Arena Stage Ground Breaking Announced

I'm sharing an email I received from Arena Stage yesterday:

Arena Stage is Breaking Ground for our new Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater!

Dear Friends,

Fantastic news: On October 2, 2007, the Arena Stage Board of Trustees voted to commence construction on the new Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater! After planning our new home for many years and raising more than $104 million toward our $125 million goal, we are thrilled to announce that we will break ground in January 2008.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is named in honor of an extraordinary gift by Life Trustee Dr. Jaylee Mead and her husband, longtime Arena Stage Trustee Gilbert Mead, who passed away in May. The Center will be a breathtaking expansion of our current building, allowing us to focus on the strengths of our two existing theaters while reinventing the surrounding building and adding a third performance space dedicated to premiering new American plays. Renderings of Arena at the Mead Center are available here.

In order to allow for a timely and cost-effective renovation, Arena Stage will move to a temporary home in Crystal City, VA at the Crystal Forum. A five minute drive from our current location in Southwest DC, the Crystal Forum is close to Reagan National Airport and one block away from the Crystal City Metro station, which is serviced by both the Blue and Yellow Metro lines. If you've been to Crystal City recently, you know that the area has been completely reinvigorated in recent years, with many restaurants-including several from Washington's most famous chefs-within walking distance to the theater, as well as abundant free parking during the evenings and on weekends. The neighborhood literally couldn't be better for theatergoers looking to enjoy safe, convenient parking and a range of dining options as part of your visit to Arena. We are confident that once you attend a show there, you will agree that it's an ideal solution to our temporary need for performance space.

We're sure that you will have a lot of questions and we will include answers in future A-Blasts when we know.  You can look at some of our information below.  Also, check our website for more updated information.  We at Arena are extremely excited to begin the process of building our new home and we hope that you share our anticipation and exhilaration at having reached this milestone.  Take the short trip to Crystal City with us, and we will come back to a fabulous new home in 2010.

All best,

[signed Molly]

What will the new performance space be like?

Arena Stage is currently renovating the Forum specifically to accommodate our patrons and our productions for the next two and a half seasons while Arena's new home is being built. The theater itself will be roughly the same size as the Kreeger, though the lobby is larger than we currently have for that space.

What will happen to the 2007/2008 season?

We will begin productions in Crystal City with Ella starting on December 28, 2007 and do not anticipate changing any existing performance dates for the rest of the 2007/2008 season except for The Mystery of Irma Vep and possibly Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway. If you are a subscriber or single ticket holder for any of the performances, you will be receiving ticket information in the mail during November. We encourage you to visit our web site for information in the interim, as we plan to keep it as up to date as possible with Frequently Asked Questions, directions and other relevant information. 

What if I have other questions?

As we embark on the adventure of the next couple of years, we would like to invite you to attend an Audience Forum to ask us questions about the building, your tickets, our temporary home at Crystal City or anything else you may want to know. The forums  are great opportunities to learn more about this exciting time in Arena's history. We have planned two dates: Monday, October 29th and Tuesday, November 6th at 7:00 p.m. in the Kreeger. These events will include a presentation about the design of the Mead Center and about all that Crystal City has to offer us during this transition time. Please let us know you plan on attending by calling (202) 488-3300 at least three days before the event of your choice.