Theater News

Theresa Rebeck, Craig Lucas, and More to Pen "Power Plays"

The D.C. theater is commissioning playwrights to highlight each decade of American history for Arena Stage Initiative.

Theresa Rebeck joins the group of playwrights penning new works for Arena Stage's Power Plays initiative.
Theresa Rebeck joins the group of playwrights penning new works for Arena Stage's Power Plays initiative.
(© Allison Stock)

Arena Stage has announced four additional commissioned playwrights as a part of Power Plays, an ambitious initiative commissioning and developing 25 new plays and musicals from 25 writers over the course of 10 years. Playwrights Kenneth Lin (Warrior Class), Tony nominee Craig Lucas (An American in Paris), Eduardo Machado (Havana Is Waiting), and Theresa Rebeck (Seminar) join previously announced commissioned playwrights with projects underway, including Nathan Alan Davis, Eve Ensler, Aaron Posner, Sarah Ruhl, and John Strand.

The Power Play cycle features American stories of politics and power, exploring the people, events and ideas that have helped shape our country’s narrative and identity, with one story per decade, beginning with 1776 through this decade. Work is being commissioned by well-established writers as well as those who are in the beginning stages of their careers in theater, embracing the diversity of our country to understand who we are as Americans.

Two Power Plays are part of the current 2017-18 season at Arena Stage: Sovereignty (January 12-February 18), written by Mary Kathryn Nagle, tells the story of a young Cherokee lawyer fighting to restore her Nation’s jurisdiction. Snow Child (April 13-May 20) will then be the first Power Musical, set in the 1920s in the Alaskan wilderness and based on Eowyn Ivey’s novel. The show will feature a book by John Strand, music by Bob Banghart and Georgia Stitt, and lyrics by Stitt.

For more information about Arena Stage's upcoming season, click here.