage's 2011-12 season; Michael Kahn directs opera in Dallas Jane Horwitz 2011