Sunday afternoon Source Festival panel spotlights DC theater's aspirational ambition

Washington, DC is a once again pop culturally hot continental city ripe with a density of intercontinental possibility. It's a local community with national importance, the seat of power for the "leadership of the free world" with a vibrant local community seeking points of engagement. Sitting in the heart of DC's U Street/midtown corridor, the Source Theater's annual celebration of local and national theater, the Source Festival has the unique ability to intersect these lines of local, national and international influence in an intriguing manner. At Sunday morning's “From DC Theatres to the Nation’s Stages: Developing National Theatre Artists Inside the Capital City” panel discussion, the nature of creating clearly articulated, relevant and multi-level creative voices for the capital city was discussed. Though no resolutions were made, it was a revealing conversation from an important realm about the future of a city at the heart of a pop cultural maelstrom.

Source Festival Director Jenny Frederick described the gathering as "a group of really smart people having a great conversation." Certainly fitting this bill at present in the realm of local theatere were panelists Gregg Henry (Artistic Director, KCACTF), David Dower (Associate Artistic Director, Arena Stage), Jacqueline Lawton (Director of New Play Development, Active Cultures), Abel Lopez (Associate Producing Director, GALA Hispanic Theatre) and Jason Loewith (Executive Director, National New Play Network). Of particular interest, was the intriguing notion of creating balance between the aspirational desire of being able to program great theater that can influence positive policy making, creating quality presentations, and being able to articulate DC's local voice in a locally and nationally impactful manner.

Gregg Henry kicked off the conversation by commenting that he sees theater as "social science," a way to often blend outside resources to enrich a strong local economy. National New Play Network Executive Director Jason Loewith spoke to DC's relevance within the development of American theater history. "Small to mid size theaters gave way to niche houses, and this gave way to realizing the diversity of theater audiences and creating non-homogenous presentations...these days, we're all about networking communities." Panel moderator and Studio Theater Literary Director Adrien Alice-Hansel pointed to the concept of "being able to program for people on Capitol Hill," and realizing the importance and opportunity there as well.

The schizophrenic diversity of DC makes programming for specific audiences a challenge, and makes using theater as a place to articulate a relevant voice for DC a difficult proposition. Of note, the panel featured only one DC resident with significant local experience. Youthful yet grey haired Associate Producing Director of GALA Hispanic Theatre Abel Lopez noted, "I have 25 years of experience! I started working here when my hair was black!" Dallas native and five year DC resident panelist Jacqueline Lawson stated that she's "excited to learn the local stories," and points to Active Cultures' community outreach to the local H Street/Atlas District community as a boon. Arena Stage's David Dower made numerous intelligent and pointed statements as the representative of the longstanding locally trending and nationally potent theater powerhouse. "We are always thinking of how does a presentation matter as relevant to a local and national community? We also attempt to create the ability for local talent, be they playwrights or actors to break out and be featured." In that vein, Dower questioned why there weren't intriguing issues like "for instance, the story of Marion Barry" being addressed, involving unique local issues with significant international worth and interest.

Washington, DC is a city with immense possibility as a successful incubator of forward thinking creative brilliance. The opportunity exists here to create culturally relevant creative content in a place where community is a powerful term based in definition, scale and location. For some, community is on their block. For certain others, it is a national or international term based in race. For yet others more, political access makes community preservation a goal, as great theater impacts national legislation. Therefore, developing successful theater and artists in Washington, DC is a proposition that has varied definitions, and lacks at its core a central answer. Sunday afternoon's intellectual wrangling with the diverse concentration of viable possibilities was wonderful, and must continue. A city at the core of cultural progression must actively benefit from conversations like these which create a depth of answers to be explored. The possibilites present in these conversations plant the seeds that eventiually grow into the delicious fruits of earnest labor.

[The Source Festival ends Sunday July 3. More information HERE.]