by David Dower
This weekend HBO will air the film of Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking for the first time. Reading this news, I thought "Wow. The Arena Restaged Festival just keeps on giving..."
First of all, the Festival, which spanned the 28-month period of our "diaspora" while the building was being built, gave us the time and opportunity to create, test, and develop the new artistic strategy that has debuted to smashing success with the opening of that building. One DC critic called this season at Arena Stage "the most complete and exciting season of theater I have ever seen in the region." Cool! We think it's pretty exciting as well-- nearly 50 titles under our soaring new roof. It bought us the time build a program based on four distinct pillars: production, presentation, development, and study. It created a new theater space for area companies over in Crystal City. And it introduced us, and our audiences, to the wonderful U Street corridor and the historic Lincoln Theater.
And of course it introduced audiences to the amazing star power of John and Leo Manzari. (Next month they are on stage at the Kennedy Center with the likes of Brian Stokes Mitchell, Julie Andrews, and Paul Simon! Paul Simon? Wasn't he married to Carrie Fisher?)
It's also introduced our audiences to works that just keep on going! Wishful Drinking moved to Broadway (one of three projects in the Festival that did that!), was published as an autobiography, and now begins life as a film this weekend. At the same time, Next to Normal (which picked up the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Awards after it's stay with us in Crystal City) is in the middle of its national tour and winding up its 20-month run on Broadway. R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY [and mystery] OF THE UNIVERSE is in production at American Repertory Theater. Daniel Beaty's Resurrection, which launched the Festival, became Through the Night, a solo tour de force performed by Daniel, moved to a commercial run at Union Square Theater in New York and will resurrect a third time next month at Westside Theater. Kathleen Chalfant and Ellen MacLaughlin recently returned to their roles in A Delicate Balance at Yale Repertory Theater to great acclaim-- again! Josh Kornbluth's Citizen Josh returns to the area this Spring (and has been in India in between!), Maureen McGovern's Long and Winding Road has been making its way around the country, now called Carry it On. Resident playwright Karen Zacarias' Legacy of Light is in performance at a variety of theaters around the country this seasonn, following it's premiere as part of the Festival. All told, ten of the sixteen titles in the Arena Restaged Festival went on to additional opportunities around the country. From Broadway to Santa Fe, from U Street to YouTube, this little two-year adventure we took y'all on made a splash and introduced the new Arena Stage as a center for American work in ways we didn't even imagine when we set out on the journey! The experts are betting there's still more to come but we'll stop here. It does leave one in a sentimental mood, though, to recall all of these performances...
