Stage Banter: The Arena Stage Blog

New photos of the Mead

by Janine Sobeck

A lot of discussion has been revolving around the activities of our Homecoming Celebration (Oct 23rd) and Gala (Oct 25th). So when these new photos from Nick Lehoux, courtesy of Bing Thom Architects, came in today, I couldn't help but share them on the blog.  While there were many beautiful options, here are a few of my personal favorites.

 

It looks just like the drawing!

 

our new lobby

   

the front entrance

 

the location of our new cafe

 

the Kogod Cradle

The Obamas, the Fentys, and Brian Stokes Mitchell...oh my

by Janine Sobeck

Our Opening Gala (the big day is October 25th!) just might be...well...awesome.  If you didn't catch the big announcement, we are delighted that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be the Honorary Chairs for this black tie event, along with Honorary Co-Chairs D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and wife Michelle.  And to top it all off...Brian Stokes Mitchell (who I originally fell in love with in Ragtime) will be there to sing the night away.  You can find out all about it HERE.

And for your listening pleasure....

Did we really make it?

by Janine Sobeck

My computer is up and running...the boxes are dwindling...and I can see the cars passing on 6th street.  We actually made it back.

Stunning.  Spectacular.  Unbelievable.  Wow. These have been the words that I've been overhearing the most in the hallways the past two days as everyone has been settling in.  We've been spending a lot of time exploring our new spaces, having fun running into people from all the departments that have been scattered for the past two and a half years, unpacking all the many boxes and bins and, well...getting just a little lost (while I'm grateful for signs and color coding, I might have to resort to a trail of bread crumbs...). The difference between the old Arena and the new building is incredible, and while the memories remain strong, there is a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air as we gear up for the season that is ahead of us.  

We're actually here.  Awesome.

Arabian Nights Sneak Peak

by Janine Sobeck

Since the moment I read her Tony award winning Metamorphoses, I have been a HUGE fan of Mary Zimmerman.  Not only are the worlds she creates absolutely breathtaking, but she has such marvelous storytelling gift.  She creates the type of theatre that is truly theatrical - that embraces the strengths and weaknesses of the genre and tells a story on stage in a way that it couldn't be told anywhere else.

At least that's what I got from reading.  Then two years ago I was able to see her production of Argonautika at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and realized that it was even better live than what I had imagined.  From that day I have been plotting on a way to bring her work to Arena, and when The Arabian Nights was playing last year at the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago...I knew that this was our chance.  

I can't wait until it's here.  

If you've never experienced Mary Zimmermans' work...or if you're a rabid fan like I am...then take a look at the video we've pulled together before and you'll get a sense of the beauty, comedy and drama that is going to (in my opinion) absolutely transform the Fichlander stage.

Surrey...Flurry...Curry...

by Janine Sobeck

A short while ago we learned that the Library of Congress two collections of special interest to us - one for Richard Rodgers and one for Oscar Hammerstein II.  Being the geek that I am, the chance to go through all their papers, photos, personal correspondence, etc from the time that they were writing Oklahoma! was absolutely priceless - and very, very entertaining.  So, along with director Molly Smith and assistant director Anita Maynard-Losh, I dug out my reader card and delved into the music archives.  Not only did we get a unique perspective on the journey of the musical (seeing what scenes and songs got cut, which ones were added later on), but we got a window into the minds of the men who made it all come to life.

Many of the images that we took will be sprinkled throughout our Oklahoma! Sub/Text pages (coming in the not so distant future!) but I wanted to take the change to share one particular page with you.  On this page, you will see the handwritten notes for "Rhymes with Surrey" for the lyrics of the song that would become "Surrey with the Fringe on Top."  It's amazing (and sometimes quite hilarious) to see all the ideas that they considered, kept and discarded.  And it was fun to see what additional rhymes we could come up with.  I'm pretty sure we could have given Hammerstein a run for his money...

111 days

by Janine Sobeck

It's been a busy week here at Arena.  With the closing of our last two shows of Arena ReStaged, Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies and R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, we have officially transitioned into "Mead Center Mode."  With the passing of July 1st, two more of our Resident Playwrights have officially started their 3-year stint with Arena.  Email chains about new designs and new ideas are getting longer by the minute as we prepare to become Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.  Production meetings for Oklahoma! have started to produce the ideas that will shape our very first show.  And all empty spaces in the Crystal City offices have disappeared under a mountain of empty boxes, their insides mocking us with the fact that we need to find some time to fill them so that we can actually, well...move.

Though our stages may be currently dark, nothing has slowed down behind the scenes, and I'm sure that the blog will be full of stories of how we make this new move happen.  

I'm also interested in hearing your stories.  Have you seen the new building yet?  Do you have a favorite memory from the old building?  Have you joined us in the ReStaged period?  We'd love to hear them all, so please feel free to share them with us.  As we mentioned with the Ring Out, this is a particularly poignant time, full of nostalgia for what we've left behind and excitement for what is ahead of us....and we'd love to have you join us on the ride.

Announcing the Resident Playwrights!

by Janine Sobeck

So, did you see the front page of the Washington Post this morning???  We have officially announced the rest of our Resident Playwrights!  Joining Karen Zacarias (who started in January) is:

Lisa Kron (In the Wake, Well (two Tony nominations) and 2.5 Minute Ride)

Katori Hall (Hoodoo Love, Remembrance, Hurt Village, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, The Mountaintop (2010 Olivier Winner for Best New Play), WHADDABLOODCLOT!?!?, The Hope Well and Pussy Valley)

Amy Freed (Restoration Comedy, The Beard of Avon, Freedomland, Safe in Hell, The Psychic Life of Savages)

and 

Charles Randolph Wright (Blue, Cuttin' Up, The Night Is a Child and recent director of Arena's Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies)

         

Karen Zacarias, Lisa Kron, Katori Hall, Amy Freed and Charles Randolph Wright

As you can probably guess, we're more than just a little thrilled to have these great playwrights join us as the first Resident Playwrights of the American Voices New Play Institute.

And...just to make it even better...the Resident Playwrights will be joined by two Project Residents:

Lynn Nottage (Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas and Pulitzer Prize winner, Ruined.) 

and 

David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly (Tony Award for Best Play, Pulitzer Finalist), Yellow Face (Obie Award, Pulitzer finalist), Golden Child (Obie Award, Tony nomination), FOB (Obie Award) and The Dance and the Railroad)

   

Lynn Nottage, David Henry Hwang 

 Awesome.

You can learn all about the Institute and the Residencies...on the front page.

Play Club update - round one with the Tony's

by Janine Sobeck

 Last Thursday the new group of Arena playclubbers met to discuss the Tony nominations for the "best" of Broadway.   On the docket?  Everyone around the table read Sarah Ruhl's new play In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play and the revival of Harburg/Saidy/Lane's Finian's Rainbow.  For the third option, we decided to mix it up a little and let the group have the opportunity to pick the nomination that they most wanted to read.  With the awards only days away, everyone was full of opinions of what worked, what didn't, and who we thought should win.

One of the most interesting aspects of the conversation revolved around the way playwrights and theatres represent people who are "different" from themselves - whether race, culture, religion, gender, or physical abilities.  Revivals of classic plays and musicals can be fascinating insights into what was "acceptable" or "pc" in the era it was written, and incredible commentaries of how far (or how not far) our society has evolved.  While reading this particular group of musicals and plays helped highlight how highly sensitive and conscious our society has become around discussions of race and (for the most part) gender, we couldn't help wonder what gaps the Arena play club will find 50 years from now in the plays that we currently consider "new."

Next month we'll be celebrating the 4th of July with "I'm Proud to Be an American: Marcus Gardley's America."  Marcus, who's world premiere Every Tongue Confess will open the new Kogod Cradle, is a fascinating American voice with a unique perspective of our countries history and culture.  So stay tuned....

Talking Bucky

by Janine Sobeck

One of the things we've noticed about our current production of R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, is that the audience can't stop talking about it afterwards.  They love to compare their experiences with the play, their personal stories with Bucky, and learn about which mind-blowing idea(s) affected the people around them. 

Yesterday at our first post-show conversation, I was delighted to be joined on stage not only by our actor Rick Foucheux, but by playwright/director D.W. Jacobs....and in the audience by Bucky's daughter Allegra Fuller Synder and grandson Jaime Synder.  As we talked about Bucky's ideas and his inventions, as well as how D.W. Jacob's came to write this fascinating piece, I loved watching people's faces.  You could see the moments where they were passionately agreeing with what was being said and when they were wrestling with an idea that, though somewhat foreign, also made complete sense. And I will never forget the looks when Allegra talked about the relationship between her father and mother.  While this play is a tribute to Bucky, the love and support that his wife Anne gave him, is underneath every single moment - and the fact that they died within 36 hours of each other....well...it's just a powerful and breathtaking story. Even after we were forced to conclude, people kept gathering in groups to delve a little bit more into what they had experienced.

We want to give you plenty of opportunities to talk Bucky.  Along with the normal schedule of post shows (you can find the calendar HERE), we've also created a series of panels where we're bringing in special guests who are engaged with Bucky's ideas to talk about their work as well as have a Q&A with the audience.  They're all free and we hope that they will really open up an opportunity for you to take a leaping dive down the Bucky rabbit hole. You can find the whole schedule HERE.  

So come talk Bucky with us....we'd love to hear what you have to say.

The Final Opening

by Janine Sobeck

As I sat in the theatre last night, marveling at Rick Foucheux's tour de force performance in R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, (it really is amazing to watch him embrace this character) it suddenly hit me:

This is it.

Last night we opened our final show in Crystal City - and the final show of the Arena ReStaged Festival.  When we moved here 2 1/2 years ago, this moment seemed so far away.  And now that it's here...well, its kind of stunning.

The ReStaged Festival has been a trimtab moment for Arena - a time when we've been able to throw those low pressure points that have started to create some big changes in every facet of the organization.  With less than two months until we start moving physically back to the new Mead Center for American Theater and only 143 days left (not that we're counting...) until we open our first show, it just seems so right that we're concluding this eventful, sometimes frustrating, yet always exciting period in Arena history with the Bucky show.  As a champion of being both a "thinker" and a "doer" - that "the things to do are things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done" - I couldn't help thinking how so many of Bucky's ideas and philosophies tie into what we've been trying to do over the past two years: questions that have led to a re-thinking of the way that we plan and program our season (with things like the Visiting Companies, the Edward Albee Festival and the NPDP festival) and the creation of programs like the American Voices New Play Institute and the Playwright Residencies.  

We still have lots of questions and lots of ideas, but like Bucky "the mystery gets ever more, ever more entrancing, and really just incredibly beautiful."  So we're going to keep going...and like Bucky, we "think we are going to make it."