Arts in the Suburbs: The Music Center at Strathmore

When it opens Saturday, the Music Center at Strathmore will join a host of suburban arts venues or groups performing in the Washington suburbs. The venues and groups shown here are among those that have attracted a strong following and won praise for their productions.

Performing Arts Centers
1. Patriot Center The 10,000-seat arena opened in 1985 and hosts a variety of sporting events, including George Mason University basketball games, concerts, family-entertainment presentations, dramatic productions and corporate events.

2. Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts The largest of the three venues on the 100-acre site opened in 1971 and offers concerts, opera and musical theater. The amphitheater has 6,800 sheltered and outdoor seats. Smaller venues opened later and offer educational activities and performances.

3. Merriweather Post Pavilion The 19,000-capacity venue, opened in 1967 on 40 acres in Columbia, plays host to a variety of contemporary artists from June to early October.

4. Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center of Maryland The center, opened in 2001, features six performance halls with more than 2,230 seats. It is situated on 17 acres at the University of Maryland.

Theaters and Theater Groups
5. Theater of the First Amendment George Mason University's professional equity theater company offers productions at the university's concert hall, which opened in 1989, and two other venues at George Mason University.

6. Signature Theatre The theater, which is in its 15th season, opened in its current location in 1993. The 156-seat theater offers a variety of musicals and a free summer concert series.

7. Classika-Synetic Theatre The two troups joined in 2004. The company offers mime productions, puppet shows and educational activities for adults and children. The group performs at two venues, the 360-seat Rosslyn Spectrum and the 90-seat Classika Theatre in Arlington.

8. Gunston Theatre II The theater, opened in 1990, houses the American Century Theater company, founded in 1994, which performs critically acclaimed dramas, comedies and teleplays produced between 1920 and 1970. Gunston II also houses the Teatro de la Luna company, founded in 1991, which offers productions in Spanish with English interpretation, poetry marathons, an international festival of Hispanic theater and educational activities.

9. Washington Shakespeare Company The company, founded in 1990, performs out of the Clark Street Playhouse, a converted warehouse, and offers a mixture of Shakespeare and other classic works.

10. Metro Stage The theater, opened in 1984, offers contemporary American plays and musicals, including premieres of works by regional playwrights.

11. Round House Theatre Bethesda Round House opened in 2002 in Bethesda but is in its 27th season in Montgomery County. The 400-seat venue offers world premieres, 20th-century plays and contemporary adaptations of the classics. The Round House Theatre Silver Spring, its 150-seat sister theater, opened in 2003.

12. BlackRock Center for the Arts The center, opened in 2002, offers outdoor summer concerts, exhibitions, dance studios and theater performances. It has two venues with a total of 400 seats.

13. Olney Theatre Center for the Arts The theater, opened in 1938, emphasizes 20th-century American classics, new works, reinterpretations of classics and musical theater. It also hosts a free summer Shakespeare festival.

14. Rep Stage The company was founded in 1993 as an independent theater on the Howard Community College campus. It has performed plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Oscar Wilde, Sam Shepard and Eugene O'Neill during its four-show season.