Courtesy of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library
MAP IT
History is alive on stage in the nation’s capital.
Headquartered in Washington, DC, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government by an act of the U.S. Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This paved the way for the American regional theater scene to bloom and blossom across the country. The NEA continues to support many DC-area theaters with work on stage, in classrooms and public art across the region.
Founded in 1950, Arena Stage was one of the very first nonprofit theaters in the United States, the first regional theater to transfer a production to Broadway, the first invited by the U.S. State Department to tour behind the Iron Curtain and the first to receive the Regional Theater Tony Award. Arena Stage continues to produce thought-provoking, relevant, outstanding productions that showcase a diversity of American and international voices.
The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC boasts the country’s only living presidential memorial centered on the performing arts, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts more than 2,000 performances annually. As Kennedy himself said, “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.” The permanent exhibit Art and Ideals is free and open to the public daily.
© Maxwell MacKenzie
Ford’s Theatre is well-known for being the location of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. But did you know that it is co-operated by the National Park Service? In 1968, a restored Ford’s Theatre opened with its first public performance since Lincoln’s assassination. Since then, the joint historic site and working theatre has produced and presented musicals, comedies and dramas including the pre-Broadway run of Come From Away and the acclaimed revival of Big River.
© Alan Karchmer; Lloyd Wolf
Right across from the U.S. Capitol and next to the U.S. Supreme Court Building, you can see a show at Folger Theatre, part of the Folger Shakespeare Library. The theatre produces exciting interpretations and adaptations of Shakespeare and expands the classical canon by cultivating today’s artists and commissioning new work that is in dialogue with the concerns and issues of our time.
Elliott Bales and Nehassaiu deGannes in Kings at Studio Theatre; Photo by C. Stanley Photography
No other city in the United States does political theater better than Washington, DC. Just blocks away from where the “real thing” happens, you can see plays and musicals about American politics, leaders and history. Some past highlights include POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (Arena Stage), Shipwreck (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company), All the Way (Arena Stage), Kings (Studio Theatre) and of course the musical about how it all began…1776 (Ford’s Theatre).
©Tony Powell
On any given night, sitting in the audience of a theater in DC, you might be joined by actual legislators and powerful decision-makers. Fans and ardent supporters of the work on stage in Washington, DC include Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Representative Jamie Raskins, Representative Elise Stefanik and Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Partner Content