Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions on personal use. Permission to publish material from the Living Stage Records must be obtained from Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Living Stage Records, C0277, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Arena Stage in 2000.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Nick Welsh and Elizabeth Beckman in 2016. EAD markup completed by Nick Welsh in June 2016.

Historical Information

The Living Stage Theatre Company began in 1966 as a venture of the Arena Stage and Robert Alexander. Known from 1966-1968 as the Children's Theatre, the Living Stage from the beginning dedicated itself to programming with a social consciousness and a desire to effect societal change through performance. Robert Alexander was the theatre's founder and until 1995 its director. Alexander brought an adapted street and guerilla theater style to the DC area after becoming disenchanted with traditional theater's "middle-class" audience. The Living Stage provided training to actors in the art of improvisational theater through tuition free schooling during the summers, as well as through weekend long workshop training for social workers, teachers, and other professionals throughout their 9 month season. While most of the Stage's workshops were held on site at schools, museums, and prisons, the Living Stage did have its own formal space in Washington DC on 14th and T Streets NW. The Living Stage put on productions across Northern Virginia in schools, youth homes, and even prisons like the Lorton Penitentiary. Senior members of the company, like Jennifer Nelson and Oran Sandel helped to send the Living Stage across the country as well. Their efforts were largely funded through vigorous campaigning for grants and fund raising through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other private foundations. The Living Stage also received substantial financial assistance from its parent company, the Washington Drama Society, Inc.

The Living Stage performance style consisted of "The Jam", "The Performance" and "The Workshop"; a three part study that was used at most of their venues. The first part, or "Jam", consisted of actors working with their audience to "rap", make music, and "jam" through spoken or sung words accompanied by instrumentals typically provided by audience members. Then the actors moved into the "performance" itself. During the performance, the actors put on an improvised theater production directed by a senior member of the cast and assisted by one or two audience members. The "Workshop" began from there; during the workshop, the audience took over the scene, while still directed by the actors, and was encouraged to make it their own. Audiences gave their opinions and thoughts on each performance in the form of production reports that were collected by the Living Stage.

The projects that the Living Stage put on typically dealt with controversial and sensitive topics like race, economic inequality, the dangers of an overzealous American foreign policy, the atom bomb, violence, and freedom. The "Baltimore Incident" of 1971 is an excellent example of how controversial these productions could be. No matter how mixed opinions were, the Living Stage always elicited a reaction with their improvisational performances. During the 1980s the Living Stage began to reach out extensively to local initiatives like The District's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Administration and created their own Community Services Project in order to continue to bring theater and creativity to underserved sections of society. The Living Stage championed New Left ideals like equality and social justice throughout the Reagan years, despite some criticisms about their message being "anachronistic".

The organization began its twilight years in the first half of the 1990s as many of its founding and senior members began to take their skills elsewhere. Robert Alexander himself left in 1995 to start educating people in the art of improvisational theater full time. Jennifer Nelson, David Matthew Proctor, Ezra Knight, and others began to filter away in the 1990s to pursue their own acting goals and the Living Stage would officially close its doors in 2002.

Scope and Content

The Living Stage records consist of materials spanning the length of that organization's history from about 1965, when the Living Stage was known as the Children's Theatre, to 2001. Included in the records are administrative files including financial papers, grant requests and applications, printed pieces, and correspondence and more creative materials including workshop reports and scripts, audiovisual files on reel-to-reel tapes, and photographic materials.

Series 1: Administrative and Financial Files (1965-2000) includes documents relating to the day to day running of the Living Stage Theatre Company as well as programming, project planning, financials, budgets, grants, press releases and printed documents. It is divided further into 4 subseries. Subseries 1.1 Policies, Planning, and Development includes the administrative files of the Living Stage including season summaries by date, long range plans, meeting minutes, and Community Service Project information. Subseries 1.2 Grants and Foundations contains all materials related to grant requests, endowments (including the National Endowment for the Arts), and donations made by both large charitable organizations and private donors. Subseries 1.3 Financials and Correspondence includes budget materials, expense reports, and benefit information, as well as correspondence between members of the LSTC, memos, and fan mail (called "love letters") from schools and other workshop sites. Subseries 1.4 Public Relations and Printed Pieces consist of various publications made by the Living Stage such as their newsletters and advertisements, as well as transcripts of speeches made by LSTC executives and press releases promoting the Living Stage.

Series 2: Artistic and Workshop Files (1966-2001), which is split into 3 subseries, contains the creative aspects of the Living Stage, including details about residencies and the personnel of the Company, as well as workshop reports, scripts, and "Jams". Subseries 2.1 Residency and Personnel Files contains all documents related to the people of the Living Stage, including casting information and details about out of state residencies (including those in Stockholm, Boston, Pittsburgh, New York and others). Subseries 2.2 Production Reports and Workshops encompasses the output of the Living Stage Theatre Company in the form of workshops, which are series of performances put on at schools, museums, and communities, and the production reports which sought to analyze audience reception of and reaction to these performances. Look to the "Baltimore Incident" for an excellent example of how contentious and revolutionary the Living Stage's performances were. Subseries 2.3 Production Files and Scripts, while small, contains items related to the Living Stage's "Jams" including scripts, research, and other assorted play files.

Series 3: Audiovisual Materials (1967-1998) includes all photos, negatives, and film of the Living Stage or their productions. It is divided into three subseries. Subseries 3.1 Photographic Materials includes various photos and negatives showing the cast of the Living Stage at various times as well as production stills. Unfortunately, the majority of these are undated or have little in the way of description. Subseries 3.2 Reel to Reel Materials includes tapings of various workshops and productions mostly from the 1970s and 1980s. Subseries 3.3 Cassete and VHS tapes contains cassette, VHS, Betamax, and U-matic tapes either used by the Living Stage for performances or made by/about the Living Stage.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series, each of which is divided into subseries.

Related Material

The Special Collections and Research Center holds several collections of personal papers of individuals involved with the Living Stage Theater Company collection Arena Stage, including the Zelda Fichandler papers, the Thomas Fichandler papers, and the Ken Kitch papers, as well as the Arena Stage collection and many other theater collections.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Acting
• People with mental disabilities -- Services for -- United States
• Performance art -- Photographs
• Playscript
• Public schools -- Virginia
• Radicalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Students -- Photographs
• Theater -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Theater -- Washington (D.C.)
• Theater programs
• Washington (D.C.)