The festivities included backstage tours, performances (including appearances by Broadway's Matt Bogart, Kate Baldwin, Brad Oscar and Alice Ripley — all Arena veterans) and activities in eight spaces in and around the Mead Center including the Fichandler Stage, Kreeger Theater and Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. Various theatrical performances and children's activities occupied one of the rehearsal halls, the lobbies and the classroom.
Here is a look at the opening celebration:
Production-wise, the 2010-2011 inaugural season kicks off with Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, directed by artistic director Molly Smith. The season also includes every tongue confess, Second Stage Theatre’s production of Let Me Down Easy, The Arabian Nights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Albee's At Home at the Zoo, Ruined and a special pre-Broadway world premiere of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, adapted by Rupert Holmes. In addition, Arena Stage will present staged readings of the remaining 28 works by Edward Albee during The Edward Albee Festival, and will produce a national new play festival featuring the selections for the first round of the NEA New Play Development Program hosted by Arena Stage.
Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 200,000. For more information, visit www.arenastage.org.
