Theatre Critics Convene in D.C.

BY jonathan abarbanel

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) held its annual conference in Washington, D.C., June 17-22. Convening just two days after the Tony Awards, there was much discussion of August: Osage County and the Regional Theatre Tony for Chicago Shakespeare Theater, given upon recommendation by ATCA (as the Regional Theatre Tony always is). But the conference, of course, was to learn about professional theatre in Our Nation’s Capital.

D.C. once was a leading Broadway try-out town (along with Boston, Philadelphia and New Haven) but has had to reinvent itself culturally over the last 40 years. With regard to theatre, it had a head start through the presence of the Arena Stage and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, joined by the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1970. The theatres of Baltimore and Richmond also drew D.C.-area patrons and, certainly, D.C. theatre critics. However, the process of building a truly indigenous theatre industry—one dependent neither on the Beltway nor Broadway—has taken several decades. Today, one is tempted to declare “Mission Accomplished,” except that the expansion and evolution of Washington-area theatre continues at a healthy pace. As we have learned in Chicago—confounding nay-sayers—growth breeds growth and, even with 200 theatre troupes, we have not yet found the upward limits of audience demand.

D.C. in many ways is a nascent Chicago; a characterization meant as a compliment, not as condescension. The metropolitan area boasts about 75 professional theatre companies spread throughout most Washington neighborhoods, northwards into suburban Maryland and most definitely westward across the Potomac into Arlington and Alexandria, VA merging in their own right into a mini-megalopolis. The modern Metro subway system serves the entire region efficiently, providing easy access to a majority of the theatres even in many suburban precincts. As is true in many large cities, the theatres of Greater Washington serve a number of constituencies, from the LGBT urban pioneers of Dupont Circle to the Latinos of Columbia Heights and Northern Virginia to African-American audiences in several quarters. While a storefront theatre is not the venue of choice for a small D.C. neighborhood playhouse, there are plenty of found spaces in old schools, churches, warehouses, car dealerships and downsized movie houses.

The region has a League of Washington Theatres, a discount ticket program (run by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington) and the annual Helen Hayes Awards (she was born in D.C.), modeled in part after Chicago’s Jeff Awards. There’s also a Washington Area Arts Video Archive—something we do NOT have in Chicago—that has recorded more than 500 productions since 1993 (one camera, single-take, real time). This is the largest such archive outside New York City.

The energy of D.C.’s theatre industry is palpable and also is quantifiable, in a way. We were not showered with stats on number of performances and productions, number of tickets sold, or economic impact (one assumes the League of Washington Theatres has such numbers, but they seem not to have been involved in conference planning), but we were trouped to a surprising number of purpose-built new venues. At least in Washington proper (if not in Maryland or Virginia), real estate developers are given specific incentives to include performing arts spaces in their plans. One way or another, a dozen D.C. companies boast new (or retrofit) homes, among them The Shakespeare Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, GALA Hispanic, and Studio theatres. Even the matriarch of regional theatre, the Arena Stage, is undergoing a multi-million dollar campus enlargement that will remake its facilities and add a third playhouse.

Without question, the five companies mentioned above qualify as prominent American regional theatres, as do the Signature, Folger, Theater J and Ford’s theatres, most of which have cross-fertilized with Chicago (and other theatre centers) many times. So far, only the Arena Stage has won a Regional Theatre Tony Award, but don’t be surprised if D.C.-area theatres acquire a few more over the next decade.

If there’s a downside to all the activity it’s the Steppenwolf Syndrome, aka the Edifice Complex, in which the quality and daring of one’s art is subsumed by the challenge of filling a new, larger space. Several D.C.-area theatre critics—who addressed the ATCA membership in a panel—spoke of this, and ATCA members witnessed it in several beautiful-looking but undistinguished productions. This was, of course, what happened to Steppenwolf after moving into their new purpose-built theatre. Fortunately, wise board leadership and smart management corrected the matter, but it took several years and a major loss of subscribership before the corrections took effect. The lesson is that, if care is taken, bricks-and-mortar need not wall up art, but D.C. does have to look to it. The town’s theatre critics can play a part by writing about the over-arching issue, and not simply reviewing one production at a time.

These days, a visitor to Washington is overwhelmed with cultural choices from a myriad of museums, architectural and historical tours by day to world-class opera, symphony, dance and theatre at night. There always has been culture in Washington (every president has attended the theatre, some frequently), but until recently it may be that there has been no culture of Washington, at least not a culture of the arts. A new paradigm, however, has taken root and appears to be thriving.