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Arena Stage
Arena Stage (Washington, D. C.). Founded in 1950 by Zelda Fichandler, Edward Mangum, and others, the company gave its first performances arena style in an old movie house called the Hippodrome, then moved to a converted brewery. In 1961 the company moved to its current complex where, over the years, it established three performance spaces: the 827‐seat arena house called the Fichandler, the 514‐seat proscenium Kreeger; and a small basement semicabaret, the Old Vat. Its repertory has balanced classics with new plays, among them premieres of several works that later moved to Broadway, including The Great White Hope, Indians, Moonchildren, K‐2, and Tintypes. The company toured the Soviet Union under State Department aegis in 1973, and later performed in Hong Kong. In 1976 it was the first regional theatre to receive a Tony Award for services to its community. Fichandler served as artistic director for forty years, succeeded by Douglas C. Wager who took over in 1991. The Arena is not only the largest nonprofit theatre in the Washington area, it remains one of America's oldest and most consistently outstanding theatre organizations.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Arena Stage." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Arena Stage." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-ArenaStage.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Arena Stage." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-ArenaStage.html |
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Arena Stage
Arena Stage, Washington, DC, non-profit theatre founded in 1950 by Zelda Fichandler. The group occupied an adapted cinema until 1955, when it moved to a discused brewery, the Old Vat. The first production in the purpose-built arena-stage theatre, which seats 827 on four tiers, was Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle. A second theatre, the Kreeger, opened in 1971 and has a seating capacity of 514 arranged in a fan-shaped auditorium round an end-thrust stage. A rehearsal room in the Kreeger's basement was converted in 1976 into the Old Vat Room, seating 180, with a cabaret-style stage. The Arena Stage company presents a wide range of classic and modern plays, both American and international, during a season which runs from Oct. to June, and has given the first productions of such new American plays as Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope (1967) and the reconstruction of the 1925 Marx Brothers' hit The Cocoanuts (1988). The Arena Stage also supports Living Stage, a community group which helps the disadvantaged and disabled.
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ArenaStage1.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ArenaStage1.html |
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Arena Stage
Arena Stage, see OPEN STAGE and THEATRE-IN-THE-ROUND.
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ArenaStage.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Arena Stage." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ArenaStage.html |
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