We envision a growing regional theatre community of artists, organizations, and audiences that seeks and celebrates intersectional, diverse, and creative voices and stories.

Mission

Theatre Washington is an alliance of theatre organizations, theatre-makers, and theatre supporters that promotes and nurtures a creative, equitable, healthy, and diverse regional theatre community. 

Through collaborative partnerships and programs, Theatre Washington supports the Washington, DC-area’s professional theatre community to celebrate artistic achievement, strengthen the theatrical workforce, support institutional growth and advancement, and cultivate collective action. Theatre Washington’s core programs include: the Helen Hayes Awards, Theatre Week, Theatre Summit, Theatre Work, and the Taking Care Fund.

Values

Collaboration
Our mission is rooted in strategic and deliberate collaboration. We value collaboration as the basis to build trust, accountability, and understanding of shared goals. Theatre is a collaborative art form that can enhance and transform lives, and we carry this shared culture forward in our work together to build a better community. Theatre Washington fosters collaboration among its partners by convening diverse organizations and individual artists within the community to work together to share expertise, resources, and responsibility for achieving common goals. We seek to bridge conversations, build understanding, and create collective action. 

Empathy
Our theatre-makers, theatres, and audiences are successful when we help each other feel and know  –  at least a little – the lived-experiences of others. Our shared humanity is at the root of live theatre-making. We will advance our mission based on our individual and collective abilities to take in the truths of others, and to evolve based on what we learn. We deepen our connection with ourselves, and with each other, as we move toward our vision of a healthy and equitable performing arts field.

Equity
As we collaborate with and connect to the experiences of each other in the performing arts landscape, we commit to apply what we learn and to evolve, to acknowledge, and to celebrate the diversity of contributions to the field and to the art. As an advocate for the arts, we must center our focus on the theatre-makers as we recognize and work to dismantle the many structural barriers that stand in the way of our vision. There needs to be change in order to realize a future where all people feel welcomed and celebrated, sharing their stories and their art.