Troublesome news for the DC-area theater world is now the norm as the current administration continues its purge of the federal labor force. These workers are a core component of the DC economy. They are also an invisible class who, over the past decades, have helped grow the DMV into America’s second-largest theater town. They can be unseen, overlooked, or ignored. Who are they?
They are government civil servants now under assault and losing jobs. The middle-class government workers who live in the area are typically not counted as part of the creative class, yet they are a backbone of the DMV arts scene. They are a key to the area’s vibrant, vital theater community.
At this moment, there appears to be no end in sight to the pain and suffering inflicted upon the area’s civil servant class. With these massive federal job losses, one can expect that the bottom line of area theaters will be affected, too. Why? Because these federal workers and their families will likely not be spending freely on the arts if the choice is also about paying for a mortgage, rent, food, child care, or other needs.
Perhaps DMV arts organizations should consider these civil servants as allies. Perhaps DMV theaters could offer free or discounted tickets to furloughed or fired government workers as a goodwill gesture.
This is not such a wild, fanciful idea. Theater Alliance recently did just that. For its now-closed The Garbologists production, the company offered fired and furloughed federal workers “great theater on us.”
The DC-area theater community has also done this en masse before: in January 2019, during a federal government shutdown. At that time, DMV theaters wanted to recognize that government employees had helped make the region’s theater community vibrant over the decades as patrons, subscribers, donors, actors, technical artisans, and more. (Here’s a DC Theater Arts news item listing which theaters did what in January 2019: Theaters Offer Discounts to Furloughed Government Employees.)
Civil servants are more than the tourists who may visit the area and perhaps take in a show at a major playhouse. They are not the big donors whose names are inscribed on venue walls or acknowledged in theater programs; they may not be invited to fancy fund-raisers. But they have been there buying tickets and telling their friends about a show, especially for those many suburban theaters that get little or no ink in the now-reduced pages of the Washington Post.
Discounted or free tickets for furloughed or fired federal workers can be seen as a long-term investment in friends, neighbors, and family who have an identity as civil servants — and as an investment in the long-term future of the DC area’s theater community. How else can 75-plus professional stages keep the lights on?
Call it a distinctive way to thank civil servants for their service. Sure, these are difficult times for a theater’s bottom line, but this would be a long-term investment in the continuing life of our theater community. It would be taking care of our own — just a wider sense of who our own are now.
Anxious days are ahead. Daunting questions come to mind for the DC-area theater community as the new Administration and new Congress arrive to grow ever more assertive. What might be in store for our DC-area theaters still dealing with the exhaustion of COVID and its aftershocks? Trials and tribulations may be coming. Thinking “This too shall pass” — the old tried-and-true — may no longer be the best way of survival.
How will our robustly vigorous DC-area theater community, the second largest in America, respond to what might be a frontal assault on live theater’s uncensored creative expression, distinctive storytelling, activist role, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in programming and hiring? Is it so silly to consider that there can be unpleasant consequences to vulnerable, unprotected theaters, their donors and leadership, for being too creative and too “woke”?
So many questions, I began to freeze up trying to write this. But then a savior came. I read a blistering opinion piece in American Theatre magazine: “Against the Dying of the Light: Toward a Risky Theatre” by Kelundra Smith, director of publishing at Theatre Communications Group and a member of the American Theatre Critics and Journalists Association.
Writing with fearless fire and unafraid directness, Smith opined that America’s theater communities should “resist the darkness.” In the face of the incoming Administration and other cultural forces, she said:
I’m concerned that we will do the fascists’ work for them by dimming our own light.
…
As artists and arts administrators, we must commit ourselves to a collective fearlessness.
…
My greatest hope for theatre in America and around the world is that it rises above the fear of censorship to speak its many truths.
How do we turn such muscular notions into tangible action? Isn’t that the task at hand, with so much at stake for DC-area theaters and so many unknowns?
Then I began to freeze again. Are DC-area theaters more exposed and vulnerable than those in the more protected environment of New York City? And if so, why?
DC, Maryland, and Virginia theaters are unique in their location inside the Federal government bubble. The business of the DC area remains strongly governmental: federal, state, and local services, along with the defense industry, tech, and consulting firms eager to please those now holding the purse and policy strings. DC theaters can’t hide from the close-by eyes and ears of the new folk coming to town. Metro DC is unlike NYC with its almost sealed-off, protective, urban and suburban “blue political landscape.” And I would imagine the DC-area theater community does not want or plan to cave to outside forces at their doorsteps.
So what next?
Would DMV theaters boldly join together and provide aid to defend other theaters if one theater is attacked? Would the well-off bold-name theaters help those less well-off if a lawyer was needed?
Might DC-area theaters develop and implement a strong public coalition, a coalition for which individual budgets or number of seats or artistic vision does not matter? Doesn’t NYC commercial theater do that?
Is a public pledge about the importance of preserving, protecting, and enhancing DEI commitments and artistic programming of any value — or would that just ruffle feathers?
Is there value if area theaters enlarged the scope of taking care of their own to seek out allies with shared interests who likely will be in similar predicaments, such as museums?
Is DMV theater asking audiences and donors what they see as the future — like what was done when COVID hit?
Inauguration Day 2025 is here. That famous Shakespearian bear is not exiting the stage. That bear is arriving center stage with white-hot spotlights burning. Is Kalundra Smith right when she writes that “we must commit ourselves to a collective fearlessness”? How is that accomplished in the real messy life that awaits the DMV theater community?
For decades, the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region has been well regarded for producing theater with social vision and impact and progressive values. With the election over, now what? What lies ahead for the DMV theater community? Will the region find itself in dark times? Will the theater community be or think itself immune? Will the community be part of some nonprofit resistance to the national shift right?
It’s really easy for us theater artists to forget to read the newspaper and talk to people about things that have nothing to do with the theater. Who are we having conversations with? Who are we surrounding ourselves with to understand people’s priorities that are outside of our norm or little circle?
—Shanara Gabrielle in her recent interview with DCTA’s John Stoltenberg
Is the past a guide? Some of us can recall that in the earlier term of the soon-incoming Administration, a signature cultural policy direction was an effort to strip funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As we know, their missions were not considered core to government priorities. We also know that the NEA and NEH provided substantive funding to state arts agencies and local performing arts venues. In the past, those two grant-making agencies survived even as a conservative Administration viewed their missions as outside the core responsibilities of the Federal government. But those past times are not now.
Should we concern ourselves that the DC area will once again witness, as I all too readily recall, a “Robert Mapplethorpe-like” controversy that might affect the performing arts? Is it so far-fetched to fear the next administration might introduce language affecting grant applicants — perhaps with a more directive attitude as to what funding priorities are? Will those theatergoers counted on for donations to cover the true cost of producing theater stay the course should the government overreach even about who can use what bathroom? Will well-heeled boards and board members be willing to risk possible consequences beyond their theater work?
Even more, as we in the theater community are part of a much wider world of need, how will long-time donors respond when there will be so many new needs in the larger world beyond the arts to take care of? Will private sources of funding from philanthropic organizations be able to cover the expected drop in national and perhaps private-sector support when, say, actual human beings are rounded up to be placed in encampments perhaps not far from downtown DC? Will donors decide to help them and give less to the performing arts? For donors to open their wallets to support the arts, how do we make clearer what we do and plan to do well beyond the day-to-day?
Will there be a regional performing arts plan beyond something that might be seen as performative compared to immediate human needs?
Remembering past federal government shutdowns, there were huge economic effects In the DMV area. Will proposed government policy and funding changes lead government employees to freeze their discretionary spending until the chaos sorts out? That is what has happened in the past, I recall. Perhaps we might think of the area’s thousands upon thousands of government employees and contractor staff as an “identity” at this moment in time.
Questions abound.
Are there boldface names that can make a difference as we ponder any next steps as a performing arts community? Will members of the current President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resign in public protest of incoming Administration policies and plans? It has been done before. (Current PCAH co-chairs are Bruce Cohen and Lady Gaga.)
Will theaters band together to make a “statement” as was once done with a “ghostlight” protest?
How does the DMV theater community as a whole and tightly together respond to the Project 2025 report indicating that funding for any number of current functions (including the arts, as I read it) are not a core responsibility of government? If not working together, will only the well-heeled survive to the detriment of those less blessed?
So, let’s zoom out. We are part of a larger whole beyond the theater community. When real human beings are rounded up come the afternoon of January 20, 2025, or soon thereafter, or when current DMV government employees some of whom we likely know find themselves locked out of their workspaces, or when large contractors find themselves short of funds, how will the DMV theater community respond? As Shanara Gabrielle asked: “Who are we surrounding ourselves with to understand people’s priorities that are outside of our norm or little circle?”
We remember another quote:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
The 2024 Federal election results will reshape arts and culture priorities and funding. That’s the sobering new reality explained in “Post-Election Impact on the Arts,” a webinar sponsored by the Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund. Host Nina Ozlu Tunceli, the organization’s executive director, and guest presenters analyzed what’s ahead for the arts and culture sector across America, where the arts community should focus advocacy activities, and opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in the 119th Congress
The November 21 webinar included discussions on what to expect during the lame-duck Congressional session, the incoming Trump Administration, how the makeup of Congress has changed following the 2024 election, and the advocacy outlook going into 2025. Webinar speakers reviewed new Congressional leadership and incoming political appointments as well as an analysis of new state and local government officials and ballot initiatives from across the country.
Key takeaway: The arts should get ready for major shifts as well as an unknown period of uncertaintyas new priorities are developed by the incoming Administration and sorted out with Republican control of the House and Senate effective in early January.
A major question: Who might or will be allies on arts and cultural issues in the new Congress? Both the House and Senate have arts and cultural caucuses. DC does not have full representation in the House or Senate, which makes elected officials from Maryland and Virginia key to the DMV theater region.
Other key issues include the uncertainty of overall Federal Government funding once the current Continuing Resolution expires on December 20, 2024, and the unknown continuation of special funding earmarks placed by Congress.
A major matter specific to the DMV area with its large Federal employee population: How will the incoming Administration move forward with the recommendations of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency? There have been a myriad of news articles and policy statements about reductions of the Federal workforce and government programs as a top priority. The Federal workforce may or will be impacted by RIFs (Reductions in Force), removals by other means, forced geographic relocations from the DMV, and the development and implementation of a new Schedule F category for more senior career Federal staff. Schedule F would allow the Executive Branch to take action to remove career staff more quickly than previously. There could also be Executive Orders that will affect government workers and Federal government-funded programs. All this can lead to constant disruption in the lives of Federal workers, of whom there are about 282,000 in the area. DC alone is home to 7.3 percent of the Federal workforce; Virginia, 6.6 percent; and Maryland, 6.4 percent.
Also serious:State arts funding is projected to decline. State legislative appropriations to the 56 State and Special Jurisdiction Arts Agencies are projected to decrease 5.8 percent from $575.6 million in 2025 (down from $611.1 million in 2024), according to new research published by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
The webinar recording is below. The slides are downloadable here.
Recent Washington Post headlines about drastic changes coming in the U.S. government — with a focus on overhauling federal operations (think NEA and NEH and beyond) and slashing through old ways of thinking/doing — should alarm those in the arts, especially in the DMV theater community, which is so dependent on theatergoers who are government employees or contractors or consultants. The DMV is a government region, is it not?
How will the arts respond to the new realities out there? Who will be the arts allies come January 20, 2025, with the new zeitgeist? Even this: How will the arts fare as philanthropic grantmakers decide to fund programs for people in immediate need such as immigrants, refugees, or the less economically and socially advantaged in our midst? Can we expect those with decent salaries — such as, say, Kennedy Center leadership or similar — to take permanent pay cuts to show solitary and resistance and to keep their staff employed? Will business issues take precedence over the artistic? Just asking.
Do we have a Rick to save us as he did in Casablanca in response to a young refugee woman’s plea: “Things are very bad…the devil has the people at the throat.”
How will the arts respond to the new realities out there? I have no clue. But will our previous ways save us?
Washington Post headlines about the incoming Administration’s “push for drastic changes in U.S. government” have led me to wonder out loud for the DMV theater community. After all, federal, state, and local government employees and consultants are major theatergoers and theater supporters in the DMV. What happens when they are released from employment to be replaced by those who may have a much different view of the arts?
When COVID devastated the theater arts, it was national and regional political leadership that led to the SBA Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) programs that helped many to survive. Would such be possible or even conceivable with the change in national leadership? I am just asking.
If you are unfamiliar with SVOG, here is a headline summary from a late 2023 evaluation of the program:
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) was established to support the ongoing operations of eligible venues that were financially affected by prevention measures and closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this mixed methods evaluation was to better understand key outcomes of SVOG, grantee characteristics, and grant allocations. The evaluation used a difference-in-difference statistical analysis to compare outcomes of SVOG grantees and non-recipients. The statistically significant findings are that after the disbursement of SVOG funds, grantees experienced increased annual revenues and greater chances of business survival. Analysis of administrative data showed that most grantees spent funds on payroll and general operating expenses. Findings from a grantee survey and follow-on interviews corresponded with the quantitative findings, revealing that grantees felt SVOG prevented their businesses from closure. (Source.)
Will that kind of federal support exist again in the next four years? What will happen to local theater audiences if, as promised, thousands of government jobs are eliminated or moved elsewhere? Will theater be defunded because it is “woke”?
There is a flurry of new arts development in Fairfax County. The aim: to give Fairfax County bold footing in the DMV performing arts footprint. The opening this weekend of the new Capital One Hall in the burgeoning Tysons area of Fairfax County is leading the way.
The new performing arts venue is a public-private partnership between Fairfax County government and Capital One Bank. The public-use partnership, valued at more than $11 million, will bring a new arts and cultural experience to the area.
Booked to open the new venue are an evening with Josh Groban on October 1, Little Big Town on their Nightfall tour October 2–3, and the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra presenting Saint-Saëns and Beethoven October 9. Coming up: the touring Broadway musical Waitress October 29–31. (See the full schedule of events and performances at capitalonehall.com/events.)
For Fairfax County, the arts are an economic engine, bringing about $300 million in economic activity, providing around 6,200 full-time-equivalent jobs, and generating approximately $20 million in local and state government revenue each year. “It is clear that the arts are a big business,” said Linda Sullivan, president and CEO of ArtsFairfax. “We’re seeing an increased recognition of the value the arts bring to our region.”
With about 1.1 million residents, Fairfax County is the largest-population county in the DMV, with an ever-increasing diversity. The county also ranks seventh-richest in the nation based on median household income.
The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (FSO) opens its 64th concert season in the Capital One Hall, making it the first Fairfax County performing arts organization to perform there. Under the baton of music director and conductor Christopher Zimmerman, the concert will include works from Bernstein, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns. Joining the FSO will be Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled performing the Cello Concerto No.1 by Saint-Saëns.
“We’re thrilled to return to the stage in our concert debut at the gorgeous Capital One Hall,” said Zimmerman. “We invite all music lovers to join us to experience the joyous music of Bernstein and Beethoven, and the excitement of hearing Amit Peled — one of the most engaging cellists of our time — play Saint-Saëns beautiful cello concerto within the architectural splendor and distinctive acoustics of this stunning venue!”
“To celebrate our inaugural season, we are delighted to welcome the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra for a magical evening of music and artistry,” said Jonathan Griffith, managing director of Capital One Center. “We’re excited for our growing partnership with the Fairfax Symphony and proud to open this stunning new performing arts venue and the surrounding amenities of Capital One Center.”
The Main Theater is a mainstage 1,600-seat performance space with an orchestra level and two balconies. With its steep rise, viewed on a recent visit, the audience will be close to the stage and in comfortable seats surrounded by warm interior walls.
As seen on a tour of the expansive backstage area, there is extensive rigging, wings, a walkable grid, an adjustable proscenium stage, multiple dressing rooms, and even a hydraulic lift for a grand piano that can be kept in its own temperature-and-humidity-controlled chamber. Patrons can reach the Main Theater, the Atrium, and other interior spaces by escalator, elevator, or the Grand Staircase. With its bar and food amenities, the Atrium can be used for pre- and post-show gatherings and even weddings and galas.
The Vault is a smaller, more intimate space with 225 seats on risers. The upstage wall is an expanse of windows — looking out on the nearby Metro station and ongoing construction in the new urban Tysons — which can be blacked out with closeable curtains. Judging from an initial walk-through, the wings of the Vault are minimal and there is no real backstage, making the venue less suited for live theater production than for concert, cinema, and classroom use.
For national touring companies and boldface-name entertainers, Capital One Hall offers a prime new booking option. Thanks to the public-private partnership, the new performance spaces will also be available at specially negotiated rates for Fairfax County nonprofit arts groups and for arts-related programming by Fairfax County government agencies and Fairfax County Public schools. “This is a tremendous opportunity for local arts groups to have additional access to performing spaces, plus classrooms, for a wide variety of activities,” said Sullivan. The Vault will be available for public use by local performing arts groups 57 days per year; the Main Theater, for 25 days. The partnership also provides for technical supports such as sound and lighting.
Following the FSO’s concert on October 9, the next Fairfax County-based arts organizations to perform in the Main Theater are Gin Dance on October 16 and the Virginia Chamber Orchestra on October 23. The annual Washington West Film Festival will also have showings in the Vault on October 23.
Capital One Hall was designed by a team led by HGA and built with a “box-in-a-box” approach, to mitigate noise and vibrations from the surrounding area and activities. Drivers will find ample parking and the Hall is a ten-minute walk from the elevated Silver Line McLean Station. The exterior is made of 7,000 slabs of Carrera marble imported from Italy. The façade has approximately 16,000 square feet of glass, allowing daylight and nighttime to be visible from the vast interior Atrium.
Capital One Hall is located at 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, VA. It is right off Metro’s Silver Line McLean station. For driving and public transportation directions, see capitalonehall.com/visit.For tickets and information go to capitalonehall.com. Current safety and health guidance for entering Capital One Hall can be found at capitalonehall.com/faq.
Are you an artist or arts organization looking for a place to perform? ArtsFairfax had you in mind when it released its Creative Spaces Toolkit—a handy roadmap to interim activation and use of vacant buildings and spaces and a tool to help create collaboration between the arts sector, property owners, and government officials. While a publication of ArtsFairfax, the toolkit provides step-by-step instructions that be used by artists and arts organizations beyond Fairfax County, Virginia.
Click the image to download the toolkit.Linda Sullivan, President and CEO of ARTSFAIRFAX. Photo by Neshan Naltchayan.
As Linda Sullivan, president and CEO of ArtsFairfax, indicated, “The arts are needed to rebuild and heal our community as we emerge from the pandemic.” Artists and arts organizations can help “to not only activate vacant spaces but catalyze the recovery.”
Why a connection between the arts and economic recovery after the pandemic? In Fairfax County, the arts have become an economic engine of about $300 million in economic activity and have generated approximately $20 million in local and state government revenue each year according to available research. ArtsFairfax indicates that the nonprofit arts industry also serves over 93,000 Fairfax County students annually.
With ever-increasing diversity and with over 1.1 million residents, Fairfax County has the largest population among DMV jurisdictions. Of note, Fairfax County ranks as the seventh-richest county in the nation based on median household income. The median household income for county residents was $122,277, almost two times the national figure.
Unfamiliar with ArtsFairfax and its mission? It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, incorporated in 1964 as Fairfax County’s designated local arts agency. The mission of ArtsFairfax is to be the voice of the arts, dedicated to fostering dynamic and diverse local arts, ensuring that arts thrive by providing vision, leadership, capacity-building services, advocacy, funding, education, and information.
“We are eagerly anticipating the return of live performances to the Center for the Arts,” said Rick Davis, dean of the George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Our signature kickoff event—known for 15 years as ‘ARTS by George!’—has been reimagined this year in response to the pandemic. We’re calling it Arts Emerging as a way of celebrating resilience and recovery, and the role the arts have played and continue to play in our communities.
Rick Davis, Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts, George Mason University. Courtesy George Mason University.
“Arts Emerging will be a festive, energetic, outdoor/indoor, family-friendly showcase of artistry, and a perfect way to turn the corner into a new season,” added Davis. The event is on September 25, 2021, with tickets at $10.
The 2021–22 season includes artists and events that the Center for the Arts was able to reschedule after pandemic cancellations last year, including Cartography, an innovative and timely work about five young refugees who have set out searching for a new place to call home. It is an extraordinary multidisciplinary creation and includes an artist residency component led by co-creator Kaneza Schaal in which the artists will spend time interacting with various Fairfax communities both on and off the Mason campus.
Cartographycreates an interactive onstage virtual storm that rises up in response to the actors’ voices and uses cell phones to depict memories. It features live sculpture creation to represent their journeys. And the audience has an active part to play. The performance will be on Saturday, October 2, 2021.
Janice Amaya, Noor Hamdi, Malaika Uwamahoro, Vuyo Sotashe, and Victoria Nassif in ‘Cartography.’ Photo by Elman Studio. Courtesy George Mason University Center for the Arts.
With the pandemic, “we’ve counted our breaths. We are also in a crisis of global proportion; many people are newly understanding their connection to other parts of the world, their direct connection to the breaths of others,” noted Schaal. “Theater has always lived at this intersection — a small immediate community sharing big questions about the world.
Kaneza Schaal, co-creator of ‘Cartography’ to be featured at Center for the Arts. Photo by Christopher Myers. Courtesy George Mason University.
“And this is what Cartography is about, how we can gather in the theater together to remember all the journeys, recent and generations past, that brought us here,” Schall added.
Mason’s Center for the Arts (CFA) has a long history of presenting outstanding artistic experiences for the Northern Virginia community. The CFA opened to the public in October 1990 and has grown to become Northern Virginia’s go-to performance venue. The CFA’s 2021–2021 season of “Great Performances at Mason” is no exception, presenting an incredible range of diverse artists and events as old favorites return and new additions await patrons.
Arts Emerging and Cartographywill be presented by George Mason University Center for the Arts, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA: Arts Emerging on Saturday, September 25, 2021, and Cartography on Saturday, October 2, 2021. Cartography is recommended for ages 10 and older. For information and tickets go to cvpa.gmu.edu or call 703-993-2787.
Health and safety requirements. Everyone, even those who are fully vaccinated, must wear a face covering when inside university property (buildings and vehicles). Seating will be at full capacity for indoor performances except for Family Series events. Outside fresh air supply has been increased by 50% and ventilation systems are running continuously to increase the exchange of air. Details at cfa.gmu.edu/plan-your-visit.
UPDATE: The U.S. Small Business Administration has postponed relaunch of the problem-plagued Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) application portal until Monday, April 26, 2021, at noon ET. Interested applicants should register for an account in advance through the portal.
Technical Assistant-only for the Application Portal through SBA Call Center 1-800-659-2955. The call center is open today from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT and, starting Saturday, April 24, the center will be open 24 hours a day through Monday evening at 8 p.m. EDT. For application assistance, SBA recommends contacting one of their local assistance providers.
The SBA is responsible for several critical COVID-relief programs of expected interest to the arts community, including SVOG and the Paycheck Protection Program.
Isabella Casilla Guzman
“Help is here for venue operators hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman. “The SBA knows these venues are critical to America’s economy and understands how hard they’ve been impacted, as they were among the first to shutter. This vital economic aid will provide a much-needed lifeline for live venues, museums, movie theatres and many more.”
A national Shuttered Venue Operators Grant informational webinar on the application process for potential eligible entities was recorded March 30 and can be viewed here.
Click this image to read the April 20, 2021, arts-funding update from Americans for the Arts Action Fund.
Previous DCMTA reports on stimulus/relief funding for the arts are compiled below.
Originally published March 5, 2021, updated March 9, 2021
Federal rescue funding for shuttered venues remains stalled
The $15 billion grant program is not yet accepting applications, but there’s now more information about how to apply.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is still in the process of setting up the $15 billion Shuttered Venues Operators Grant program and is not yet accepting applications. The SBA remains without the confirmed Biden Administration nominated Administrator or Deputy Administrator. Nevertheless there is now more information available about how to apply when the time comes.
Late on Friday March 5, SBA posted the following Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) documents to their website, providing an extensive checklist of materials to begin preparing for an application and a clear table of eligibility requirements based on the type of venue operator/producer/talent representative entity. SBA also added a few changes to the SVOG’s new FAQs (the added FAQs begin with an * asterisk), as well as a new video tutorial for museums. (Note: any SVOG changes currently in pending legislation cannot be reflected in these newly published documents until enacted into law—hopefully before March 14.)
On February 24, 2021, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship chaired by Ben Cardin (D-Md.) advanced the nomination of Isabella Casillas Guzman to be U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator on a bipartisan vote of 15–5. The Committee Hearings were held on February 3, 2021. But the vote on the nomination by the full Senate is still pending.
Biden Administration update on stimulus/relief bill
How much of $900 billion will go to theaters and individuals.
President Biden has announced his nomination of Isabel Guzman to lead the Small Business Administration (SBA), which is responsible for the $15 billion Shuttered Venues Operators (SVO) grants program (see below: “The new stimulus/relief bill: What’s in it for you?”). Guzman is currently director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate. Her authority will include development of guidelines and regulations necessary to implement the SVO program. Guzman has been a member of the Biden Transition Team for the Small Business Administration.
Until Guzman is confirmed by the Senate, President Biden announced January 20, 2021, that Tami Perriello will be the Acting Head of the SBA. Scott Harriford has taken the position as the new liaison between the White House and the Small Business Administration. The SBA Office of Disaster Assistance is expected to administer the SVO Grants.
https://youtu.be/PdfQGb6z-gg
A 13-minute video webinar overview of the SVO was held on January 15, 2021. Since that webinar, the SBA has provided updated written guidance on its website.
On January 28, 2021, the SBA posted answers to frequently asked questions about the SVO Grant program, in a download available here.
• SVO Priority Awards are no longer limited to shuttered venues with 50 employees or fewer. Priority awardees will not need to satisfy the small employer set-aside. During the first 59 days of opening the SVO Grants, SBA will reserve no less than $2 billion of program funding for grants to entities that have no more than 50 employees.
• An SVO Grant recipient cannot also receive a PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) Loan and vice versa, PPP bank loan offers remain open for 10 days before the bank offer is rescinded.
Originally published December 29, 2020
The new stimulus/relief bill: What’s in it for you?
With the $900 billion coronavirus-relief stimulus bill finally signed December 27, our readers are wondering: What’s in it for the theater community? And what’s in it for individuals? We will highlight responses to those two questions in this article. As with any legislation, the devil is not only in the text or even the provisions, but in how they might be implemented by regulations or grant announcements at Federal, state, and local levels. So we will continue to follow implementation of the new legislation over the next days, weeks, and months and report back to you.
What’s in the stimulus legislation for performing arts organizations?
Contained in the $900 billion stimulus bill are critical provisios to dedicate $15 billion in funding nationally for “Grants for Shuttered Venue Operators.” These grants are tucked into a larger section titled “Continuing the Paycheck Protection Program and Other Small Business Support.”
The $15 billion grant program will be under the administrative purview of the Small Business Administration (SBA). The program is not only for live theater venues such as members of theatreWashington or Broadway houses. There is a broad array of persons and entities eligible to apply. They include live venue operators or promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organization operators (music venues), museum operators, motion picture theater operators, and talent representatives who demonstrate a 25 percent reduction in revenues. Other arts entities with an interest in the $15 billion were hightlighted in this recent Washington Post article.
The legislation provides further guidance to the SBA:
The SBA may make an initial grant of up to $10 million to an eligible person or entity and a supplemental grant that is equal to 50 percent of the initial grant.
Such grants shall be used for specified expenses such as payroll costs, rent, utilities, and personal protective equipment.
The SBA is required to conduct increased oversight of eligible persons and entities receiving these grants and must submit a report on the oversight to Congress.
For DC-area persons or entities interested in applying for the new funds, there are these legislative provisions to be aware of as well:
$2 billion of these funds are reserved for entities with 50 or fewer full-time employees.
Grant amounts are based on 45 percent of the recipient’s 2019 gross earned revenue.
Eligible theater and museum entities are those that have lost at least 25 percent of their revenues during the pandemic.
The initial grant can total up to $10 million per eligible business; a second grant, worth half the amount of the first, may also be available.
During the first 14 days of the program’s implementation, grants will be awarded to those entities that have faced 90 percent revenue losses; then during the next two weeks, those that have experienced at least 70 percent revenue losses will be eligible; after the first month of the program, any other eligible businesses can receive grants.
Application details regarding the $15 billion will be the responsibility of the SBA. And SBA senior poliical officials are expected to change after President Biden’s inauguration at noon January 20, 2021.
Beyond the $15 billion dedicated to the arts, there are also funds that arts entities should be aware of including about $284 billion to the U.S. Small Business Administration for Paycheck Protection Program forgivable small business loans as well an allocation of $20 billion to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). In addition, $12 billion is to be set aside to help businesses in low-income and minority communities.
Implementation guidance related to the dedicated $15 billion and other funds can be found on the SBA website.
What’s in the new legislation for arts workers and their families?
The new stimulus bill contains a number of provisions aimed directly at individuals and families well beyond the dedicated $15 billion:
$166 billion for economic impact payments of $600 for individuals making up to $75,000 per year and $1,200 for married couples making up to $150,000 per year, as well as a $600 payment for each child dependent. (As of this writing, the House has sent to the Senate a measure to raise each such $600 payment to $2,000. Whether the Senate will consider it is uncertain.)
$120 billion to provide workers receiving unemployment benefits a $300 per week supplement from Dececember 26 until March 14, 2021. This bill also extends the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, with expanded coverage to the self-employed, gig workers, and others in nontraditional employment, and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides additional weeks of federally funded unemployment benefits to individuals who exhaust their regular state benefits.
$25 billion in emergency rental aid and an extension of the national eviction moratorium through January 31, 2021.
$13 billion for emergency food assistance, including a 15 percent increase for six months in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
$10 billion in child-care assistance.
In addition, the new legislation contains $45 billion in transportation funding, including $14 billion for transit systems such as Metro, which is considering service cuts on late nights and weekends. There are also budget increases for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
As the pandemic has left live theater dark for the past year, we have been given an unexpected gift: the opportunity to take in virtual theatrical productions from companies we may not be familiar with or have been geographically distant from. Traveling virtually also allows theatergoers to take in the works of new generation of theatermakers, those perhaps overlooked in the “before” times.
Recently I took in a 10-minute play festival of original works written, produced, directed, acted, and crewed by students from the Bowie State University (BSU) School of Theatre. It was the BSU Theatre 8th Annual 10 Minute Play Festival: “By Students. For Students.” A virtual Zoom production totally crafted by the students using their own phones and home-based technology, it was a vitalizing experience.
The festival featured five new plays, all written by BSU students under the age of 25: Powerline, The Ties That Brake, Noonie and Rocky, Rule of the Game, and Aren’t You. There was humor and anger, love and pain, personal determination and lightness, moving with jazz rhythms, or pop songs, or a mournful ballad. There was the delight of two young people finding their way into love. There were others with hard bracing stops, giving shivers about death in a world of white supremacy.
The challenging works they created had such piercing dialogue as:
You’re casket ready.
Stop playing before you end up on a T-shirt.
Call us by our right names.
Believe in something greater.
As well, there were the joyful words of two people sitting in the front seat of a virtual car chatting about the moon, the sun, love, and tacos.
Bowie State University is an HBCU (Historically Black College and University) located in Bowie, Maryland. Founded in 1865, Bowie State is the oldest HBCU in Maryland and one of the ten oldest in the country.
As I learned in a conversation with four members of the BSU Student Executive Producers group—newly created within the university theater program for the play festival—it was a positive reflection of how faculty worked to center Black student voices.
The students noted the stresses of not being in an in-person school environment over the past year due to COVID-19. As Nathanael Hatchett noted: “It has been disheartening to have my college experience transferred online, but my family and professors have helped us adjust really well. Our professors have reshaped the curriculum to be engaging as possible during these times, and by us the Executive Producers being included in the process of planning the program productions, we’ve produced productions that reflect the students’ needs and wants.”
Ryan Anthony added: “We thrive on physical interaction to create work and having to adjust to a virtual form was extremely tasking.”
I asked four BSU Student Executive Producers—Ryan Anthony, Nathanael Hatchett, Cristen Young and Daniel Young—to provide some background about themselves and their theater interests.
Bowie State University Student Executive Producers Ryan Anthony, Nathanael Hatchett, Cristen Young, and Daniel Young. Background: main stage, BSU Fine and Performing Arts Center.
Ryan Anthony: I enrolled in Bowie State out of necessity and understanding the chance I was given when I received a Band Scholarship. The caveat in joining an HBCU and being a theater artist is sadly a large majority of the HBCUs fail to supply their performing arts departments with the necessary tools to succeed in their field (i.e. financial assistance and a curriculum that requires staff of color to teach students of color).
After changing to a Theatre major, I at first wanted to strictly act. After participation in the 7th Annual 10 Minute Play Festival in 2020 as both a director and playwright, I then fell in love with the creator aspect, as opposed to the created aspect.
Nathanael Hatchett: I transferred to Bowie State in my junior year of college. Bowie State chose me, just as I chose them. I decided to enroll at Bowie State because I wanted my college experience to be filled with cultural teachings that represented the identities that I serve. A lot of times in HBCU programs we are underfunded, and specifically in the arts we have to fend for ourselves based on lack of support, so what makes our program special is that we have such a loving, supporting, and nurturing community within each other.
I first fell in love with theater in high school through my theater arts class when we learned about spoken word. We were tasked with memorizing and performing a poem of our choosing, so I chose “And 2morrow” by Tupac Shakur. This poem spoke life and love into me, and I knew in those moments that performance poetry and production was for me. Through performing arts I want to spread love where the hate is.
Cristen Young: My decision to enroll at Bowie was mainly locationally and monetarily based because I was living outside of the country at the time. However, I definitely do not regret my choice. HBCUs are amazing because they allow for those that may feel like a minority in everyday life to be surrounded with the fellowship of people that look like them. However, often arts departments, like Bowie State’s, have a hard time getting as much funding as other programs.
I had a moment several weeks ago when the lockdown in my area finally ended and I was allowed to continue dance classes. As I was standing there in class, my instructor hadn’t even begun to teach yet, but I looked in the mirror and got so giddy because I was standing in a studio about to dance. I realize now, THAT FEELING is why I pursue performance art. Looking back to my childhood, it feels as though I was simply lucky enough to grow up in what I consider to be the prime of dance movies and musicals in entertainment history so far.
Daniel Young: When I first started at Bowie State, I started as a Communications: Broadcast Journalism major with a minor in Theatre Arts. I was planning to see how it would work, since Broadcast Journalism is similar to the Theatre Arts major in some of the courses you take. But after my first theater class I knew I would miss out on so much as a minor and switched the next semester. Part of the reason I did was the community we have in the department. It truly felt like a family, and that was something I hadn’t felt in a school setting before. I’ve been in love with the department and my new family ever since.
I want to work in performing arts because I love telling stories and bringing people on a journey. I fell in love with the arts and storytelling when I was in The Uncut Coming of Christ, at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden. I’ve loved the feeling of bringing a story to life and sharing that life with others ever since.
• • •
Summing up the impact of these students’ lives in this moment, Elena Velasco, assistant professor in the BSU Department of Fine and Performing Arts, told me this: “Transformation is necessary in every aspect of theater, particularly to ensure representation and equity are centered as we all move forward. And with rising leaders such as BSU Theatre’s Executive Producers, that change will be felt throughout our field.”
The performing arts, which have been and are dealing with major stressors, need passionate change agents to lead into the future. While that seems clear to me, I wanted to know what might be on the minds of others, especially those studying the management side of the performing arts, which are a business too. So I reached out to the arts management program of the George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Let’s start with one of the GMU professors, then bring in a couple of arts management students.
George Mason University Associate Professor Carole Rosenstein, Masters students Emily Catherine Dugal and Hannah Gudeman.
Carole Rosenstein (Mason Associate Professor, Arts Management Program): We know that the next three to five years are going to be a time of enormous challenge and change for the arts. We will have to rebuild our cultural economy and infrastructure, help artists recover, and respond to fundamental shifts in technology and in people’s expectations about how the arts fit into their lives. To function as a professional in that sort of context requires a toolkit, and that is what we help students to build in arts management programs.
Coming in, our students know that they are dedicated to the arts. We move that forward. What is your ethical orientation toward your work? How do you balance mission and market forces? How do you fit a business model to an entrepreneurial idea? How do you identify and steward available resources? Who makes up your community?
A foundation of knowledge and experience in these areas gives our graduates the confidence and flexibility of creative thinkers. Learning about how people have answered these questions in the past and sharing with a cohort of graduate students the journey of answering them for yourself is a first step along the path to leadership in the field.
Why did you decide to study arts management?
Emily Catherine Dugal (George Mason University Arts Management Masters student): I chose to study arts management because I am passionate about facilitating meaningful art experiences for the public, I believe in the power and influence that art has in bettering human lives. I have created art my entire life; the joy I’ve received from making and sharing art is what has driven me to pursue a career focused in creating accessible, diverse, and engaging art experiences for others. I chose to study Arts Management at George Mason University because their program provides a strong course curriculum that molds students into adept, multifaceted arts managers.
Hannah Gudeman (Arts Management Masters student): I decided to study arts management after witnessing a consistent breakdown in communication between orchestra management and musicians, which led to lockouts, strikes, and ultimately a pause on creating music. As a violinist, I was eager to learn more about arts management in order to become a voice for musicians and artists, allowing them to create music and art at the highest level without restriction. Entering the Arts Management program at George Mason, I could not have foreseen that this issue would escalate as orchestra contracts and seasons were canceled in March 2020 and musicians were left without pay throughout most of the coronavirus pandemic. I am dedicated to contributing to negotiations and solutions that provide support for musicians, regardless of organizational health. Working together is the only way forward, and I hope to assist in cultivating healthy relationships between management and musicians.
How do you think the performing arts will ultimately respond to being dark for the past year because of COVID?
Emily Catherine Dugal: The performing arts sector has had an exceptionally challenging past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I believe their continuation in creative problem solving will help these organizations to continue the fulfillment of their missions and vision. While I do believe that virtual programming has served as a vital and cost-efficient outlet for performing arts organizations during these dark times, I do not think that virtual programming alone is going to be enough to satisfy audiences, performers, or the organizations in the long run. Options such as in-person outdoor concerts, performances, and programs could be a great way for performing arts organizations to provide their audience with more variety in programming options, direct engagement with their communities, and support local artists.
Hannah Gudeman: The performing arts will always persevere, and, although some organizations were dark for the past year, an abundance of new and innovative art has been created virtually over the past year. What we can all learn from the pandemic is that arts organizations who are flexible and focused on creating art will find ways to present programs regardless of the circumstances.
What do you think the performing arts will look like in the next three to five years?
Emily Catherine Dugal: I imagine the performing arts in the next three to five years will look more diverse and innovative than ever before. I think performing arts events in the future will include a larger range of performance styles, more creations and performances by BIPOC and LGBTQ artists, and an increase in outdoor productions. I believe there will be an increase in communication between performing arts organizations and their audiences, which will help the organizations in understanding how to best serve their patrons.
Hannah Gudeman: Over the next three to five years, the performing arts world will look like something we have never seen before. Following the artistic shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations turned to virtual programming, which allowed for further distribution and interaction. Moving forward, I think we will see even more virtual programming and the altering of programs to serve both in-person and virtual audiences.
• • •
This article is only a beginning point. What do you think, DCMTA readers—you who are supporters of the arts and a key life force, or you who are the makers of the performing arts? What kind of show business do the performing arts need next?
MetroStage continues its exploration of the works of the late multi-Tony Award winning playwright Terrence McNally with a virtual reading of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
Directed by Stefan Sittig, the MetroStage production aims to bring a fresh look to the characters of Frankie and Johnny, two people living on the fringe seeking some lasting connections and love. They spend the night together wondering if it is a hookup or something more.
Veronica del Cerro and Michael Kevin Darnall in ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.’ Video image courtesy of MetroStage.
“Readings offer a great opportunity to bring back some of our favorite actors who had appeared on our stage,” said Carolyn Griffin, MetroStage producing artistic director. “I love reminding our audience of our incredible artists from some of our past productions.” Frankie and Johnny features Veronica del Cerro (Frankie) and Michael Kevin Darnall (Johnny), who appeared together in MetroStage’s Savage in Limbo (2011). The virtual reading will have a special appearance by television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis as the radio announcer.
McNally created “incredibly flawed people, challenged by life’s circumstances, who have such humanity that we care deeply about both,” added Griffin. “The virtual platform strips it down to the basics. We can actually feel what they are experiencing because they are talking to us through that screen as well as to each other.
“I’ve seen many productions [of Frankie and Johnny] that just didn’t capture the excitement that I feel when I read the play.” said Sittig. “I think they may have put too much emphasis on these people being ‘sufferers’ or victims of their financial and social circumstances. It somehow didn’t resonate with me.”
“These are blue collar workers, but they aspire to more — they want to have hope and they are curious and extremely intelligent, even if they haven’t had the opportunities afforded to those in upper classes,” said Sittig. “I don’t see them as victims — I see them as fighters, trying to find some happiness — in this case, eventually, with each other.”
Veronica del Cerro and Michael Kevin Darnall. Photos courtesy of MetroStage.
Michael Kevin Darnall brings the character of Johnny ‘alive,’ Sittig continued. “We have to love him, and we have to hope alongside him. His idealistic, romanticized view of the world is something the actor has to sell to us, otherwise he can come off as a bit aggressive.”
I think the fact that he [Darnall] is an actor of mixed race adds another dimension,” said Sittig.
Veronica del Cerro brings another dimension as well. “I think we had a rehearsal or two under our belts when I asked Veronica what her background was. I am half-Latinx myself, and I was raised in South America. A Latinx Frankie was always of interest to me as a director. Turns out Veronica and I both have mothers who are from Uruguay!”
In character as Frankie, del Cerro “is feisty, but in her own way — in a way a Latina would be — she holds her ground and calls Johnny out when needed, but she never gets too rough. She keeps her femininity while holding her ground,” indicated Sittig. “Frankie has a steely tenacity and underlying strength.
“These actors are fantastic and very engaging — which is critical with online work,” Sittig said. “You can’t take your eyes off of them, and they are giving the material its full value — McNally’s words really soar when they are sparking off each other. Their chemistry is palpable, and I think that will translate well in this online format.”
Both Sittig and Griffin also mentioned a unique aspect to rehearsals for Frankie and Johnny: the challenge of coordinating schedules, since del Cerro lives outside of Barcelona, Spain. That made for a six-hour-plus time difference.
Darnall described his character Johnny as having “reached a point in his mid-life where he takes nothing for granted. It is now or never. When something sparks passion in him, he pursues it unceasingly. He is sensitive, self-taught, and curious. If he spots a brass ring, he is going to reach out and grab it on the first try.
“Frankie is the ultimate prize, she is everything Johnny wants and needs, and he is utterly tenacious when it comes to convincing her that they both can stop searching; they can get off the ride and go home,” said Darnall. “Playing Johnny feels a little like flying. The script is so tight, almost breathless, highly emotional.”
For del Cerro, Frankie and Johnny brings forth “moments of light that arise when the two characters share their vulnerabilities — bits of hope we can take into the world.
“Although this is only a reading, it is a challenging opportunity to begin to explore a character that knows violence and aggression so intimately.
“This play is all about connection, and we can’t do that in virtual form. The physical and kinesthetic spheres are taken out of the interplay,” noted del Cerro. “It is frustrating, but also focuses us to explore the text in another way. One can really hear the play in this version.”
Inviting audiences to the virtual reading, Sittig said: “Audiences can expect to be hooked from the beginning on these two characters, and they will go on a journey, with highs and lows, sensuality and humor, and some really nice insights into the human condition, and maybe some answers, or the beginning of answers to some of the questions we all ask ourselves in life: ‘Can somebody truly love me or want me the way I truly am?’ ‘Will I find my soulmate?’ ‘Do I even have one?’”
Note: Donations will be accepted as MetroStage has launched a Capital Campaign for its new Alexandria venue currently under construction. Information about the campaign for the new stage for MetroStage is here: metrostage.org/what-we-do.
What can be discovered if we find the time and ability to have a conversation with our parents about the time before we existed? Think of what we might learn. Think of the unremembered or misremembered pieces of our own selves that become clearer.
And now even more so, with the unprecedented number of over 550,000 deaths in the United States from COVID-19 in the past year. With all the heartbreak that accompanies the loss of a loved one and friends; with a heavy heart, thinking it too late to ask the vital questions that had been stored away…unasked…we wonder.
Tuyet Thi Pham. Photo by Jennifer Knight.
Those thoughts came to mind over the past weeks and months in my conversations with DC-area performing artists Tuyet Thi Pham and Jennifer Knight. I was enthralled to learn about a short video entitled Motherland they were developing for an upcoming premiere at the Atlas Performing Arts Center “Movement on Air” event, scheduled to stream the evening of April 23, 2021.
Motherland is the distillation of hours of conversations that Tuyet conducted with her mother and father in 2017 as “an heirloom” for their grandchildren. (Her mother passed away at the age of 87 in 2019.) These were conversations and parental memories in which Tuyet learned about the “time before,” when her mother and father lived in Viet Nam. And about the days after 1975 when the family left Viet Nam as refugees to come to America. They lived in Nebraska: that was where their family resettlement sponsor lived.
Tuyet also calls Motherland an “origin story”: learning that “our own truth is tied to our parents.” Tuyet and Jennifer worked together to distill the many hours of Tuyet’s taped conversations to produce and perform Motherland. Tuyet performs the role of her mother; Jennifer, that of a questioning daughter.
”I hope the piece inspires people to finally have the conversation they always wanted with the people they wanted to. By knowing our parents’ story we come to a better understanding of who we are, by living our own version of their story,” noted Tuyet. And there is this from Jennifer: “If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we have no certainties. We must seize the moment now, if we can, if we are lucky.”
As for deciding to have the conversations with her parents, Tuyet mentioned that in a relationship there is “a small window when parents and children may be ready to have a conversation, a conversation for reconciliation or resolution that is not easy to navigate.” She asked out loud, “What do you ask your parents in such a vulnerable moment?”
Motherland illustrates a series of questions she asked, such as “What was your life like in Viet Nam?” “What are your fondest memories?” And one moment left me near tears when Mother (as portrayed by Tuyet) said, “Don’t judge me,” just before responding to a question from the daughter (Jennifer).
Jennifer Knight. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Jennifer added that she “felt honored and delighted” to be part of this Motherland project. “Having recently been involved in documenting my own grandmother’s life, I thought it was a lovely coincidence when Tuyet told me she was hoping to utilize family interviews of her mother, and we both had a desire to preserve the stories of our parents and ancestors. (Jennifer’s grandmother and family left China for Taiwan in the late 1940s. Her grandmother is now over 100 years of age).
As our conversations continued, Tuyet and Jennifer wove together stories further exploring immigrants and refugees being displaced by war and moving to new worlds. Tuyet spoke of wanting to preserve her mother’s “accomplishments” and to provide “insights into who we are as Asian women in America with the push and pull of assimilation. The bleak stereotypes of Asian women even as we have endured. We didn’t come to America and find our voice; we didn’t need America to blossom.”
From an early viewing, Motherland is an utterly moving, deeply personal, well-packed nine minutes. The video includes archival and personal pictures along with sounds and voices that add to its staying power.
The video was commissioned by Paul Gordon Emerson, artistic and executive director of Company | E. “I asked Tuyet to be a part of this because I wanted artists who are fearless — unafraid to look their truths in the eye and willing to share what they saw with an audience — to give us the chance to share in, and learn from, them,” Emerson said.
“The fact that she has chosen this path, to speak her mother’s words, to step into her life and to share it in this way, is incredibly bold and inspiring,” Emerson added. “And equally for audiences to have a chance to share them and, if we do our job, come out perhaps just a bit changed by them.”
“I would love for there to be a realization that, for many refugees and immigrants, though we have attained a life here in our country, become citizens, raised families, tasted success and prosperity, there will always be another place that lives within us, a place dense with shadows and longings, perhaps it is a place we once called home,” said Jennifer. “I hope that this inspires families to talk to one another, to keep their stories vibrant and alive, and for people to learn about the origins and homelands of their ancestors.
“We have to tread carefully when probing into these experiences,” Jennifer added. “Every question is charged with the knowledge that, perhaps, we won’t get answers we want, simply because the memories are too painful to acknowledge.”
Let this be your introduction to Motherland. It is joy and humor, pain and love. It is about a life full of resilience. As our conversation concluded, Tuyet’s words remained with me: “I hope the piece inspires people to finally have the conversation they always wanted with the people they wanted.”
Motherland will be shown at the Atlas Performing Arts Center “Movement On Air,” an evening of movement and dance scheduled for April 23, 2021. The video is performed by Tuyet Thi Pham and Jennifer Knight. Tickets, which are free, are available online.
The Motherland program also includes Amikaeyla; Company | E with Robert J. Priore;
Howard University Department of Theatre Arts, performing the work of Royce Zackery;
Movement Theater of Tbilisi, Georgia; and Boris Willis.
You got a fast car I want a ticket to anywhere Maybe we make a deal Maybe together we can get somewhere Any place is better… Is it fast enough so we can fly away?… Leave tonight or live and die this way (“Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman)
Why those lyrics to top my review of Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran? That’s easy. Javaad Alipoor‘s Rich Kids takes off with a car crash of a fast car occupied by two privileged young adults trying to fly away from their stilted lives.
Javaad Alipoor and Peyvand Sadeghian in ‘Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran.’ Screenshot courtesy of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
Rich Kids, set in post-revolutionary Iran, is based upon real-life events gleaned from public records and Instagram accounts of two deceased individuals after their fiery deaths in the high speed crash of a yellow Porsche. But Rich Kids is so much more than a mere tale of two privileged kids. As crafted by Alipoor and co-creator Kirsty Housley, Rich Kids is a nifty, unsubtle virtual drama that begins as a sharp-eyed, mournful tale about two impulsive people. As narrated by Alipoor and co-performer Peyvand Sadeghian, Rich Kids becomes a heart-piercing, insightful essay about broader issues such as climate change and humanity’s ongoing misuse of the world’s finite resources.
Sprinkled throughout Rich Kids are gems of data points ticked off by Alipoor and Housley. Here are but two: The arrival of Europeans to the “new” world 500 years ago led to 50 million deaths. Or this jewel: Humans born since 1948 have slightly radioactive teeth. Added to that, Alipoor and Sadeghian’s explanation of the joys of Vaporwave was a delight.
The Rich Kids production features Alipoor and Sadeghian as insightful, urgent, sometimes chilling narrators who lead viewers by the hand through the 65-minute virtual production. They generally share the screen in Zoom-like boxes. But it is no staid production. With the use of fast-changing pictures, videos, and Instagram, Rich Kids whizzes by. The many highly-charged scenes are connected by explosions of colors, combustible instrumental music, and sound like a slowly erupting volcano spewing out lava.
Peyvand Sadeghian in ‘Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran.’ Screenshot courtesy of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
This show uses Instagram to tell part of the story and for some interactivity during the performance. Woolly makes clear that although it’s not necessary to be on Instagram while you watch the show, it does allow the artists to share more of the world with you and is encouraged. Instructions for accessing Instagram are online and included in confirmation and pre-show emails. I did use Instagram and my laptop to view Rich Kids. The technology creative team behind Rich Kids deserves high praise, including Thom Buttery and Tom Newell for Limbic Cinema (Video Designers), Simon McCorry (Sound Designer), Jess Bernberg (Lighting Designer), Kayleigh Hawkins (Assistant Director), Dom Baker for The Production Family (Production Manager), and Javairya Khan (Projects Assistant).
And why the title Rich Kids: Shopping Malls in Tehran? Well, the reason becomes clear as the production moves along.
Javaad Alipoor and Peyvand Sadeghian in ‘Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran.’ Screenshot courtesy of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
So hearty applause to Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes for bringing the very singular show to area audiences. The virtual version of Rich Kids had its U.S. premiere as part of the 2021 Public Theater Under the Radar Festival in January 2021. It was first seen in a pre-pandemic, live production at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival.
Rich Kids is an inspired, tightly packed production that hypnotized me. It provided plenty of harsh judgment toward entitled offspring while powerfully connecting what can happen if we do not pay heed to our own on-going overconsumption.
Running time: 65 minutes with no intermission
Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran streams live on Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s on Demand site Thursday to Sunday through April 18, 2021. Purchase tickets online.Viewers are encouraged to utilize Instagram for interactivity, and audiences are welcome to join a series of curated post-show talkbacks following Friday and Sunday performances. Links for these conversations will be shared in the chat at the conclusion of the performance.
Note:Rich Kids has descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and death.
Set me free why don’t cha babe
Get out my life why don’t cha babe
‘Cause you don’t really love me
You just keep me hangin’ on
These unflinching lyrics floated through my brain as I took in Studio Theatre’s glorious new film of Mike Bartlett’s Cock. This is Studio’s first foray into streaming a performance that was recorded on one of its stages. And this raw, spartan production is one big deal, for Studio, like other DC-area theaters, has been dark since last March.
Directed by David Muse, as was the 2014 Studio production, Cock is a rock-solid, remastered-for-camera version of the Helen Hayes Award–winning play in a taut, tight performance on a spare set. If you saw Cock in 2014, as I did, see it again. If you missed it back then, take the opportunity to view it now. A stylish and sophisticated blend of the theatrical and the cinematic, it is something to behold.
Randy Harrison (John) and Scott Parkinson (M) in ‘Cock.’ Screenshot courtesy of Studio Theatre.
Muse focuses the production on the actors and Bartlett’s audacious, character-nuanced dialogue. The four-member ensemble circle one another looking for an opening to knock another else off their feet through emotionally delivered verbal jabs, counter punches, and movement. Not a physical weapon in sight..
Muse and his outstanding creative film crew led by Wes Culwell (director of video) and Adrian Musy (director of photography) have a fine eye for how the camera lens focuses audience attention. The high-quality sound design is by James Bigbee Garver (Sound Cue Design), and Allie Roy was production stage manager. There are only a few Zoom-like boxes in the film. This is a film with physical movement within the circle ring—sometimes with one character, sometimes two or more. The editing of the multiple cameras is terrific. And the actors are at safe distances, or filmed separately then edited together.
Studio marketing suggests that “Cock is a tale of sexual attractions and a plentitude of simultaneous conflicting feelings along with an abundance of heated exchanges that pose complex questions about identity, sexuality, and a need for certainty and loyalty in a relationship.” Bartlett’s characters are just plain perplexed and angst-ridden. But they deliver tasty morsels of spicy, pointed, hissy dialogue and rapier-sharp active wordplay along with comic moments to sugar up the tartness and pain. In its own way, Cock is a school yard brawl or perhaps a bare-knuckles boxing brawl. The characters smash at each other, some directly, some more in a passive aggressive manner.
So Cock has a Hamlet-like character charmer named John, who is questioning all he is. He can’t seem to make a decision. He isn’t sure he has a real voice. He wonders who does he love, what does he want? How can he decide between the two people who want him? And then stick with his decision? Is he just indecivsive or is there more to him as he struggles with answers to questions about his sexuality while bringing emotional damage to others. For John (convincingly played in a sometimes coy, sometimes passive-aggressive manner by a magnetic Randy Harrison), perhaps it is this: that when he looks in a mirror or out a window there are so many different me’s to be. He is not confused, but a fluid person living in a binary world of choices, and a woman’s anatomy is unknown to him.
Kathryn Tkel (W) and Randy Harrison (John) in ‘Cock.’ Screenshot courtesy of Studio Theatre.
John has been living with an older, stock-broker partner named M. Scott Parkinson returns to Studio to reprise his Helen Hayes–nominated performance. As M, Parkinson first presents as a strong, powerful individual but full of bitterness that John “always” lets him down and that John seemingly can’t make a commitment. Then Parkinson presents a nuanced vulnerability as his hidden-away hurts come to the surface.
Cock takes on more complexity when John finds himself meeting cute and becoming involved not with another man but with a divorced, childless woman in her late 20s named W (a splendidly soulful, sometimes gentle, sometimes forthright Kathryn Tkel). Is John the answer to her loneliness? “I think you might be right for me,” she suggest to John. She wants a family, to settle down, to move to Paris with him. She is audacious as well. “Would you consider sleeping with a woman?” she gently asks, pointing out that her anatomy is different from John’s previous lovers. But John returns to M seeking a reconciliation. “Kiss me, show me you love me.”
There is also a latecomer to Cock at a thrown-together dinner party. It is M’s father, icalled F, played as a verbal fatherly viper by Alan Wade. He is trying to protect his son from harm as he badgers John to make a decision. Will someone get hurt?
Randy Harrison (John) and Scott Parkinson (M) in ‘Cock.’ Screenshot courtesy of Studio Theatre.
The technical production design for Cock is a winner. The set design is an open circle in which the play takes place. There are a dozen or so short scenes separated by a buzzer. The spare set with a soft gray-tone floor is below eight long fluorescent tubes from Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills. And that is all that is needed—for the dialogue and words and the film editing bring it all to powerful view. Costumes are tastefully casual and demure. Nothing takes away from Bartlett’s words.
It’s been just over a year since theaters in the DC area went dark. At the beginning we wondered what would be. Over this past 12 months we have learned that DC-area theatermakers are a resilient lot with plenty of creative skills in this current hybrid times for live theater. Studio’s Cock is an outstanding example of what theatermakers are doing.
Kathryn Tkel (W) and Alan Wade (F) in ‘Cock.’ Screenshot courtesy of Studio Theatre.
Moving beyond its daring title, Cock is a striking, verbally pungent jolt of theater. And not one bit of clothing is ever taken off. It is an unflinching examination of the fluid nature of life and the questioning of identity.
Studio’s assured production of Mike Bartlett’s Cock provocatively asks many questions, then leaves answers up to audience members to contemplate and perhaps decide.
Cock with its many layers left me reeling—ready to interact and argue with others to come to terms with it. Who is the ultimate winner for the evening? You, the audience, are. You get to decide on your own who of the Cock characters needs whom and who gets to sleep at night all on their own.
Running time: About 90 minutes.
Cock by Mike Bartlett, presented by Studio Theatre, will beavailable to stream on-demand through Studio’s website (studiotheatre.org) through April 25, 2021. Purchase tickets online or by calling 202-332-3300
NOTE: This production contains strong language and sexual content. As for me I am listening to Vanilla Fudge’s organ drum powerful “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1967) right now.
The question is, Who Tells Our Story? In a response to that question, Better Said Than Done is presenting the 2021 Women’s Storytelling Festival. The virtual event will be live online March 19–21, 2021, then streamed for several weeks after, with performances by 36 storytellers from across the U.S. and Canada. Better Said Than Done (BSTD) hosted its first Women’s Storytelling Festival in March 2020.
Women’s Storytelling Festival Producer Jessica Robinson. Photo courtesy of Better Said Than Done.
In a conversation with Jessica Robinson (Fairfax, VA), founder of BSTD and festival producer, there was much to learn. The 2021 festival will feature 24 hours of content in one weekend. For BSTD and storytellers in general, “virtual performance spaces have been a lifeline,” Robinson said. “We have been able to connect to so many people through virtual storytelling shows — and have truly felt connected to a larger audience and a wider group of storytellers.”
Storyteller Arthuretta Holmes-Martin. Photo courtesy of Better Said Than Done.
“Storytelling is the oldest form of communication. It is the first form of teaching in every culture,” added Arthuretta Holmes-Martin (Woodbridge, VA). “Storytelling directly affects the brain and affects human thought and behavior. My stories, even when they are folktales, personal, or historical narratives are about humanity and the challenges of navigating oppressive systems.”
In response to the diversity of the 2021 storytelling festival, Sheila Arnold (Hampton, VA) added, “I believe storytelling is a way of building community, bringing down walls while inspiring, educating, and entertaining.”
The 2021 virtual festival will include performances — both live and prerecorded — from 36 women storytellers with a wide range of stories and storytelling styles and diverse experiences and cultures. The stories are intended for a mature audience. People of all gender identities are welcome to attend.
Storyteller Vijai Nathan. Photo courtesy of Better Said Than Done.
For Vijai Nathan (Fairfax, VA), “the most important thing to me about the storytelling stage is the opportunity for the teller and audience to connect, learn, and empathize with each other. The performance can be a truly transformative experience, and that is why this festival is more important than ever in light of the challenging year that we have all faced.”
Storyteller Diana Veiga. Photo courtesy of Better Said Than Done.
“Since we have just elected our first female vice president of the United States, an all-women’s storytelling show is right on time,” said Dianna Veiga (DC). “As a graduate of an all-women’s college [Spelman], I’m a firm believer in the power that happens when women gather, share our truths, and tell our stories.”
Said Jennifer Munro (Madison, CT): “Women’s voices have always been marginalized — and continue to be. Women have something unique and powerful to say, so why not have a festival showcasing the diversity of women’s voices?” Ingrid Nixon (Gustavus, AK) agreed: “Women’s voices need to be heard. We need to be able to share our thoughts, interpretations, and points of view, without risk of mansplaining or a counter argument.”
The wide range of storytellers in the festival are “a who’s who of world-class storytellers,” indicated producer Robinson. Their photos and bios can be found here.
Storyteller Jane Dorfman. Photo by Michael G. Stewart.
In these current difficult times, find shared humanity and connections with the 2021 virtual Better Said Than Done Women’s Storytelling Festival. “Society loses if its citizens don’t tell their stories; humanity loses,” said Sarah Snyder (Herndon, VA). “Stories have been around since humankind has been around. Stories have given us knowledge about our environment, about other people, about ourselves. Stories have helped us invent things, expand our thinking, improve our lives, and make us better people, while also entertaining us.”
“We should not be fighting for the right to be equally heard, equally considreed, and then feel lucky when that happens,” added Ingrid Nixon. As Jane Dorfman (Bethesda, MD) noted, “there is a great river of tales, and it’s a delight to swim in it.”
The Women’s Storytelling Festival kicks off Friday, March 19, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. ET, and concludes Sunday, March 21, 2021, at 9:30 p.m. Details for Who Tells Our Story?, detailed information, and tickets are available online. Ticket holders will receive links to complete recordings to watch at their leisure for two weeks following the festival.
Note: Better Said Than Done is addressing the current economic crisis by offering pay-what-you-can tickets. Contributions of $40 per person are suggested, with a minimum contribution of $10. A percentage of proceeds from the festival will be donated to the National Storytelling Network. All other proceeds will be split among the storytellers. The Women’s Storytelling Festival is to include Story Slam, hosted by the National Storytelling Network, with an opportunity to perform and win prizes for any ticket holders who put their name in the hat and are selected; and a Story Swap, which is an open mic storytelling event, open to all ticket holders.
In a unique public-private partnership, a new world-class performing arts destination is nearing completion in the Tysons-Mclean area of Fairfax County. It is Capital One Hall scheduled to open in October 2021. It is located on the newly constructed Capital One Bank campus in McLean, Virginia.
The Fairfax County and Capital One Bank public-use partnership is valued at more than $11 million. The partnership aims to bring a new arts and cultural experience to the area.
Rendering of the Capital One Hall interior. Image from Capital One.
The Capital One Hall will include a state-of-the-art 1,500-seat mainstage auditorium; The Vault, a 250-seat blackbox theater; and classrooms. There is also an on-the-roof outdoor ampitheater named The Perch.
The new performance spaces will be available for community use at specially negotiated rates for Fairfax County–based nonprofit arts groups and for arts-related programming by Fairfax County government agencies and Fairfax County Public schools.
The new Capital One Bank campus includes the tallest building in Northern Virignia, the 470-foot Capital One Tower. The Capital One Hall is located about a quarter mile from Metro’s McLean stop on the Silver line, with parking close by.
Rendering of the Capital One Center arts venue currently under construction. Image from Capital One.
As part of the public-private partnership, ArtsFairfax, Fairfax County’s designated local arts agency, is now accepting online applications for community arts use of the spaces for the period September 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. The deadline is midnight, May 1, 2021. Applications will be screened for eligibility and provided to the county. Approved arts organizations and programs will be submitted to Capital One Hall’s operator for integration into the season’s schedule.
The application process is explained here. Technical specifications, a sample contract including costs, the seasonal calendar, and related information can be found here. The ArtsFairfax contact is Lisa Mariam, Director of Grants and Services, lmariam@artsfairfax.org.
As of information currently available, the 250-seat blackbox theater will be available for public use 57 days per year; the main hall, for 25 days. While venue construction is not complete, a behind-the-scenes video shows what to expect.
DCMTA will continue to follow the development of Capital One Center venues, including how the continuing pandemic with its health and safety precautions and guidelines may impact the center’s opening.
The joys of a new online musical await: Sing Happy! The Music of Kander & Ebb, an engaging, confidently performed, energy-filled one-hour revue performed by the talent-rich students of George Mason University’s Mason Cabaret.
“Sharing art right now is so important. People are craving connection, art, theater, and music. This show gives them a little bit of that in these trying times,” Erin Gardiner, told me in a pre-performance interview. Gardiner—assistant professor, Musical Theater, George Mason University School of Theater—directs the Zoom production.
Now, don’t let their student status get in your way of viewing this musical performed by a bevy of more than two dozen able singers and musicians, likely new to your ears and eyes. As Gardiner explained, “The Mason Cabaret is an audition-based group of talented students who act as ambassadors for the Mason School of Theater and our musical theater program.”
Sing Happy! The Music of Kander & Ebb was conceived by Erin Gardiner with James Gardiner, her husband and fellow GMU College of Visual and Performing Arts faculty member. The production is an opportunity not only to showcase student talent but to enjoy selections from the vast Kander and Ebb son book from more than 15 musicals they created. These include the Broadway megahits Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975) and the less often revived Flora the Red Menace (1965), The Happy Time (1968), The Rink (1984), The Act (1978), and Steel Pier (1997).
As Erin Gardiner noted, “When it comes to impact and sheer amount of well-known material, Kander and Ebb are musical theater legends.”
Songs for Sing Happy! include more than a dozen numbers sung by charming, skilled voices in solos, duets, and full-company chorus. While there is no book, Sing Happy! feels more than just a stand-and-deliver collection. And the Zoom production is more than simple static squares and rectangles with framed faces. There is well-choreographed energy within the frames and fluidity between the frames thanks to agile post-production work.
Sing Happy! has an interesting arc from its wide-eyed opening number, Steel Pier’s “First You Dream,” to the cutely comic “Arthur in the Afternoon” from The Act. Then it is on to the sweetly sincere longing for happiness of a trio of songs including Cabaret’s “Maybe This Time” before the awakening fire of Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango” performed with a twist. Gritty songs follow such as Kiss of Spiderwoman’s “Only in the Movies” along with the spark of “Ring Them Bells” from Liza with a Z. As the production continues to roll along, it finds a terrific a finale: a full-company, amped-up anthem with a well-designed and executived “New York, New York.” (See full song list below.)
The production was developed and produced at a distance. The performers filmed in their own homes; the musicians played in their own homes. That is no insignificant feat, since then a myriad of individual films required post-production and editing to seamlessly stitch them together. The students decided to forego their between-semesters winter break so that they could fully engage themselves in the production with safety and health paramount given the on-going pandemic.
So applause to the Mason students. Vocal perfomers: Darren Badley, Jessica Barraclough, Makayla Collins, Steven Franco, Annie Graninger, Abby Hastings, Sophia Inserra, Rebecca Kinard, Ariel Kraje, Drake Leach, Tony Lemus, Isabella Lerch, Grace McNamee, Lizzie Nigro, Taryn Pascoe, Erin Pugh, Alfred Reid, Mike Sarisky, Kamy Satterfield, Jacob Thompson, Deema Turkomani, Walker Vlahos, Evan Zimmerman. Instrumental performers: RileyBaisch, Brian Bera, Anthony N. Dass, Noah Dengler, Eduardo Fajardo, Katie Kessler, and Erie Liang. Mason faculty member Joe Walsh is music director and played keyboard and piano.
Screenshot from “Cell Block Tango.”
I would be remiss not to vigorously applaud the talents of the student production team. Their post-production work made the production of Sing Happy! smoothly pop one moment and be moody the next. An example is the “New York, New York” number. Think of about 20 student vocal tracks melded with half a dozen or so instrumental tracks edited into a snazzy energy-filled virtual production with an untold number of moving face- and body-filled Zoom boxes of various sizes and shapes bringing visual joy. Production staff: Stage Manager Addison Picardat, Choreographer Ariel Kraje, Assistant Choreographer Cristina Casais, Lighting Coordinators Caleb McMurtry and Merin Lemoine, Editing Billy Kessinger, Reid May, James Gardiner, and Ariel Kraje, MAAH Producer Haley Smyser, Production Manager Ruth Yamamoto.
In my pre-performance interview with Erin Gardiner, she shared this: “When COVID hit and Mason was forced to cancel its production of Spring Awakening, John Kander agreed to do a virtual master class with the cast and crew. So with this tie to Mason, Kander and Ebb music was a perfect fit. These two composers do not shy away from heavy subject matter. Because of their impact on musical theater, there are already two Kander and Ebb reviews that have gorgeous arrangements. We were able to use an arrangement from World Goes Round and First You Dream with a mix of other Kander and Ebb songs. This piece is completely picked to show off the strengths of our talented students.”
Sing Happy! The Music of Kander & Ebb is a musical winner. It’s full of personality, sizzle, comic turns, and the vivid sorrow of ballads of dreams unrealized. And you never know: Someone you see and hear in this Mason Cabaret Zoom production may be before your eyes and ears one day soon on a DMV live stage.
Let me leave you with this lyric from “The Happy Time,” one of the Kander and Ebb songs in the revue:
This journey through time and space may strike you as odd, perhaps, and yet
I’m longing to see you smile, and hear you laugh—and remember you remembering the happy time.
Running Time: 55-minute virtual production with no intermission.
“First You Dream” from Steel Pier. Performed by the Company.
“Arthur in the Afternoon” from The Act. Performed by Steven Franco, Sophia Inserra, Grace McNamee, Kamy Satterfield.
“We Can Make It/Maybe This Time/Isn’t This Better Trio” from The Rink/Cabaret/Funny Lady. Performed by Jessica Barraclough, Drake Leach, Makayla Collins.
“Ring Them Bells” from Liza with a Z. Performed by Sophia Inserra, Rebecca Kinard, Tony Lemus, Evan Zimmerman.
“Cell Block Tango” from Chicago. Performed by Darren Badley, Ariel Kraje, Isabella Lerch, Lizzie Nigro, Jacob Thompson, Walker Vlahos.
“Only in the Movies/Happy Endings/At the Rialto” from Kiss of Spiderwoman/All About Us/New York, New York. Performed by Jessica Barraclough, Annie Graninger, Erin Pugh.
“Apple Doesn’t Fall Very Far From the Tree” from The Rink. Performed by Taryn Pascoe & Deema Turkomani.
“Sing Happy” from Flora the Red Menace. Performed by Annie Graninger, Abby Hastings, Grace McNamee, Taryn Pascoe.
“New York, New York” from New York, New York. Performed by the Company.
We at DCMTA continue to track the WMATA budget and any service-cut issues, given Metro’s critical importance to the survival of live performing arts. Based upon our reach-out to arts leadership, Metro is quite central to the economic health of the DMV creative community. The impacts of COVID-19 on Metro revenue and ridership have been severe.
We understand Metro may be facing an estimated $200M deficit in the upcoming fiscal year, FY 2022, without additional federal funding.
Metro’s board is continuing to consider budget cuts for the next fiscal year in case additional government funding is not secured.
As an example of what Metro budget cuts might mean for operations, here is what would happen on the Silver Line:
Closing of five Silver Line stations entirely (McLean, Greensboro, Reston Town Center, Innovation Center, Loudoun Gateway), as well as 17 other stations throughout the Metro system.
Running Silver Line trains at 30-minute intervals seven days a week.
Ending service at 9 pm seven days a week.
The Biden Administration has proposed additional federal funding for transit that would provide help to WMATA and other major city transit systems running. (See “DC, Maryland, Virginia seek more funding for WMATA.”)
$900 billion coronavirus-relief stimulus bill contains $14 billion for transit systems including Metro. (Originally published January 9, 2021.)
With new funding expected, WMATA announced in a media release January 8, 2021, that “Metro expects to temporarily halt employee layoffs, service cuts.”
Metro’s share of the latest federal COVID relief funding is still being finalized, but “the preliminary estimate of approximately $610 million would avoid planned budget-related layoffs and service cuts this fiscal year (through June 30th)” — subject to Metro Board approval sometime in the coming week.
Be aware that according to WMATA Board of Directors Chair Paul C. Smedberg, “We will need additional federal relief to avoid service reductions next fiscal year as the region stabilizes.”
The WMATA Board will consider a revised FY21 budget at its Finance Committee meeting January 14. At that time, General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld will also present new figures for the fiscal year beginning July 1. According to the January 8 WMATA release, “Federal funding will not close the entire budget gap projected for FY22. The Board will have to consider actions that will be very impactful, although less drastic than what had been previously proposed.”
“Without service cuts and layoffs triggered by the budget shortfall, we are now able to serve our riders and businesses at least through the first half of this year to finish out FY21,” said Wiedefeld. “But we are far from out of the woods, without sufficient revenue to cover all of next fiscal year. While the choices may not be quite as severe, there is still enormous financial pressure on our funding jurisdictions, and ridership and revenue is likely to return very gradually, so we have tough choices still ahead.”
The WMATA Board will discuss and determine a revised FY22 operating budget in January 2021, then provide the revised budget for public comment, with expected action to finalize the budget in April 2021. The WMATA Compact requires the Board to adopt a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year by June 30, 2021.
We at DCMTA will continue to track the WMTA budget and any service-cut issues.
No way! New threat to DMV theaters: drastic Metro service cuts
Local theater leaders respond. (Originally published December 13, 2020.)
Metro ridership has plummeted since the COVID pandemic took hold last March. With fewer riders, Metro’s revenues have nose-dived. In response, the Metro board is considering drastic service reductions including on weekends and late-night service. In our opinion at DC Theater Arts, if such extraordinary cuts were made, they would hobble, if not cripple, the DC area’s recovery for live, in-person performing arts even with a COVID vaccine on its way.
Metro has proposed drastic cuts to late-night and weekend service. Graphic: DC Theater Arts.
Metro recently announced a public comment period for the proposed service reductions in its so-called doomsday budget, beginning in mid-January. At that time Metro will hold hearings to gather responses, then mount an outreach campaign to solicit more feedback.
With that important development, we reached out to theater leaders to ask what the proposed Metro service reductions might mean to their operations. We present here the responses we have received to date and will add more as we receive them.
We will keep you aware as we continue to follow this new theater-threatening situation.
How important is reliable Metro service to your theater company?
Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg (managing director, Studio Theatre): Studio is situated between two of the busiest Metro stations in the system that link us to two of DC’s most active neighborhoods: U Street and Dupont Circle. Metro access is incredibly important for us, not only for patrons but also as a critical access point for staff and artists who rely on public transportation.
Alex Levy (artistic director, 1st Stage): Extremely. Many of our patrons use the Metro as their primary access to 1st Stage, and perhaps more important, a high percentage of our artists and technicians rely on the Metro to be able to get to and from work everyday. The decrease in service will leave a vulnerable population that has been out of work for months unable to return to their jobs.
Jason Najjoum (managing director, Synetic Theater): Reliable Metro service is critical to Synetic, especially so that our staff and artists can come to work. Currently, our in-house programmatic activity is greatly reduced, but we’ll need Metro service up and running nights and weekends when we return to in-person programming sometime next year. I’d estimate about 30 percent of our audience uses the Metro to come to our in-person programming in National Landing.
Susan Marie Rhea (artistic director, Keegan Theatre): As a theater that sits in Dupont Circle, just a few blocks from the Red Line, Keegan relies heavily on the Metro as a transportation option for our audiences. Parking in Dupont is tricky at best, and worse on the weekends, so we encourage our patrons to rely heavily on public transportation in their travel to and from Keegan.
Neal Racioppo (senior director of marketing and communications, Shakespeare Theatre Company): STC’s two theaters (Sidney Harman Hall and the Michael R. Klein Theatre at the Lansburgh) are located in the heart of Penn Quarter, and we rely on Metro’s service not only for our patrons but for our staff and artists as well.
How critical is late-night and weekend Metro service to your theater company’s audiences? To your cast and crews? To your revenue stream?
Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg: Studio, like many theaters, is most active on weekends, with matinee and evening shows that are traditionally our most popular with patrons. The successes of these performances rely on patrons, production, and artistic staff, and artists all having easy and reliable access to transportation. A disruption to Metro’s schedule or services, particularly on evenings and weekends when the theater is open to the public, would be felt throughout our organization and would be very problematic.
Alex Levy: It is the key to our talent pool. Without late-night and weekend service, many of our employees simply won’t be able to get to and from work.
Susan Marie Rhea: The theater itself has extremely limited parking (no more than three to five vehicles, depending on size, can fit alongside the building, in the driveway), so we ask our artists to park either on the street or — preferably — to use the Metro to come to rehearsals and other production-related meetings. When we are trying to recruit artists who do not live nearby, being so close to the Metro is a significant asset that Keegan can offer — we are very accessible, including after late rehearsals, because of the Metro line being so nearby.
Neal Racioppo: Being able to assure staff, cast, and patrons that they can return home safely after a night out to the theater is of course of importance to us. Patrons, for the most part, will find the performance day and time that works for their needs and purchase their tickets accordingly, but this [cuts in Metro service] may impact those who prefer evening/weekend performances. The bigger impact is for our staff and actors who don’t have the option of rescheduling and must instead come up with an alternative travel plan that affects their wallets and job satisfaction. Those are impacts we’d love to avoid.
Metro’s proposed budget calls for elimination of weekend service, 15- and 30-minute waits between trains, and shorter service hours. Photo: DC Theater Arts.
If there were reductions to Metro service, what impact would that have on your bottom line and your theater’s survival?
Rebecca Ende Lichtenberg: Located in Logan Circle, where parking is quite scarce, we encourage our patrons to rely on alternate modes of transportation — be it Metro, bus, bikeshare, or ridesharing service. A disruption to any of these would no doubt pose an inconvenience and discourage patrons from attending. After being away from the theater for so long, my hope is that we would make it as easy as possible for patrons to return to our stages once it’s safe to gather — and accessible public transportation is a part of that equation.
Alex Levy: It would be a huge obstacle right on the heels of the largest obstacle we have faced. A healthy return requires strong infrastructure like the Metro.
Jason Najjoum: It’s hard to say with precision — but likely a significant effect if it lagged far into a return to in-person programming. We can understand cutting service during this period when many people are working from home — but the contraction can’t be so severe that when DMV businesses and residents are ready to move around again via public transit, the system is not ready for them.
Susan Marie Rhea: There’s a significant detriment at stake for us, should the Metro limit its weekend or evening/late-night services — I think this would be a barrier to audiences coming from outside our immediate neighborhood. And, obviously, we want to expand our accessibility (especially when we emerge from this prolonged dark period of COVID) to audiences, not limit it. And not having the Metro available for evening rehearsals/late rehearsals could hinder our ability to hire actors or theater artists who don’t have vehicles, or who rely on the Metro to get around. Covering Uber rides or other transportation costs (outside of the Metro, should it not be an option) would be a financial consideration that would be hard to sustain for long.
Neal Racioppo: Currently there are a wealth of issues affecting STC’s bottom line. To paraphrase Claudius in Hamlet, when budget crunches come, they “come not single spies, but in battalions.” Metro’s service changes won’t result in the demise of our theater, but it will certainly add additional pain points when we reopen for live performances.
Should theater companies provide public input to the Metro budget discussion? Should theaters provide it as individual theater companies or from the theater community as a whole?
Jason Najjoum: I think it would make sense for theater companies either individually or through theatreWashington to provide public input, just like we do whenever there is an issue that affects our industry.
Alex Levy: Our industry has already been so hard hit, and this reduction of service will only worsen the damage. We must be part of the discussion.
Neal Racioppo: All businesses should have a voice in this conversation, and no doubt different theaters will be affected by the proposed budget cuts in different ways. Theaters collectively can speak to the economic engine that the arts provides for a community, but their individuated needs will probably be on a spectrum from high-impact to low depending on their location.
Do you have data about the transportation requirements of your cast and crews?
Neal Racioppo: Last year, we moved our actor housing to the Southwest neighborhood, conveniently located near the Waterfront Metro line and so easily accessible to our rehearsal spaces on Capitol Hill as well as our theaters in Penn Quarter. Before the pandemic, we had 33 full-time staff members who had monthly pre-tax payments made to their Metro cards; this does not include part-time or temporary staff members or the Metro cards purchased and reserved for departments. Many staff members used Metro to commute to work but also in the course of a day between our various administrative, performing, and production spaces.
In the midst of our current disastrous COVID-19 pandemic comes a compelling world premiere play centered on Dr. Nathan Wolfe, the renowned virologist who has been warning for over a decade about deadly viral diseases that could upend the world as we know it. A world we now know, full of death and untold economic devastation.
The play is The Catastrophist, a deeply personal one-actor story written by America’s most-produced playwright, Lauren Gunderson, and developed as a streaming video presentation co-produced by Round House Theater and Marin Theatre Company.
William DeMeritt (Nathan) in ‘The Catastrophist.’ Photo courtesy of Marin Theatre Company.
It so happens that Gunderson is married to Wolfe. One suspects that their real-life relationship permits Gunderson to get deeper inside her subject—to write a play about not just a way-cool scientific mind and world traveler but also a human being with a tortured soul and a desire to save the world if he can. A soul with a Jewish upbringing trying to fulfill the concept of tikkun olam (repair the world), a Hebrew phrase that repeats in Wolfe’s monologues.
Gunderson has penned The Catastrophist as no mere love letter to her husband. Persuasively directed by Marin Theatre Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis, the play is an 80-minute back-and-forth in time through two dozen or so scenes of heartfelt dramatic tension. Far from an emotionlessly stand-and-deliver affair, the production opens itself not just to scientific inquiry but to Wolfe’s ingrained value systems and his need to do good for others.
William DeMerritt (Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole World, HBO’s The Normal Heart) portrays the Wolfe character not as one of those oh-so-smooth, just-so-perfect TED Talk presenters. (The real-life Dr. Wolfe has done his share of TED Talks, which are easily found on line.)
William DeMeritt (Nathan) in ‘The Catastrophist.’ Photo courtesy of Marin Theatre Company.
DeMerritt presents the Wolfe character as a brilliant, sometimes arrogant scientist who has all the answers to the questions he thinks worth asking—“I am the only one in the world who knows this” is one response he gives to himself. Yet DeMerritt’s Wolfe is relentlessly seeking scientific truth.
DeMerritt gently teaches the viewer that “all new pandemics come from animals. Zoonotic infections, or infections from diseases jumping from an animal into a human, this happens all the time.” Looking directly to viewers, he says, “Good science is a definitive result that answers an important question.” He waits a beat then corrects himself, changing the critical word definitive to convincing. And he does so not sounding like a know-it-all.
Even more, DeMerritt speaks tenderly of his personal traumas and his dad’s long influences on him—or how critical his unseen yet heard spouse is to his life (“You can ask my wife,” she has him say).
Overall, DeMirritt seems effortless in his sincere, inquisitive nature. And this is in a solo performance in a production that involves a great dealing of standing on a bare stage (filmed straight ahead, from the left, or from the right).
Actor William DeMeritt in tech rehearsal and filming of ‘The Catastrophist.‘ Photo courtesy of Marin Theatre Company.
Yet I came to sense there are parts of Dr. Wolfe’s life that are hidden from view. Parts that Playwright Gunderson or Dr. Wolfe may have decided were too intimate and painful to fully expose.
There is a short scene about an unheeded idea of Wolfe’s—that there’s no pandemic insurance and there should be. The scene was less than revealing. It did not explore the apparent failure of the concept of insuring against a pandemic. Why didn’t businesses and governments listen to him when he sounded his alarm? Was the world caught up in other matters, other health issues, or war, or profits? In another scene, a media attack on his team’s work in Africa had more than a whiff of defensiveness.
There is one specific line in The Catastrophist that had me stop and rewind the streaming video. It connects a pandemic’s possible death toll to what viewers may have memorized from their own lives. It left me stunned.
The Catastrophist was filmed on stage in Marin Theatre Company’s Boyer Theatre. The fine digital production’s creative team includes a casual costume for the character Wolfe designed by Sarah Smith. Wining, dark-palette lighting by Wen-Ling Liao underpinned the dialogue. Original piano and guitar music was composed by Chris Houston, who was also responsible for the crisply heard sound design full of heartbeats and other aspects of aural landscape. Director of Photography Peter Ruocco provided an elegantly edited film.
Gunderson’s The Catastrophist is a deeply insightful work of art, a digital production well worth your attention. For all of us, it might also open our thinking to all that is expected of our nation’s medical and scientific leadership as they work to protect us from unseen and unforeseen health risks.
What Playwright Gunderson, Director Minadakis, and Actor DeMerritt accomplish is to provide a viewer a theatrical look inside the mind of a scientist who from an early age was asked and wondered, “What will you do with your skills to save others?” For the character and real Dr. Wolfe, it was to study viruses and then with what he learned try to scream an alarm to the world—as in that well-remembered line from the noirish movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, “Look, you fools. You’re in danger. Can’t you see?”
Running time: 80 minutes with no intermission.
The Catastrophiststreams to July 25, 2021. Tickets for on-demand viewing are available for $30 and may be purchased by calling 240.644.1100 or ordering online.
Key takeaway: The arts should get ready for major shifts as well as an unknown period of uncertainty as new priorities are developed by the incoming Administration and sorted out with Republican control of the House and Senate effective in early January. 
The festival featured five new plays, all written by BSU students under the age of 25: Powerline, The Ties That Brake, Noonie and Rocky, Rule of the Game, and Aren’t You. There was humor and anger, love and pain, personal determination and lightness, moving with jazz rhythms, or pop songs, or a mournful ballad. There was the delight of two young people finding their way into love. There were others with hard bracing stops, giving shivers about death in a world of white supremacy.
