Arena Stage Moving to Va. While Venue Is Expanded

Everyone agreed on the Crystal Forum as the interim home. "I bet we looked at 40 theaters or spaces that we might adapt as theaters. Like all good things, if you keep looking you find the right thing," Executive Director Stephen Richard said.

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The work can start because most of the money has been raised -- $104 million so far. Richard said the total cost, including the move, will be about $125 million, including $100 million for construction. The renovation of the Crystal Forum will cost $500,000, he said.

The largest gift came from board member Jaylee Mead and her late husband, Gilbert Mead, who contributed $35 million. The expanded complex will be renamed for them as Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. "Our board contributed over 50 percent of the money we raised," Richard said. The District government provided $30 million through tax-exempt bonds.

Arena usually presents eight shows a year in its two theaters, and expects to keep up that pace starting next year while it's in temporary quarters, but the productions may have shorter runs. Officials are planning to use 460 seats at the Crystal Forum and perhaps about 800 at the Lincoln. "We would not use all of the balcony at the Lincoln," Richard said. That's roughly equivalent to what Arena has now.

The transition to the Crystal Forum starts on Dec. 28 with "Ella," a one-woman show about the great vocalist (through Feb. 24), followed by two Arthur Miller plays, "Death of a Salesman" and "A View From the Bridge," running alternately March 14 through May 18. The final show, Charles Ludlam's "The Mystery of Irma Vep," originally scheduled for May 2-June 8, will now run June 6-July 13. The theater has postponed "Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway," a musical.

Arena has about 14,000 subscribers. They were sent letters yesterday describing the changes. Questions and complaints will be handled on an individual basis, but refunds may be granted.

Since the Thom design was completed in 2005, the plan has been modified. One change is the elimination of 21 apartments for artists.

"It is sad, but there were some pieces we had to give up and we had to give up what was not directly about the theater itself," Smith said.

The Crystal Forum is less than a quarter-mile from Crystal City Metro station, in the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel on Jefferson Davis Highway. The historic Lincoln Theatre, a survivor of the ups and downs of U Street, is now in the midst of a condominium and restaurant boom.

"For us it is an opportunity to reach out in Northern Virginia, Adams Morgan and U Street," Smith said. "And we will be coming back to an area that will be transformed, with the new baseball stadium and the revitalization of the waterfront. And when we leave the space in Crystal City, we will leave a ready space for theater groups. That is the Arena way."