Arena Stage Unveils New Sponsorship With 'Crown Castle' For Allen Lee Hughes BIPOC Fellowship

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is launching a new partnership with Crown Castle. Thanks to a grant through Crown Castle's Connected by Good initiative, Arena Stage will deepen and enhance the professional development experience of Fellows participating in the Allen Lee Hughes BIPOC Fellowship. The Tony Award-winning theater's professional training program aims to cultivate the next generation of BIPOC theater professionals by providing the highest standard of training through immersion in the art and business of producing theater.

Crown Castle owns cell phone towers, small cells, and fiber optic cable that connects people to what they care about most, such as family, friends, schools, emergency services and work. The company has an extensive footprint in and around D.C., connecting hundreds of thousands of area residents to next generation wireless networks.

“At Crown Castle, we take pride in connecting with the communities where we live and work,” said External Affairs Manager Ashley Greenspan. “Just as communications infrastructure helps us connect to what's important, Arena Stage's commitment to ensuring the next generation of talented theater professionals have the skills they need to tell their diverse stories will inspire us all and help us strengthen the connections we share with one another.”

Named after the four-time Tony Award-nominated lighting designer, Arena Stage has supported young artists through the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship for over 30 years. Arena Stage Founding Director Zelda Fichandler and Artistic Associate Tazewell Thompson co-founded the theater's fellowship program in 1990 for individuals of color as a part of Arena Stage's cultural diversity program. More than 300 Fellows have benefitted from the program since its beginning. The full-time program offers personalized training and in-depth, hands-on experience with top-tier professionals in artistic and technical production, arts administration, arts education, and community outreach.

“I've seen the profound influence professional growth can have on emerging theater professionals. A decade ago, I felt this transformation through the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship, when I served as the Senior Community Engagement Fellow,” said Arena's Director of Community Engagement Sean-Maurice Lynch. “I engaged in numerous networking opportunities and gatherings, and honed skills pivotal to kickstarting my journey in this field.” Other successful alumni include Lileana Blain-Cruz, the 2006/07 Season Directing Fellow, who is currently at the Lincoln Center as a Resident Director; Jamil Jude, the 2010/11 Season New Play Producing Fellow, now Artistic Director of Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta; and Raymond O. Caldwell, the 2009/10 Season Community Engagement Fellow, former Artistic Director of the Theater Alliance here in D.C.

Crown Castle's involvement will kick off at one of the 2023/24 Season cohort's Lunch & Learn seminars with presentations designed to develop the business acumen they need to be successful across disciplines.

Lynch continued, “It brings me immense joy that Crown Castle will contribute to empowering our cohort of Allen Lee Hughes BIPOC Fellows in their career progression. The chance for our fellows to connect and collaborate with such a forward-thinking company is truly momentous.”

The first racially integrated theater in our nation's capital and a pioneer of the regional theater movement, Arena Stage was founded on August 16, 1950, in Washington, D.C., by Zelda Fichandler, Tom Fichandler, and Edward Mangum. Today—nearly 75 years later—Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is a national center dedicated to American voices and artists. We produce plays of all that is passionate, profound, deep, and dangerous in the American spirit, and present diverse and ground-breaking work from some of the best artists around the country. Consistently contributing to the American theatrical lexicon by commissioning and developing new plays, Arena Stage impacts the lives of over 10,000 students annually through its work in community engagement and serves a diverse annual audience of more than 300,000. arenastage.org.