A familiar face in the local inclusive-theater world is being remembered as a force for good across Northern Virginia.
Merry Jayne Casillas of Arlington died Sept. 21 after a brief illness. She was 43 years old and, for the past two decades, was a part of the ArtStream inclusive-theater troupe.
Encore Stage & Studio last week paid tribute to local photographer Cindy Kane, who for most of the past decade has chronicled its youth-theater performances.
Kane has proved “very special to our organization,” Encore executive director Sara Duke said in a presentation held July 18 during intermission of “The Addams Family” at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre.
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Sixty summers ago, “A Pocketful of Preposterous Poems” debuted at Lubber Run Park with performances running July 29-31, 1966.
Three Arlington theater companies took home a combined seven Helen Hayes Awards this week — including one for a Yorktown High School graduate.
Signature Theatre led local winners with four awards, while Synetic Theater claimed two — including one of the night’s top Outstanding Production prizes — and Avant Bard Theatre picked up one. The Shirlington-based Signature finished fifth overall among the region’s theaters at the 42nd annual Helen Hayes Awards, held Monday at The Anthem in D.C.
Signature Theatre will try to top its own record-breaking year with a 2026-2027 season featuring a world premiere musical, two Stephen Sondheim productions and the Shirlington theater’s first co-production with Shakespeare Theatre Company.
The lineup, unveiled Tuesday by Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner and Managing Director Maggie Boland, follows a 2025 in which Signature broke sales records alongside fellow Arlington stage Synetic, amid turmoil at the Kennedy Center across the river. The Kennedy Center is set to close for two years of renovations starting in July.
As its 60th birthday approaches, Encore Stage & Studio is expanding its reach while remaining true to its core beliefs.
“We’ve worked hard to advance Encore’s mission,” the organization’s board chair, Lisa Sullivan, said at an April 22 benefit breakfast at Washington Golf & Country Club.
An Arlington-based inclusive theater troupe is about to bring its latest creation to life.
“Rooted in Unity” will be among two productions presented by ArtStream’s local theater companies during performances this weekend at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church.
A youth production combining the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland is debuting at Arlington’s Encore Stage & Studio.
“Sherlock in Wonderland” opened last Friday at Thomas Jefferson Community Center (3501 S. 2nd Street), marking the second collaboration between Encore and playwright Lynne Streeter Childress.
Signature Theatre earned more Helen Hayes Award nominations than any other theater company in the Washington region this year.
The Shirlington-based theater received 28 nominations across five productions, leading all 38 theaters recognized by Theatre Washington for the 42nd annual Helen Hayes Awards, announced last Monday (Feb. 23). Its most-nominated production was “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” with eight nominations, followed by “Play On!” with seven and “Fiddler on the Roof” with six.
During a year of shake-ups and flagging sales at the Kennedy Center, several performing arts groups in Arlington enjoyed significant success in 2025.
Leaders of local groups say that it’s difficult to tell whether they’ve directly benefited from this year’s upheaval across the Potomac, which most recently included a vote to rename D.C.’s premier performing arts center as the “Trump-Kennedy Center” last week.
They entered as a typical group of Arlington teens and tweens. Within 90 minutes, they had been transformed into, among others, a monster, princess, a pumpkin and a unicorn.
The metamorphosis came courtesy of Encore Stage & Studio, which on Oct. 25 hosted its first-ever Halloween-makeup workshop at Cherrydale United Methodist Church.
A Tony Award-nominated actor from HBO’s “The Gilded Age” will play the lead role in Signature Theatre’s rendition of “Fiddler on the Roof” this fall.
The Shirlington theater has cast Douglas Sills as Tevye, a Jewish peasant and the musical’s narrator who endures rising antisemitism alongside his family and neighbors in Czarist Russia. The actor is known for his role as chef Monsieur Baudin on “The Gilded Age.”
