{"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1973\u0026facet.sort=count\u0026page=6329","prev":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1973\u0026facet.sort=count\u0026page=6328","next":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1973\u0026facet.sort=count\u0026page=6330","last":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog.json?f%5Bdate_range%5D%5B%5D=1973\u0026facet.sort=count\u0026page=6335"},"meta":{"pages":{"current_page":6329,"next_page":6330,"prev_page":6328,"total_pages":6335,"limit_value":10,"offset_value":63280,"total_count":63349,"first_page?":false,"last_page?":false}},"data":[{"id":"vifgm_paden_c01_c66","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zahradeen/Adams,","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_paden_c01_c66#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_paden_c01_c66","ref_ssm":["vifgm_paden_c01_c66"],"id":"vifgm_paden_c01_c66","ead_ssi":"vifgm_paden","_root_":"vifgm_paden","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_paden_c01","parent_ssi":"vifgm_paden_c01","parent_ssim":["vifgm_paden","vifgm_paden_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_paden","vifgm_paden_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["John N. Paden papers","Series 1: Correspondence,"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["John N. Paden papers","Series 1: Correspondence,"],"text":["John N. Paden papers","Series 1: Correspondence,","Zahradeen/Adams,","Box 4","Folder 6"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zahradeen/Adams, \n","title_ssm":["Zahradeen/Adams, \n"],"title_tesim":["Zahradeen/Adams, \n"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974\n"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zahradeen/Adams,"],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["John N. Paden papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":67,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["There are no access restrictions."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the John N. Paden papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["Box 4","Folder 6"],"_nest_path_":"/components#0/components#65","timestamp":"2026-05-01T01:00:28.285Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_paden","ead_ssi":"vifgm_paden","_root_":"vifgm_paden","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_paden","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/gmu/paden.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/paden.html","title_ssm":["John N. Paden papers"],"title_tesim":["John N. Paden papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1938-2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1938-2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0194"],"text":["C0194","John N. Paden papers","Africa--Photographs.","Africa--Slides.","International Relations.","Nigeria.","Sound recordings.","Negatives.","Photographs.","There are no access restrictions.","Series 1: Correspondence, 1971-1998 (Boxes 1-4) Series 2: Research, 1950s-2010 (Boxes 4-85) Series 3: Publications, 1959-2010 (Boxes 85-104, 111-129) Series 4: Maps, 1949-1980s (Box 104) Series 5: Audio/Visual, 1938-1985 (Boxes 105-109, 133) Series 6: Oversize, 1949-1997 (110, 130, Map Case) Series 7: Realia, undated (Boxes 131-132)","","Dr. John N. Paden is a Clarence Robinson Professor Emeritus of International Studies at George Mason University. He received his BA in philosophy from Occidental College, his MA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his PhD in politics from Harvard University. \n","\nDr. Paden came to George Mason in 1987, and he taught comparative government, international development, and conflict resolution. He is a co-founder of the GMU graduate program in International Commerce and Policy (ICP). He is also co-founder and co-director of the GMU Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC), under the Office of the Provost. He has been involved in scholarly exchanges between the US and China and served as Director of the SPP/ICP summer graduate program in China, focusing on socio-economic changes and cross-cultural trade strategies. He also participated in the SPP/ICP summer trade programs in Oxford and Geneva. He helped develop undergraduate minors at GMU in Asia Pacific Studies, Islamic Studies, and Afro-American and African Studies. He has served as Director of African Studies at Northwestern University, Professor of Public Administration at Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria), and Dean, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, at Bayero University (Kano, Nigeria).\n","\nDr. Paden has also served on a senior level task force at the Brookings Institution on \"US policy toward the Islamic world.\" Dr. Paden's work includes an extensive list of publications, including highly acclaimed textbooks about Africa. He retired from George Mason University in May 2017.\n            ","Processed by Blyth McManus in 2014. EAD markup completed by Blyth McManus in 2014.","Special Collections and Archives also holds the papers of many other George Mason University professors, as well as materials pertaining to International Relations, including the  , the  , and the  . Other collections containing photographs or slides of Nigeria include the  , the  , and the  .\n","The collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component.","Series 1, Correspondence: Includes correspondence relating to book reviews, various publications, research projects, conferences, travel arrangements, publishing matters related to Dr. Paden's works, and letters of recommendation for students. Organized alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.","Series 2, Research: Published papers and documents, conference papers, and related materials. Research for Dr. Paden's dissertation is included and often separated by him into chapters and appendices, which include illustrations, maps,  and tables. Major topics represented are politics, development, and economics; Hausa language and Hausa language education; Islam in Africa; African studies; Arabic literature; research for his book Black Africa; and broad information on Northern Nigeria. Materials are organized by subject and then chronologically. Materials from his former wife Ann are included and marked as such when known. Her research contains extensive information on family, childbirth, children, home health care and medicine, food, and issues specific to women. Series also includes index cards containing original research, most from the 1960s - 1970s. Materials are organized by type, subject, and then chronologically.","Series 3, Publications: Includes books, journals, newspapers, catalogs from publishing houses, and various ephemera. Contents relate mainly to Nigeria, but also included are items relating to other African nations as well as to the US and UK. Collection includes more than twenty different newspapers which were published in Nigeria, but primarily written in English. Major publications are the New Nigerian, Nigerian Citizen, and This Day. Newspapers range from the 1960s-2010. Magazines both political and popular are included. The series also contains travel-related publications from the 1970s, including airline schedules, tourist information, and many site-specific or event-specific brochures, some of which are interesting historical documents in their own right. The majority of travel brochures come from California, Chicago and Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas, but some are from other regions of the US and overseas. Organized by subject and then chronologically.","Series 4: Maps. Includes maps of various African nations, primarily Nigeria. Organized by region and then chronologically. A greater quantity of maps may be found in Series 6, Oversize.","Series 5: Audio/Visual. Reel to reel audio tapes, audio cassette tapes, photographs, negatives. Audio recordings include radio interviews and other audio information relating to Nigeria in the 1960s. Photographs are primarily research-related images, the majority from Dr. Paden's trip to Africa in the 1960s, and include group portraits, images of Nigerian life, events, and royalty, and some personal family photographs dating from the 1930s. Slides are variously labeled by former wife Ann Paden as political rallies; crowd scenes;  Hausa; Fulani; activities; Sallah; Malams; \"Audo and the Padens;\" images of Kano City, Morocco, Spain, and England; general landscape; friends; and the house in Nigeria which Dr. Paden and his former wife occupied. Not all of the subjects listed appear to be in the extant slide collection. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.","Series 6: Oversized. Maps, posters, a small amount of printed matter, one large photograph, and one large charcoal sketch. Includes maps up to wall size of Nigeria, other nations, and world regions. In addition to basic maps showing cities, states, and regions, series also includes maps illustrating demography, transportation, topography, concentration of religious groups, location of tribal areas, and other specialized information. Includes posters relating to politics, cultural ideals, and university education. A few posters reflect popular culture of the 1970s. Materials range from the 1950s-2000s. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.","Series 7: Realia. Includes a percussion instrument called a \"yomkwo,\" or Nigerian raft zither, of the style made by the Birom (Berom) people of the Jos plateau. A yomkwo is a flat instrument made of reeds and grasses with a rattle attached to the back. Also included are eight Qur'an (Koran) boards, made of wood and other natural materials, in the style of the Hausa peoples. Six have Arabic writing on them. One is undecorated. Used for memorization of the Koran, often in conjunction with the drinking ink tradition. Materials are unidentified wood and ink. Paddle-shaped, about 8\"-12\"L x 6\"-8\"W. All realia is undated.","There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the John N. Paden papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.","The collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component. Documents are primarily in English but occasionally in German, French, Arabic, or Hausa.","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections \u0026 Archives","Paden, John N.","English\n\t\t"],"unitid_tesim":["C0194"],"normalized_title_ssm":["John N. Paden papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["John N. Paden papers"],"collection_ssim":["John N. Paden papers"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Paden, John N."],"creator_ssim":["Paden, John N."],"creator_persname_ssim":["Paden, John N."],"creators_ssim":["Paden, John N."],"access_terms_ssm":["There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the John N. Paden papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by John N. Paden in 2011."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Africa--Photographs.","Africa--Slides.","International Relations.","Nigeria.","Sound recordings.","Negatives.","Photographs."],"access_subjects_ssm":["Africa--Photographs.","Africa--Slides.","International Relations.","Nigeria.","Sound recordings.","Negatives.","Photographs."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["87.5 linear feet (133 boxes)"],"extent_tesim":["87.5 linear feet (133 boxes)"],"date_range_isim":[1938,1939,1940,1941,1942,1943,1944,1945,1946,1947,1948,1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no access restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["There are no access restrictions."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Correspondence, 1971-1998 (Boxes 1-4)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Research, 1950s-2010 (Boxes 4-85)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Publications, 1959-2010 (Boxes 85-104, 111-129)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Maps, 1949-1980s (Box 104)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audio/Visual, 1938-1985 (Boxes 105-109, 133)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 6: Oversize, 1949-1997 (110, 130, Map Case)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 7: Realia, undated (Boxes 131-132)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["Series 1: Correspondence, 1971-1998 (Boxes 1-4) Series 2: Research, 1950s-2010 (Boxes 4-85) Series 3: Publications, 1959-2010 (Boxes 85-104, 111-129) Series 4: Maps, 1949-1980s (Box 104) Series 5: Audio/Visual, 1938-1985 (Boxes 105-109, 133) Series 6: Oversize, 1949-1997 (110, 130, Map Case) Series 7: Realia, undated (Boxes 131-132)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"McClain, Buzz, 'John Paden retires after 30 years as professor; leaves 4,000 books for Africa Studies library,' News at Mason, George Mason University, May 9, 2017.\" show=\"new\" href=\"https://www2.gmu.edu/news/424381\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDr. John N. Paden is a Clarence Robinson Professor Emeritus of International Studies at George Mason University. He received his BA in philosophy from Occidental College, his MA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his PhD in politics from Harvard University. \n\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\nDr. Paden came to George Mason in 1987, and he taught comparative government, international development, and conflict resolution. He is a co-founder of the GMU graduate program in International Commerce and Policy (ICP). He is also co-founder and co-director of the GMU Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC), under the Office of the Provost. He has been involved in scholarly exchanges between the US and China and served as Director of the SPP/ICP summer graduate program in China, focusing on socio-economic changes and cross-cultural trade strategies. He also participated in the SPP/ICP summer trade programs in Oxford and Geneva. He helped develop undergraduate minors at GMU in Asia Pacific Studies, Islamic Studies, and Afro-American and African Studies. He has served as Director of African Studies at Northwestern University, Professor of Public Administration at Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria), and Dean, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, at Bayero University (Kano, Nigeria).\n\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\nDr. Paden has also served on a senior level task force at the Brookings Institution on \"US policy toward the Islamic world.\" Dr. Paden's work includes an extensive list of publications, including highly acclaimed textbooks about Africa. He retired from George Mason University in May 2017.\n            \u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["Dr. John N. Paden is a Clarence Robinson Professor Emeritus of International Studies at George Mason University. He received his BA in philosophy from Occidental College, his MA in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and his PhD in politics from Harvard University. \n","\nDr. Paden came to George Mason in 1987, and he taught comparative government, international development, and conflict resolution. He is a co-founder of the GMU graduate program in International Commerce and Policy (ICP). He is also co-founder and co-director of the GMU Center for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (CAPEC), under the Office of the Provost. He has been involved in scholarly exchanges between the US and China and served as Director of the SPP/ICP summer graduate program in China, focusing on socio-economic changes and cross-cultural trade strategies. He also participated in the SPP/ICP summer trade programs in Oxford and Geneva. He helped develop undergraduate minors at GMU in Asia Pacific Studies, Islamic Studies, and Afro-American and African Studies. He has served as Director of African Studies at Northwestern University, Professor of Public Administration at Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria, Nigeria), and Dean, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, at Bayero University (Kano, Nigeria).\n","\nDr. Paden has also served on a senior level task force at the Brookings Institution on \"US policy toward the Islamic world.\" Dr. Paden's work includes an extensive list of publications, including highly acclaimed textbooks about Africa. He retired from George Mason University in May 2017.\n            "],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eJohn N. Paden papers, C0194, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["John N. Paden papers, C0194, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Blyth McManus in 2014. EAD markup completed by Blyth McManus in 2014.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Blyth McManus in 2014. EAD markup completed by Blyth McManus in 2014."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSpecial Collections and Archives also holds the papers of many other George Mason University professors, as well as materials pertaining to International Relations, including the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"John W. Burton papers\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/burton.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e, the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Henry O. Lampe papers\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/lampeh.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e, and the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Max Harway papers\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/harway.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e. Other collections containing photographs or slides of Nigeria include the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Kjell Sandved nature collection\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/sandved.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e, the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Oliver F. Atkins photograph collection\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/atkins.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e, and the \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Edith McChesney Ker papers\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/ker.html\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e.\n\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Materials"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["Special Collections and Archives also holds the papers of many other George Mason University professors, as well as materials pertaining to International Relations, including the  , the  , and the  . Other collections containing photographs or slides of Nigeria include the  , the  , and the  .\n"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1, Correspondence: Includes correspondence relating to book reviews, various publications, research projects, conferences, travel arrangements, publishing matters related to Dr. Paden's works, and letters of recommendation for students. Organized alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2, Research: Published papers and documents, conference papers, and related materials. Research for Dr. Paden's dissertation is included and often separated by him into chapters and appendices, which include illustrations, maps,  and tables. Major topics represented are politics, development, and economics; Hausa language and Hausa language education; Islam in Africa; African studies; Arabic literature; research for his book Black Africa; and broad information on Northern Nigeria. Materials are organized by subject and then chronologically. Materials from his former wife Ann are included and marked as such when known. Her research contains extensive information on family, childbirth, children, home health care and medicine, food, and issues specific to women. Series also includes index cards containing original research, most from the 1960s - 1970s. Materials are organized by type, subject, and then chronologically.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3, Publications: Includes books, journals, newspapers, catalogs from publishing houses, and various ephemera. Contents relate mainly to Nigeria, but also included are items relating to other African nations as well as to the US and UK. Collection includes more than twenty different newspapers which were published in Nigeria, but primarily written in English. Major publications are the New Nigerian, Nigerian Citizen, and This Day. Newspapers range from the 1960s-2010. Magazines both political and popular are included. The series also contains travel-related publications from the 1970s, including airline schedules, tourist information, and many site-specific or event-specific brochures, some of which are interesting historical documents in their own right. The majority of travel brochures come from California, Chicago and Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas, but some are from other regions of the US and overseas. Organized by subject and then chronologically.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Maps. Includes maps of various African nations, primarily Nigeria. Organized by region and then chronologically. A greater quantity of maps may be found in Series 6, Oversize.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audio/Visual. Reel to reel audio tapes, audio cassette tapes, photographs, negatives. Audio recordings include radio interviews and other audio information relating to Nigeria in the 1960s. Photographs are primarily research-related images, the majority from Dr. Paden's trip to Africa in the 1960s, and include group portraits, images of Nigerian life, events, and royalty, and some personal family photographs dating from the 1930s. Slides are variously labeled by former wife Ann Paden as political rallies; crowd scenes;  Hausa; Fulani; activities; Sallah; Malams; \"Audo and the Padens;\" images of Kano City, Morocco, Spain, and England; general landscape; friends; and the house in Nigeria which Dr. Paden and his former wife occupied. Not all of the subjects listed appear to be in the extant slide collection. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 6: Oversized. Maps, posters, a small amount of printed matter, one large photograph, and one large charcoal sketch. Includes maps up to wall size of Nigeria, other nations, and world regions. In addition to basic maps showing cities, states, and regions, series also includes maps illustrating demography, transportation, topography, concentration of religious groups, location of tribal areas, and other specialized information. Includes posters relating to politics, cultural ideals, and university education. A few posters reflect popular culture of the 1970s. Materials range from the 1950s-2000s. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 7: Realia. Includes a percussion instrument called a \"yomkwo,\" or Nigerian raft zither, of the style made by the Birom (Berom) people of the Jos plateau. A yomkwo is a flat instrument made of reeds and grasses with a rattle attached to the back. Also included are eight Qur'an (Koran) boards, made of wood and other natural materials, in the style of the Hausa peoples. Six have Arabic writing on them. One is undecorated. Used for memorization of the Koran, often in conjunction with the drinking ink tradition. Materials are unidentified wood and ink. Paddle-shaped, about 8\"-12\"L x 6\"-8\"W. All realia is undated.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component.","Series 1, Correspondence: Includes correspondence relating to book reviews, various publications, research projects, conferences, travel arrangements, publishing matters related to Dr. Paden's works, and letters of recommendation for students. Organized alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.","Series 2, Research: Published papers and documents, conference papers, and related materials. Research for Dr. Paden's dissertation is included and often separated by him into chapters and appendices, which include illustrations, maps,  and tables. Major topics represented are politics, development, and economics; Hausa language and Hausa language education; Islam in Africa; African studies; Arabic literature; research for his book Black Africa; and broad information on Northern Nigeria. Materials are organized by subject and then chronologically. Materials from his former wife Ann are included and marked as such when known. Her research contains extensive information on family, childbirth, children, home health care and medicine, food, and issues specific to women. Series also includes index cards containing original research, most from the 1960s - 1970s. Materials are organized by type, subject, and then chronologically.","Series 3, Publications: Includes books, journals, newspapers, catalogs from publishing houses, and various ephemera. Contents relate mainly to Nigeria, but also included are items relating to other African nations as well as to the US and UK. Collection includes more than twenty different newspapers which were published in Nigeria, but primarily written in English. Major publications are the New Nigerian, Nigerian Citizen, and This Day. Newspapers range from the 1960s-2010. Magazines both political and popular are included. The series also contains travel-related publications from the 1970s, including airline schedules, tourist information, and many site-specific or event-specific brochures, some of which are interesting historical documents in their own right. The majority of travel brochures come from California, Chicago and Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas, but some are from other regions of the US and overseas. Organized by subject and then chronologically.","Series 4: Maps. Includes maps of various African nations, primarily Nigeria. Organized by region and then chronologically. A greater quantity of maps may be found in Series 6, Oversize.","Series 5: Audio/Visual. Reel to reel audio tapes, audio cassette tapes, photographs, negatives. Audio recordings include radio interviews and other audio information relating to Nigeria in the 1960s. Photographs are primarily research-related images, the majority from Dr. Paden's trip to Africa in the 1960s, and include group portraits, images of Nigerian life, events, and royalty, and some personal family photographs dating from the 1930s. Slides are variously labeled by former wife Ann Paden as political rallies; crowd scenes;  Hausa; Fulani; activities; Sallah; Malams; \"Audo and the Padens;\" images of Kano City, Morocco, Spain, and England; general landscape; friends; and the house in Nigeria which Dr. Paden and his former wife occupied. Not all of the subjects listed appear to be in the extant slide collection. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.","Series 6: Oversized. Maps, posters, a small amount of printed matter, one large photograph, and one large charcoal sketch. Includes maps up to wall size of Nigeria, other nations, and world regions. In addition to basic maps showing cities, states, and regions, series also includes maps illustrating demography, transportation, topography, concentration of religious groups, location of tribal areas, and other specialized information. Includes posters relating to politics, cultural ideals, and university education. A few posters reflect popular culture of the 1970s. Materials range from the 1950s-2000s. Materials are organized by medium, then by subject, and then chronologically.","Series 7: Realia. Includes a percussion instrument called a \"yomkwo,\" or Nigerian raft zither, of the style made by the Birom (Berom) people of the Jos plateau. A yomkwo is a flat instrument made of reeds and grasses with a rattle attached to the back. Also included are eight Qur'an (Koran) boards, made of wood and other natural materials, in the style of the Hausa peoples. Six have Arabic writing on them. One is undecorated. Used for memorization of the Koran, often in conjunction with the drinking ink tradition. Materials are unidentified wood and ink. Paddle-shaped, about 8\"-12\"L x 6\"-8\"W. All realia is undated."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the John N. Paden papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the John N. Paden papers must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"ref4\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component. Documents are primarily in English but occasionally in German, French, Arabic, or Hausa.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The collection includes periodicals, pamphlets, reports, conference proceedings, photographs, maps, printed ephemera, and manuscripts related to Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on Nigeria, but embracing political and social history, biography, economics, sociology, languages, culture, and religions of the entire region. The role of Islam in the region is an important component. Documents are primarily in English but occasionally in German, French, Arabic, or Hausa."],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections \u0026 Archives","Paden, John N."],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections \u0026 Archives"],"persname_ssim":["Paden, John N."],"language_ssim":["English\n\t\t"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":1043,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T01:00:28.285Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_paden_c01_c66"}},{"id":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\"","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17","ref_ssm":["viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17"],"id":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17","ead_ssi":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","_root_":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","_nest_parent_":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04","parent_ssi":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04","parent_ssim":["viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04"],"parent_ids_ssim":["viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Doris Zallen Papers","Series IV. Background Information on Published Papers"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Doris Zallen Papers","Series IV. Background Information on Published Papers"],"text":["Doris Zallen Papers","Series IV. Background Information on Published Papers","Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\"","box 9","folder 1"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\"","title_ssm":["Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\""],"title_tesim":["Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\""],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1952-1993"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1952/1993"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zallen \"Redrawing the Boundaries of Molecular Biology: The Case of Photosynthesis\""],"component_level_isim":[2],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"],"collection_ssim":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":224,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["The collection is open for research."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. ","Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form."],"date_range_isim":[1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993],"containers_ssim":["box 9","folder 1"],"_nest_path_":"/components#3/components#16","timestamp":"2026-04-30T23:44:54.922Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","ead_ssi":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","_root_":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","_nest_parent_":"viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/VT/repositories_2_resources_3294.xml","title_filing_ssi":"Zallen, Doris, Papers","title_ssm":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"title_tesim":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"unitdate_ssm":["1952-2016"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1952-2016"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["Ms.2018.032"],"text":["Ms.2018.032","Doris Zallen Papers","Faculty and staff","Science and Technology","University History","University Archives","The collection is open for research.","The Doris Zallen Papers are organized into the following series:\n Series I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (NIH) Service, 1990-1999 Series II. Professional papers, 1960-2016 Series III. Book Reviews, 1982-2010 Series IV. Background Information on Published Papers, 1980-2008 Series V. Ethics Advisory Board, 1979 Series VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012","Doris Zallen received her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College and completed her graduate and doctoral work at Harvard Univeristy. Zallen focused her research on the social, ethical, and policy issues of genetic technologies. She came to Virginia Tech in 1983 and retired as professor of Science and Technology Studies and Humanities in 2015. Zallen published three books and created the Choices and Challenges Forum series at Virginia Tech. In 1991 Zallen interviewed David Weatherall who sparked Zallen's research on the prevention of Rh disease and the role the Liverpool School played in that medical advance.","The guide to the Doris Zallen Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/ ).","The processing, arrangement, and description of the Doris Zallen Papers was completed in October 2018. Additional processing, arrangement, and description of an addition was completed in May 2019 and January 2020.","See also the following collections:","Choices and Challenges Forum Records, RG 15/27/1 , Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech. Philip M. Sheppard Papers, Mss.Ms.Coll.65 , American Philosophical Society. D36/A-J - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke Papers - 1926-2000\n , Special Collections \u0026 Archives, University of Liverpool.","The Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contain content from Doris Zallen's professional work with genetic research, discussions, and testing from 1960 to 2016. ","The records are divided into six series including: I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999; II. Professional Papers, 1960-2016; III. Book Reviews, 1962-2010; IV. Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008; V. Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979; and VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012.","In the first series, Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999, each folder relates to the Recombinant Advisory Committee. They include meeting notes, correspondence within the organization, and notes from conferences. ","The second series, Professional Papers, 1960-2016, outlines Doris Zallen's academia starting with her education at Brooklyn College, Harvard University, and the University of Rochester. This series includes manuscripts from her teaching and research careers at Nazareth College of Rochester and Virginia Tech. Zallen's professional papers include research, summaries of sabbaticals and other leaves, consulting, teaching awards, and student and faculty correspondence.","Series III, Book Reviews, 1962-2010, includes book reviews from other scholars about Zallen's research: \"Science and Morality\", \"Does it Run In the Family?,\" and \"To Test or Not to Test?\" This series also includes a poster from a discusion led by Zallen about genetic testing and images from \"Does it Run In the Family?\"","The fourth series, Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008, contains published and unpublished articles by Doris Zallen and other scholars about genes from 1980 to 2008.","The fifth series, Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979, consists of the report, conclusions, and appendix from the Human in Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer study.","The last series, Liverpool School, 1952-2012, consists of background information, publications, interviews, and pictures from Zallen's research of the prevention of Rh disease.","The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. ","Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form:  http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form:  http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives ( specref@vt.edu  or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.","The Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contains meeting notes from the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, Doris Zallen's professional papers, book reviews, and background on Zallen's published papers from 1960 to 2016. Doris Zallen attended Brooklyn College and Harvard University before becaming a professor of Science and Technolgy Studies and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science at Virginia Tech. This collection follows Zallen's acadamic work from the undergraduate to graduate level, post-doctoral appointments, and her genetic research and teaching. Included in this collection is Zallens research on the Liverpool School which providedresearches the medical advance of the prevention of Rh disease.","Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Arts and Sciences (1970-2003)","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Liberal Arts \u0026 Human Sciences","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1970-)","The materials in the collection are in English."],"unitid_tesim":["Ms.2018.032"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"collection_title_tesim":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"collection_ssim":["Doris Zallen Papers"],"repository_ssm":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"],"repository_ssim":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"],"access_terms_ssm":["The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. ","Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form:  http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form:  http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives ( specref@vt.edu  or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form."],"acqinfo_ssim":["The Doris Zallen Papers were donated to Special Collections and University Archives in July 2018. Additions were donated in March 2019 and December 2019."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Faculty and staff","Science and Technology","University History","University Archives"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Faculty and staff","Science and Technology","University History","University Archives"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["10 Cubic Feet 13 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["10 Cubic Feet 13 boxes"],"date_range_isim":[1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is open for research.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Access"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["The collection is open for research."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Doris Zallen Papers are organized into the following series:\n\u003clist\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (NIH) Service, 1990-1999\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries II. Professional papers, 1960-2016\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries III. Book Reviews, 1982-2010\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries IV. Background Information on Published Papers, 1980-2008\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries V. Ethics Advisory Board, 1979\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003eSeries VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003c/list\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The Doris Zallen Papers are organized into the following series:\n Series I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (NIH) Service, 1990-1999 Series II. Professional papers, 1960-2016 Series III. Book Reviews, 1982-2010 Series IV. Background Information on Published Papers, 1980-2008 Series V. Ethics Advisory Board, 1979 Series VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012"],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eDoris Zallen received her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College and completed her graduate and doctoral work at Harvard Univeristy. Zallen focused her research on the social, ethical, and policy issues of genetic technologies. She came to Virginia Tech in 1983 and retired as professor of Science and Technology Studies and Humanities in 2015. Zallen published three books and created the Choices and Challenges Forum series at Virginia Tech. In 1991 Zallen interviewed David Weatherall who sparked Zallen's research on the prevention of Rh disease and the role the Liverpool School played in that medical advance.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Biographical Note"],"bioghist_tesim":["Doris Zallen received her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College and completed her graduate and doctoral work at Harvard Univeristy. Zallen focused her research on the social, ethical, and policy issues of genetic technologies. She came to Virginia Tech in 1983 and retired as professor of Science and Technology Studies and Humanities in 2015. Zallen published three books and created the Choices and Challenges Forum series at Virginia Tech. In 1991 Zallen interviewed David Weatherall who sparked Zallen's research on the prevention of Rh disease and the role the Liverpool School played in that medical advance."],"odd_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe guide to the Doris Zallen Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/share-your-%20work/public-domain/cc0/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehttps://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e"],"odd_heading_ssm":["Rights Statement for Archival Description"],"odd_tesim":["The guide to the Doris Zallen Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your- work/public-domain/cc0/ )."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eResearchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe processing, arrangement, and description of the Doris Zallen Papers was completed in October 2018. Additional processing, arrangement, and description of an addition was completed in May 2019 and January 2020.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["The processing, arrangement, and description of the Doris Zallen Papers was completed in October 2018. Additional processing, arrangement, and description of an addition was completed in May 2019 and January 2020."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSee also the following collections:\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e\u003clist\u003e\n\u003citem\u003e\u003ca show=\"new\" href=\"https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=oai/VT/repositories_2_resources_3289.xml\"\u003eChoices and Challenges Forum Records, RG 15/27/1\u003c/a\u003e, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech.\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003e\u003ca show=\"new\" href=\"https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.Ms.Coll.65-ead.xml\"\u003ePhilip M. Sheppard Papers, Mss.Ms.Coll.65\u003c/a\u003e, American Philosophical Society.\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003citem\u003e\u003ca show=\"new\" href=\"https://sca-archives.liverpool.ac.uk/Record/22803\"\u003eD36/A-J - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke Papers - 1926-2000\n\u003c/a\u003e, Special Collections \u0026amp; Archives, University of Liverpool.\u003c/item\u003e\n\u003c/list\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Archival Materials"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["See also the following collections:","Choices and Challenges Forum Records, RG 15/27/1 , Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech. Philip M. Sheppard Papers, Mss.Ms.Coll.65 , American Philosophical Society. D36/A-J - Sir Cyril Astley Clarke Papers - 1926-2000\n , Special Collections \u0026 Archives, University of Liverpool."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contain content from Doris Zallen's professional work with genetic research, discussions, and testing from 1960 to 2016. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe records are divided into six series including: I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999; II. Professional Papers, 1960-2016; III. Book Reviews, 1962-2010; IV. Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008; V. Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979; and VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn the first series, Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999, each folder relates to the Recombinant Advisory Committee. They include meeting notes, correspondence within the organization, and notes from conferences. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe second series, Professional Papers, 1960-2016, outlines Doris Zallen's academia starting with her education at Brooklyn College, Harvard University, and the University of Rochester. This series includes manuscripts from her teaching and research careers at Nazareth College of Rochester and Virginia Tech. Zallen's professional papers include research, summaries of sabbaticals and other leaves, consulting, teaching awards, and student and faculty correspondence.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries III, Book Reviews, 1962-2010, includes book reviews from other scholars about Zallen's research: \"Science and Morality\", \"Does it Run In the Family?,\" and \"To Test or Not to Test?\" This series also includes a poster from a discusion led by Zallen about genetic testing and images from \"Does it Run In the Family?\"\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe fourth series, Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008, contains published and unpublished articles by Doris Zallen and other scholars about genes from 1980 to 2008.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe fifth series, Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979, consists of the report, conclusions, and appendix from the Human in Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer study.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe last series, Liverpool School, 1952-2012, consists of background information, publications, interviews, and pictures from Zallen's research of the prevention of Rh disease.\u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contain content from Doris Zallen's professional work with genetic research, discussions, and testing from 1960 to 2016. ","The records are divided into six series including: I. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999; II. Professional Papers, 1960-2016; III. Book Reviews, 1962-2010; IV. Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008; V. Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979; and VI. Liverpool School, 1952-2012.","In the first series, Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Service, 1990-1999, each folder relates to the Recombinant Advisory Committee. They include meeting notes, correspondence within the organization, and notes from conferences. ","The second series, Professional Papers, 1960-2016, outlines Doris Zallen's academia starting with her education at Brooklyn College, Harvard University, and the University of Rochester. This series includes manuscripts from her teaching and research careers at Nazareth College of Rochester and Virginia Tech. Zallen's professional papers include research, summaries of sabbaticals and other leaves, consulting, teaching awards, and student and faculty correspondence.","Series III, Book Reviews, 1962-2010, includes book reviews from other scholars about Zallen's research: \"Science and Morality\", \"Does it Run In the Family?,\" and \"To Test or Not to Test?\" This series also includes a poster from a discusion led by Zallen about genetic testing and images from \"Does it Run In the Family?\"","The fourth series, Background information on Published Papers, 1980-2008, contains published and unpublished articles by Doris Zallen and other scholars about genes from 1980 to 2008.","The fifth series, Ethics and Advisory Board, 1979, consists of the report, conclusions, and appendix from the Human in Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer study.","The last series, Liverpool School, 1952-2012, consists of background information, publications, interviews, and pictures from Zallen's research of the prevention of Rh disease."],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. \u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eReproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/scuareproduction\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehttp://bit.ly/scuareproduction\u003c/a\u003e. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/scuapublication\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ehttp://bit.ly/scuapublication\u003c/a\u003e. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (\u003ca href=\"mailto:specref@vt.edu\"\u003especref@vt.edu\u003c/a\u003e or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use"],"userestrict_tesim":["The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. ","Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form:  http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form:  http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives ( specref@vt.edu  or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_45f780eb9474c90671b364abacec9cdc\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contains meeting notes from the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, Doris Zallen's professional papers, book reviews, and background on Zallen's published papers from 1960 to 2016. Doris Zallen attended Brooklyn College and Harvard University before becaming a professor of Science and Technolgy Studies and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science at Virginia Tech. This collection follows Zallen's acadamic work from the undergraduate to graduate level, post-doctoral appointments, and her genetic research and teaching. Included in this collection is Zallens research on the Liverpool School which providedresearches the medical advance of the prevention of Rh disease.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Doris Zallen Papers, Ms2018-032, contains meeting notes from the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, Doris Zallen's professional papers, book reviews, and background on Zallen's published papers from 1960 to 2016. Doris Zallen attended Brooklyn College and Harvard University before becaming a professor of Science and Technolgy Studies and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Science at Virginia Tech. This collection follows Zallen's acadamic work from the undergraduate to graduate level, post-doctoral appointments, and her genetic research and teaching. Included in this collection is Zallens research on the Liverpool School which providedresearches the medical advance of the prevention of Rh disease."],"names_coll_ssim":["Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Arts and Sciences (1970-2003)","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Liberal Arts \u0026 Human Sciences","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1970-)"],"names_ssim":["Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Arts and Sciences (1970-2003)","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Liberal Arts \u0026 Human Sciences","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1970-)"],"corpname_ssim":["Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Arts and Sciences (1970-2003)","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. College of Liberal Arts \u0026 Human Sciences","Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1970-)"],"language_ssim":["The materials in the collection are in English."],"total_component_count_is":281,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-04-30T23:44:54.922Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/viblbv_repositories_2_resources_3294_c04_c17"}},{"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God,","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545","ref_ssm":["vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545"],"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God,","Box 528","Folder 4",""],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God, \n","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God, \n"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God, \n"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974\n"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God,"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6350,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["There are no restrictions."],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["Box 528","Folder 4"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp/\u003e"],"scopecontent_tesim":[""],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1544","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/gmu/arenastage.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/arenastage.html","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949-2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949-2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017"],"text":["C0017","Arena Stage records","Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings.","Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.","Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  ","There are no restrictions.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","English\n            "],"unitid_tesim":["C0017"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"access_terms_ssm":["There are no restrictions."],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2011."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["739 boxes"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSpecial Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["There are no restrictions."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"ref2\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"language_ssim":["English\n            "],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1545"}},{"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, or the Madness of God,","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417","ref_ssm":["vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417"],"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01","parent_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01","parent_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c03","vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c03","vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs,","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs,"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs,","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs,"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs,","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs,","Zalmen, or the Madness of God,","Box 613","Folder 9",""],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, or the Madness of God, \n","title_ssm":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God, \n"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God, \n"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974\n"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God,"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":7500,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["There are no restrictions."],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["Box 613","Folder 9"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp/\u003e"],"scopecontent_tesim":[""],"_nest_path_":"/components#2/components#0/components#416","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/gmu/arenastage.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/arenastage.html","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949-2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949-2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017"],"text":["C0017","Arena Stage records","Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings.","Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.","Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  ","There are no restrictions.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","English\n            "],"unitid_tesim":["C0017"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"access_terms_ssm":["There are no restrictions."],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2011."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["739 boxes"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSpecial Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["There are no restrictions."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"ref2\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"language_ssim":["English\n            "],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c03_c01_c417"}},{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545","ref_ssm":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545"],"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God","box 528","folder 4"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6350,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["box 528","folder 4"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents note"],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1544","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/GMU/repositories_2_resources_416.xml","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"text":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416","Arena Stage records","Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints","Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","Accruals to this collection are expected.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.","The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. ","The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016","English"],"unitid_tesim":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"access_terms_ssm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2024.","This collection has additional unprocessed accessions 2023.040-C and 2024.088-C, and therefore this finding aid may not be fully up to date. Please contact SCRC for more information."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"genreform_ssim":["Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"accruals_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAccruals to this collection are expected.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accruals_heading_ssm":["Accruals"],"accruals_tesim":["Accruals to this collection are expected."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n      \u003chead\u003eSeries\u003c/head\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cextptr href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e \u003cextptr href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's \u003citalic\u003eShe Stoops to Conquer.\u003c/italic\u003e Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope.\u003c/italic\u003e \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope\u003c/italic\u003e included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like \u003citalic\u003eKing Lear\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eThe Threepenny Opera\u003c/italic\u003e, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, \u003citalic\u003eOur Town\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of \u003citalic\u003eK2\u003c/italic\u003e, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of \u003citalic\u003eThe Crucible\u003c/italic\u003e at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_ec96c412f915842d3012676b73803163\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"physloc_html_tesm":["\u003cphysloc id=\"aspace_22f8958322c3fdee6366a384bb686980\"\u003e\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5\u003c/physloc\u003e"],"physloc_tesim":["\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5"],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"names_coll_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"persname_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"language_ssim":["English"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1545"}},{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, or the Madness of God","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417","ref_ssm":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417"],"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01","parent_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01","parent_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 3: Photographs","Subseries 3.1: Production photographs","Zalmen, or the Madness of God","box 613","folder 9"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, or the Madness of God","title_ssm":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, or the Madness of God"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":7500,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["box 613","folder 9"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents note"],"_nest_path_":"/components#2/components#0/components#416","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/GMU/repositories_2_resources_416.xml","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"text":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416","Arena Stage records","Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints","Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","Accruals to this collection are expected.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.","The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. ","The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016","English"],"unitid_tesim":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"access_terms_ssm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2024.","This collection has additional unprocessed accessions 2023.040-C and 2024.088-C, and therefore this finding aid may not be fully up to date. Please contact SCRC for more information."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"genreform_ssim":["Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"accruals_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAccruals to this collection are expected.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accruals_heading_ssm":["Accruals"],"accruals_tesim":["Accruals to this collection are expected."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n      \u003chead\u003eSeries\u003c/head\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cextptr href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e \u003cextptr href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's \u003citalic\u003eShe Stoops to Conquer.\u003c/italic\u003e Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope.\u003c/italic\u003e \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope\u003c/italic\u003e included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like \u003citalic\u003eKing Lear\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eThe Threepenny Opera\u003c/italic\u003e, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, \u003citalic\u003eOur Town\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of \u003citalic\u003eK2\u003c/italic\u003e, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of \u003citalic\u003eThe Crucible\u003c/italic\u003e at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_ec96c412f915842d3012676b73803163\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"physloc_html_tesm":["\u003cphysloc id=\"aspace_22f8958322c3fdee6366a384bb686980\"\u003e\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5\u003c/physloc\u003e"],"physloc_tesim":["\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5"],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"names_coll_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"persname_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"language_ssim":["English"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c03_c01_c417"}},{"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7),","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547","ref_ssm":["vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547"],"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7),","Box 528","Folder 6",""],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7), \n","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7), \n"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7), \n"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974\n"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7),"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6352,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["There are no restrictions."],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["Box 528","Folder 6"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp/\u003e"],"scopecontent_tesim":[""],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1546","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/gmu/arenastage.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/arenastage.html","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949-2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949-2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017"],"text":["C0017","Arena Stage records","Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings.","Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.","Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  ","There are no restrictions.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","English\n            "],"unitid_tesim":["C0017"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"access_terms_ssm":["There are no restrictions."],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2011."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["739 boxes"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSpecial Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["There are no restrictions."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"ref2\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"language_ssim":["English\n            "],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1547"}},{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547","ref_ssm":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547"],"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)","box 528","folder 6"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (1 of 7)"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6352,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["box 528","folder 6"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents note"],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1546","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/GMU/repositories_2_resources_416.xml","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"text":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416","Arena Stage records","Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints","Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","Accruals to this collection are expected.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.","The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. ","The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016","English"],"unitid_tesim":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"access_terms_ssm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2024.","This collection has additional unprocessed accessions 2023.040-C and 2024.088-C, and therefore this finding aid may not be fully up to date. Please contact SCRC for more information."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"genreform_ssim":["Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"accruals_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAccruals to this collection are expected.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accruals_heading_ssm":["Accruals"],"accruals_tesim":["Accruals to this collection are expected."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n      \u003chead\u003eSeries\u003c/head\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cextptr href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e \u003cextptr href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's \u003citalic\u003eShe Stoops to Conquer.\u003c/italic\u003e Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope.\u003c/italic\u003e \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope\u003c/italic\u003e included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like \u003citalic\u003eKing Lear\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eThe Threepenny Opera\u003c/italic\u003e, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, \u003citalic\u003eOur Town\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of \u003citalic\u003eK2\u003c/italic\u003e, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of \u003citalic\u003eThe Crucible\u003c/italic\u003e at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_ec96c412f915842d3012676b73803163\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"physloc_html_tesm":["\u003cphysloc id=\"aspace_22f8958322c3fdee6366a384bb686980\"\u003e\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5\u003c/physloc\u003e"],"physloc_tesim":["\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5"],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"names_coll_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"persname_ssim":["Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"language_ssim":["English"],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1547"}},{"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7),","abstract_or_scope":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548#abstract_or_scope","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","label":"Abstract Or Scope"}},"breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548","ref_ssm":["vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548"],"id":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_arenastage","vifgm_arenastage_c02","vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files,","Subseries 2.3: Production files,","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7),","Box 528","Folder 7",""],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7), \n","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7), \n"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7), \n"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974\n"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7),"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6353,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["There are no restrictions."],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["Box 528","Folder 7"],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp/\u003e"],"scopecontent_tesim":[""],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1547","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_ssi":"vifgm_arenastage","_root_":"vifgm_arenastage","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_arenastage","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/gmu/arenastage.xml","aspace_url_ssi":"http://sca.gmu.edu/finding_aids/arenastage.html","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949-2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949-2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017"],"text":["C0017","Arena Stage records","Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings.","Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.","Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  ","There are no restrictions.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","English\n            "],"unitid_tesim":["C0017"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage"],"access_terms_ssm":["There are no restrictions."],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2011."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater--Washington (D.C.)","Photographic prints.","Sound recordings.","Video recordings."],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["739 boxes"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research.  Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n        \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\n        \u003cextptr type=\"simple\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e\n      \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, DC's preeminent regional theater.  Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in DC, was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theater Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African-American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic\". Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like King Lear and The Threepenny Opera, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, Our Town and Inherit the Wind to the USSR. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of Inherit the Wind at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of K2, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of The Crucible at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith is still Arena's artistic director as of 2016.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Weist, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to watch reel-to-reel film and audio, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections and Archives staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh.  EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eSpecial Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["Special Collections and Archives holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage Theater Company collection and many other theater collections."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray.  Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans.  This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi.  Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically.  Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris.  Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play.  Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries.  Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events.  Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence.  Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically.  Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States.  Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays.  It is divided into 6 subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts.  It is generally organized alphabetically by play.  Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena.  It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays.  It is arranged alphabetically by play title.  Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.  The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance.  Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play.  Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998.  It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries.  Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours.  Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material.  Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s.  Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater.  Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988.  It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries.  Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title.  Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film.  Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes.  "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThere are no restrictions.\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["There are no restrictions."],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"ref2\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center.","Arena Stage","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"language_ssim":["English\n            "],"descrules_ssm":["Describing Archives: A Content Standard"],"total_component_count_is":8332,"online_item_count_is":0,"component_level_isim":[0],"sort_isi":0,"timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:52:17.185Z"}]}},"label":"Breadcrumbs"}}},"links":{"self":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_arenastage_c02_c03_c1548"}},{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1548","type":"File","attributes":{"title":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)","breadcrumbs":{"id":"https://search.arvasarchive.org/catalog/vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1548#breadcrumbs","type":"document_value","attributes":{"value":{"ref_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1548","ref_ssm":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1548"],"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03_c1548","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03","parent_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_ids_ssim":["vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02","vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416_c02_c03"],"parent_unittitles_ssm":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"parent_unittitles_tesim":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files"],"text":["Arena Stage records","Series 2: Production files","Subseries 2.3: Production files","Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)","box 528","folder 7"],"title_filing_ssi":"Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)","title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)"],"title_tesim":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)"],"unitdate_other_ssim":["1973-1974"],"normalized_date_ssm":["1973/1974"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Zalmen, Or the Madness of God (2 of 7)"],"component_level_isim":[3],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"child_component_count_isi":0,"level_ssm":["File"],"level_ssim":["File"],"sort_isi":6353,"parent_access_restrict_tesm":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"parent_access_terms_tesm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"date_range_isim":[1973,1974],"containers_ssim":["box 528","folder 7"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Contents note"],"_nest_path_":"/components#1/components#2/components#1547","timestamp":"2026-05-01T00:23:25.700Z","collection":{"numFound":1,"start":0,"numFoundExact":true,"docs":[{"id":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_ssi":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_root_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","_nest_parent_":"vifgm_repositories_2_resources_416","ead_source_url_ssi":"data/oai/GMU/repositories_2_resources_416.xml","title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"unitdate_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"unitdate_inclusive_ssm":["1949 - 2010"],"level_ssm":["collection"],"level_ssim":["Collection"],"unitid_ssm":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"text":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416","Arena Stage records","Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints","Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.","Accruals to this collection are expected.","The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)",""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.","","From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.","The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.","Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.","The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. ","The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)","The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.","\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5","George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016","English"],"unitid_tesim":["C0017","/repositories/2/resources/416"],"normalized_title_ssm":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_title_tesim":["Arena Stage records"],"collection_ssim":["Arena Stage records"],"repository_ssm":["George Mason University"],"repository_ssim":["George Mason University"],"creator_ssm":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creator_corpname_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"creators_ssim":["Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)"],"access_terms_ssm":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"acqinfo_ssim":["Donated by Arena Stage in 2000-2024.","This collection has additional unprocessed accessions 2023.040-C and 2024.088-C, and therefore this finding aid may not be fully up to date. Please contact SCRC for more information."],"access_subjects_ssim":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"access_subjects_ssm":["Theater -- Washington (D.C.)","Theater","Theater -- United States","Theater programs","Theater -- Production and direction","Performing arts","Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"has_online_content_ssim":["false"],"extent_ssm":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"extent_tesim":["369.5 Linear Feet 739 boxes"],"genreform_ssim":["Video recordings","Sound recordings","Photographic prints"],"date_range_isim":[1949,1950,1951,1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961,1962,1963,1964,1965,1966,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1974,1975,1976,1977,1978,1979,1980,1981,1982,1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010],"accessrestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eCollection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accessrestrict_heading_ssm":["Access Restrictions"],"accessrestrict_tesim":["Collection is open to research. Some personnel records in Series 1 Subseries 3 Sub-subseries 2: Personnel, staff contain Social Security Numbers and must be screened by SCRC staff before researchers can view them."],"accruals_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eAccruals to this collection are expected.\u003c/p\u003e"],"accruals_heading_ssm":["Accruals"],"accruals_tesim":["Accruals to this collection are expected."],"arrangement_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:\u003c/p\u003e","\u003clist type=\"ordered\"\u003e\n      \u003chead\u003eSeries\u003c/head\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720)\u003c/item\u003e\n      \u003citem\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)\u003c/item\u003e\n    \u003c/list\u003e"],"arrangement_heading_ssm":["Arrangement"],"arrangement_tesim":["The collection is arranged into five series, each of which is further divided into subseries:","Series Series 1: Administrative records, 1949-2007 (Boxes 1-196) Series 2: Production files, 1950-2010 (Boxes 197-588, 654-663) Series 3: Photographs, 1950-1991 (Boxes 589-639) Series 4: Oversize materials, 1949-late 2000s (Boxes 640-720) Series 5: Audiovisual materials, 1970-2007 (Boxes 721-739)"],"bibliography_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cextptr href=\"http://www.arenastage.org/plan-your-visit/the-mead-center/\" title=\"'Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.' Arena Stage. Accessed February 3, 2016.\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e \u003cextptr href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/theater/features/arena51205.htm\" title=\"Richards, David. 'For Arena Stage, a Pioneering Selection.' Washington Post. December 5, 1997\" show=\"new\"\u003e\u003c/extptr\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"],"bibliography_heading_ssm":["Bibliography"],"bibliography_tesim":[""," Maslon, Lawrence, editor. \"The Arena Adventure: The First 40 Years.\" Washington, DC: Arena Stage, 1990.",""],"bioghist_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eFrom its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eArena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's \u003citalic\u003eShe Stoops to Conquer.\u003c/italic\u003e Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date: \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope.\u003c/italic\u003e \u003citalic\u003eThe Great White Hope\u003c/italic\u003e included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like \u003citalic\u003eKing Lear\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eThe Threepenny Opera\u003c/italic\u003e, but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eIn 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays, \u003citalic\u003eOur Town\u003c/italic\u003e and \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of \u003citalic\u003eInherit the Wind\u003c/italic\u003e at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eThe early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of \u003citalic\u003eK2\u003c/italic\u003e, for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of \u003citalic\u003eThe Crucible\u003c/italic\u003e at the Israel Festival.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003e1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eMany now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage.\u003c/p\u003e"],"bioghist_heading_ssm":["Historical Information"],"bioghist_tesim":["From its opening on August 16, 1950, the Arena Stage has dedicated itself to being a space of imagination and innovation, a tool of \"civilization,\" and Washington, D.C.'s preeminent regional theater. Founded by Zelda Fichandler, with assistance from her husband Thomas C. Fichandler and partner Edward Mangum, the Arena Stage began as a for-profit theater under Arena Enterprises, Inc. The original Hippodrome Theatre, located on Ninth and New York N.W. in D.C., was revolutionary amongst regional theatres for its theatre-in-the-round construction and would provide the blueprint for all future Arena locations.","Arena began its long and successful life with Oliver Goldsmith's  She Stoops to Conquer.  Arena owed its early successes in the 1950s to its fluid play schedule organization and its willingness to put on works that were not commercial successes on Broadway. In November of 1956, after a year's hiatus, the company relocated to a temporary home at the Old Heurich Brewery, dubbed the Old Vat by company members. The move was facilitated in part by the commitment and drive of Board members J. Burke Knapp, Albert M. Berkowitz, Israel Convisser, Leslie Amouri, and Henry J. Danilowicz. However, financial issues would continue to trouble Arena Enterprises, Inc., eventually leading to its dissolution in 1959, and the creation of Arena's new, non-profit parent organization, the Washington Drama Society.","During the 1960s, Arena garnered international renown in its new space: the Arena Stage Theatre. The new building, located at Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW, was the first playhouse built in Washington since 1895. Chicago architect Harry Weese designed the space to be as innovative as possible while still maintaining the theater-in-the-round layout. Now a non-profit theater, Arena drew much of its funding during this time from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and generous donations from both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundations.","The Arena Stage began some of its most ambitious work during the 1960s including forming the Living Stage Theatre Company, further integrating its cast, and staging its most ambitious and acclaimed work to date:  The Great White Hope. The Great White Hope  included twenty five additional guest actors, including James Earl Jones, and was an enormous success, both critically and financially, for Arena. It was the first major resident theater production to be exported to Broadway. Fichandler also began to experiment with casting African American actors in traditionally white roles during the 1968 season after she published the paper \"Towards a Deepening Aesthetic.\" Fichandler experimented with non-traditional casting in plays like  King Lear  and  The Threepenny Opera , but unfortunately these plays were met with critical confusion and disappointing ticket sales. Arena Stage was incredibly successful in the 1970s, garnering awards and critical approval, and international recognition. Not content with the current Arena Stage configuration, Fichandler and others worked diligently to acquire another stage facility that would collaborate, not compete, with the current Stage. Generosity on the part of David Lloyd Kreeger, and others, led to the construction of the new Kreeger Theater which opened on January 15, 1971.","In 1973 Arena would have the opportunity to take two of its plays,  Our Town  and  Inherit the Wind  to the U.S.S.R. This was the first ever trip to the Soviet Union undertaken by a resident theater group. The trip was a wild success with Russian audiences giving the cast a standing ovation following their performance of  Inherit the Wind  at the Moscow Art Theatre. In April 1976 the American Theatre Critics Association bestowed upon the Arena Stage a special Tony Award for resident theaters. The ATCA cited Arena's qualities as a \"trailblazer\" in theatrical arts and representative of other theaters that had followed its lead.","The early 1980s were a difficult time for theater, but, in spite of this, Arena continued to push the limits of conventional residential theater. The 1982 production of  K2 , for example, saw the construction of a sheer glacial face on the Kreeger stage according to the vision of set designer Ming Cho Lee. In 1986 twenty-three actors and a thirteen member production staff traveled to Jerusalem to perform Zelda's production of  The Crucible  at the Israel Festival.","1989 marked the end of an era as Zelda Fichandler announced that she would step down as Arena's producing director at the end of the 1990-1991 fortieth anniversary season. Douglas C. Wager would succeed her as artistic director. Amid financial difficulties and changing times for theaters everywhere, Arena's resident company of actors was disbanded by the late 1990s. Wager remained at the helm until 1998, when Molly Smith took over the position. Under Smith's leadership, Bing Thom architects completed another major renovation of Arena's existing buildings into the Mead Center for American Theater in 2010. Smith served as Arena's artistic director until 2023, when she retired and was succeeded by current Aristic Director, Hana Sharif.","Many now-famous actors took part in Arena Stage productions during the early part of their careers. Some of them include Robert Prosky, Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Christopher Guest, Yeardley Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Ned Beatty, Jane Alexander, and Ron Perlman. Many other set designers, artists, costume designers, and technical workers owe their early success and experience to the Arena Stage."],"phystech_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access.\u003c/p\u003e"],"phystech_heading_ssm":["Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements"],"phystech_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center does not have the equipment necessary to film and audio reels, Betacam, or U-matic tapes contained in Series 5.2 and 5.3. Additional time and money may be required to digitize this material for access."],"prefercite_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eArena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.\u003c/p\u003e"],"prefercite_tesim":["Arena Stage records, C0017, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries."],"processinfo_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eProcessed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025.\u003c/p\u003e"],"processinfo_heading_ssm":["Processing Information"],"processinfo_tesim":["Processed by Harvard Theatre Collection and George Mason University Special Collections Research Center staff. Reprocessed by Greta Suiter, Kerry Mitchell, Elizabeth Beckman, Diane Stancil, and Nick Welsh. EAD markup completed by Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in 2025."],"relatedmaterial_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records.\u003c/p\u003e"],"relatedmaterial_heading_ssm":["Related Material"],"relatedmaterial_tesim":["The Special Collections Research Center holds the personal papers of several individuals involved with Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas C. Fichandler papers, the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Living Stage records."],"scopecontent_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.\u003c/p\u003e\n","\u003cp\u003eSeries 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. \u003c/p\u003e"],"scopecontent_heading_ssm":["Scope and Content"],"scopecontent_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from 1949 to 2010, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records pertaining to the theater's finances, publicity, buildings, and programs.","Series 1: Administrative records (1949-2007) documents the creation, operation, and maintenance of Arena Stage and its various programs. It is further divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 1.1: Correspondence includes correspondence arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name or by organizational name. Some correspondence is further aggregated and then organized alphabetically, such as \"Play Correspondence\" or \"Audience Response.\" Of particular note are letters from President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and King Kong star Fay Wray. Subseries 1.2: Programs, policies, and procedures, includes records of Arena's programs, such as the \"Arena Angels\" volunteer program and fellowship programs, policies, such as bylaws, diversity policies, and handbooks, and planning, including season planning and long-range plans. This subseries is broken up into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.3.1: Financial papers documents Arena's finances and includes stockholder documents from its beginnings as a for-profit theater, grant-related documentation after the theater transitioned to a non-profit in the late 1950s, and records of the theater's development office, some of which were kept by department director Elspeth Udvarhelyi. Sub-subseries 1.3.2: Personnel records includes information on staff at Arena Stage arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest are headshots and/or resumes of a number of well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Henry Winkler, Edward Hermann, Yeardley Smith, Jane Alexander, Swoosie Kurtz, Victor Garber, Ron Perlman, Annette Benning, Olympia Dukakis, John Lithgow, John Voigt, Sigourney Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. Sub-subseries 1.3.3: Casting information contains notes on casting for productions arranged alphabetically by play. Sub-subseries 1.3.4: Production contracts includes official agreements between Arena and others arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 1.4: Meeting minutes contains meeting minutes from Arena's Board of Trustees, staff, and other subgroups within the organization. Subseries 1.5: Communications and events, is also divided into four sub-subseries. Sub-subseries 1.5.1: Events documents special events held by Arena Stage, including anniversaries, galas, benefits, openings and press events. Sub-subseries 1.5.2: Communications and Marketing includes records produced by the Communications and Marketing departments, including meeting minutes, planning, research, and correspondence. Sub-subseries 1.5.3: Printed Material includes subscriber materials, mailings, brochures, reviews collected and arranged by play title, and programs organized chronologically. Sub-subseries 1.5.4: Theater Communications Group contains correspondence, reports, and other information generated from Arena's association with the Theater Communications Group, an organization of theaters around the United States. Subseries 1.6: Buildings and facilities includes information about and architectural plans for Arena's various buildings over the years, including the Hippodrome, the Old Vat, the 1960 permanent building, and the Kreeger Theater addition.","Series 2: Production Files (1950-2010) is comprised of records related to the artistic development and performance of Arena's plays. It is divided into 6 subseries. Subseries 2.1: Dramaturgical files documents literary, historical and background research done by Arena's literary department for various plays, including articles, research packets, actor's packets, and scripts. It is generally organized alphabetically by play. Subseries 2.2: Playwright subject files contains research on various playwrights, both living and dead, whose work has been performed at Arena. It is organized alphabetically by playwright's last name. Subseries 2.3: Production files includes scripts, blocking information, correspondence, and other material related to the production of Arena's plays. It is arranged alphabetically by play title. Subseries 2.4: Stage manager's reports includes daily reports by the stage manager of productions for the entire runs of many of Arena's plays from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. The reports include running times, incident reports, and other commentary on the audience and the performance. Subseries 2.5: Wrap files contains documents collected from throughout the runs of various productions, including reviews that reflect the wider response to the play. Subseries 2.6: Producing director's files contains documents from Arena's second Producing director after Zelda Fichandler, Doug Wager, who served from 1991-1998. It includes pre-production speeches given by Wager, as well as planning files.","Series 3: Photographs (1950-1991)is divided into 3 subseries. Subseries 3.1: Production photographs includes photos of scenes from Arena's productions arranged alphabetically by play. Subseries 3.2: Production books includes production photos collected in books, many of which are by professional photographer George de Vincent. Subseries 3.3: Buildings, staff, and events includes photographs of Arena's buildings, staff and cast portraits, and event photographs, such as prints from Arena's 30th anniversary celebration and from Arena's Soviet Union and Israel tours. Subseries 3.4: Negatives and slides includes slides and negatives of Arena's staff and events, as well as some buildings, sets, and production-related images.","Series 4: Oversize (1949-late 2000s) is divided into 3 subseries and contains a variety of oversize material. Subseries 4.1: Braille programs contains programs in Braille for various Arena productions from the 1990s and early 2000s. Subseries 4.2: Miscellaneous artwork and programs includes posters from Arena productions and events, enlarged photos, costume sketches, and other oversized material, such as a large model of the Mead Center for American Theater. Subseries 4.3: Scrapbooks contains scrapbooks created for each of Arena's seasons up until 1988. It also includes scrapbooks for Arena's tour of the Soviet Union and of visitors to Arena.","Series 5: Audiovisual (1970-2007) contains several types of formats and is divided into 3 subseries. Series 5.1: Performances on VHS contains VHS tapes (a few of which have associated DVDs) of performances at Arena arranged alphabetically by play title. Series 5.2: Reel-to-reel contains production and event footage on reel-to-reel film. Series 5.3: Other audiovisual formats and VHS tapes contains footage of events and productions on audiocassette, Betacam, and U-matic tapes. "],"userestrict_html_tesm":["\u003cp\u003eThe copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)\u003c/p\u003e"],"userestrict_heading_ssm":["Use Restrictions"],"userestrict_tesim":["The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)"],"abstract_html_tesm":["\u003cabstract id=\"aspace_ec96c412f915842d3012676b73803163\" label=\"Abstract\"\u003eThe Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records.\u003c/abstract\u003e"],"abstract_tesim":["The Arena Stage records consist of material that spans the theater's history from its beginnings in 1950 to the present, including production notebooks, photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, playbills, scrapbooks, scripts, handwritten correspondence, and other production materials, as well as administrative records."],"physloc_html_tesm":["\u003cphysloc id=\"aspace_22f8958322c3fdee6366a384bb686980\"\u003e\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5\u003c/physloc\u003e"],"physloc_tesim":["\nR 5, C 1, S 2 - R 9, C 4, S 7 \n\n\nR29, C1, S2\n\nOS R 3, C 2, S 1 - C 3, S 7\nOS R 4, C 5, S 5 \nOS R 5, C 2, S 3\nOS R 5, C 5, S 4\nOS R 6, C 4, S 6 - S 7\nOS R 7, C 1, S 2\nMap Case 9.1, 11.5"],"names_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center","Arena Stage (Organization : Washington, D.C.)","Fichandler, Thomas C.","Fichandler, Zelda, 1924-2016"],"corpname_ssim":["George Mason University. Libraries. 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