((PKG)) ARENA STAGE DIRECTOR
((TRT: 04:46))
((Topic Banner: Passionate About Theater))
((Reporter: Liliya Anisimova))

((Camera: Yuriy Zakrevskiy))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Main character: 1 female))
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Anything Goes/Arena Stage))
((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
I think I was so fascinated with theater when I was a child that I rejected anything else
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that had to do with science, with math, anything except for reading.
((Courtesy: Anything Goes/Arena Stage))
((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
My grandmother
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was a wonderful actor as a young person. And at that time, if you went into the theater, you were basically thought of as a prostitute or lady of the night. That was the whole deal with people in the theater in her time period. And she really wanted to be an actor. She wanted to be in New York.
((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
For me, I felt like I was finishing out a part of my grandmother's life because she was so passionate about the theater. My mom too was
((Courtesy: Arena Stage))
an actor and she was a really, really funny, wild actor on stage.
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And I worked with her a couple of times and it was pretty great directing your mother, if you can imagine that. One doesn't do it by oneself. I had a whole group of people that I met in Alaska [where she moved as a teenager].
((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
And so, we were able to create this theater company.
I've been really, really lucky in my career. Of course, my family, my mom, my grandma, my sister, my partner Suzanne, my former husband Billy, and then just a whole host of people in Alaska who, when I talked about the idea of starting a theater in Alaska of, by and about Alaskans, people sprung to it and they said yes. They said yes and they supported it through sweat equity. They supported it through money. They supported it through resources and we were able to build that. And I ran that for 19 years before I came to Arena Stage.
((Courtesy: Arena Stage))
((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
When I first came here to Arena 24 years ago, of the large theaters in the United States, there were probably four or five of us, in terms of being women. There are more now,
but I face
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misogyny almost every day in one form or another and I've been doing this a long time. But I always just kind of give it the flipper and move on. Sometimes I'll address it and sometimes it doesn't make sense to address it. I just let it go and carry on.
((Courtesy: Arena Stage))
And what I would say to young women is listen to that voice inside of yourself and protect it because people will try and take it away from you.
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((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
They'll try and take away whatever that fire or that passion is. And you need to protect what that is because that has to do with who you are as a unique human being and go out and make it happen.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Ann/Arena Stage))
You just can't get enough of me, can you? Yes, I am. I'm as strong as mustard gas. What's up?
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((Molly Smith
Director, Arena Stage))
Arena, in that moment, when I came in, was one of 80 theaters here in Washington, DC. And in the beginning, we were the first, right? So, we were all things to all people. And the search committee said, "Arena is being swallowed up. There are too many different, competing voices.
((Courtesy: Jitney/Arena Stage))
How would you focus the repertoire of this theater company?"
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And I thought for a while and I thought, "Oh, there's two possible ways."
((Courtesy: Seven Guitars/Arena Stage))
One would be all international work. This is a very international city. It's a city of embassies. It's a city where people come from all over the world
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to learn about America or focus on American work.
What I felt is, there's a huge range of diversity in the United States in terms of voices, in terms of types of people who are writing, in terms of race, in terms of ethnicity, in terms of sexuality. I mean, in the voices in America, they're bitchy, they're funny, they're provocative, they're political, ((Courtesy: Newsies/Arena Stage))
they're smart, they're all those different things. And why aren't we just focusing here and elevate that American voice in theater? Because a great theater needs a great audience and great artists.
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That's what you need to make it all work together.
((NATS: Newsies Singing))
“Soon, your friends are more like family and they’s begging you to stay.”
((NATS))