Leadership

Molly Smith has been instrumental in leading the reinvention of Arena Stage, focusing on the creation of the new Mead Center for American Theater as well as major artistic changes. Arena Stage is a center for the production, presentation, development and study of American theater.  Molly has been a leader in new play development for 30 years while at Arena Stage and at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, the theater she founded and led for 19 years.  She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including Next to Normal, How I Learned to Drive and Passion Play.   Recently she directed The Music Man, Oklahoma! and The Book Club Play for Arena Stage. Molly’s directorial work has also been seen at the Shaw Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre and Centaur Theatre.

Molly Smith

After nearly four decades, Edgar continues to enjoy a career in public theater. He has served as executive director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, founding managing director of Toronto’s Canadian Stage Company and managing director at National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Vancouver’s New Play Centre. Based in New York City for six years, he was president of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company and the North American executive producer of Riverdream, as well as managing producer of the Tony Awards. His Broadway producing credits include Sunset Boulevard (Tony Award for Best Musical), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Paul Simon’s The Capeman, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Boublil and Schönberg’s The Pirate Queen and Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Helen Hayes Awards. Edgar, his good wife Tracy and their daughter Greta Lee are all proud residents of Southwest Washington, DC.

Edgar Dobie