The little theater that could: Anacostia Playhouse turns 5

It’s been a long hard climb, but the Anacostia Playhouse reached its five-year milestone this month — with flying colors. The small flexible theater, known as a “black box,” is located a few blocks from the Frederick Douglass house in historic Anacostia, an arts-friendly neighborhood that also includes the Anacostia Community Museum. While sometimes struggling to pay the rent, the 100-seat theater has built a reputation for presenting Helen Hayes Award-winning plays.

The Anacostia Playhouse evolved from the H Street Playhouse, which for a decade anchored the cultural and economic life of the H Street NE corridor north of Capitol Hill until it closed in 2012, essentially a victim of the neighborhood revitalization it helped to foster. Rising rents on the H Street Corridor meant the Playhouse had to find a new space. It was either that or “just get out of theater altogether,” said Adele Robey, a co-founder of both the H Street Playhouse and the Anacostia Playhouse, which she also directs.

Fortunately for theater lovers, Robey’s love of the stage won out. A year after the H Street Playhouse closed, she opened the Anacostia Playhouse across the river, remodeling an old warehouse, which she calls “the best kind of space for a small black-box theater” because of its high ceilings.

The first three years in the new location were the hardest. But slowly the new theater and the neighboring Anacostia Arts Center just around the corner — a frequent partner of Robey — have been developing what she calls “a little arts community.” Last month, Robey breathed a sigh of relief after signing a five-year lease for the theater.

So the Playhouse has a home at least through 2023. What does Robey envision for her theater over those years? Raising more money is certainly high on her list, she said, but there will also be expanded children-and-youth programming, including classes, workshops and productions for kids to perform in. She wants to forge new partnerships and is talking to Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus about resource sharing. The cultural and social services center in Ward 8 — better known as THEARC — just opened a small black-box theater of its own, relieving some of the city’s shortage of performance spaces.

Though Robey is not planning a fifth anniversary gala, she has secured a grant from the Cafritz Foundation to match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $7,500. She is also looking forward to a full season, and has bookings into October of next year.

On the calendar for the anniversary year are three plays to be presented by the Playhouse’s resident company, Theater Alliance. These begin in September with The Events, a play about a mass shooting, followed by a study of racism and sexism titled Blood at the Roots and the world premiere of Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem next spring.

In November the Playhouse will present a new-works festival, Visions/Revisions, which invites playwrights to submit 10-minute and one-act plays that address themes of deterioration and renovation in Anacostia. Submissions will be accepted through Aug. 31.

This fall Pinky Swear Productions will put on a performance of John Bavoso’s Blight, a play about a couple who moves into a house once occupied by a mass shooter and his mother. Another highlight is Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor, a solo play exploring the lives of African-American men from the perspective of Shakespeare’s Othello. And the Washington-based Irish theater company Solas Nua will bring The Frederick Douglass Project to the Anacostia Playhouse next spring. The work, highlighting Douglass’ 1845 trip to Ireland, debuted this spring at the Yards Marina on an Anacostia River pier, just blocks from the subject’s historic home.

Opening Thursday, July 26, will be a play by Adams Morgan playwright, performance artist, poet and dancer Holly Bass. Titled The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company, the work tells the story of three African-American women from the year 3068 who are traveling through the American South during the Reconstruction Era of the 1860s. The dance-theater piece combines everything from vaudeville to sampling culture as a way to explore what it means to be free. It’s a special co-production of Theater Alliance and the Anacostia Playhouse, whose help with presenting the play has been “very generous,” said Bass.

The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company will continue through Sunday, July 29, at the Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. Tickets are $15 to $20. For tickets and information, visit theateralliance.com or call 202-241-2539.

For information about additional shows and other events at the Anacostia Playhouse, and to buy tickets or make donations, visit anacostiaplayhouse.com.