Encore Stage & Studio

Encore Stage & Studio opened in 1967 as The Children’s Theatre of Arlington. For over 50 years, it has allowed Arlington’s youth to experience theater firsthand, whether onstage, backstage, or running the show. Since the first curtains were raised, Encore Stage and Studio has brought around 250 productions to the community. All these productions have featured young people as not only actors but also backstage technicians and stage managers. More recently, they have also been involved in set design, costume design, and “front of the house” theater management. [Encore]

Executive Producer Emeritus Celeste Groves, who joined Encore in 1979, remembers that the theater started out as a community service to Arlington and created a program where children are “exposed to all aspects of theater…and see how it relates to their life and community.” Encore started with a program for middle schoolers called Stage Door and quickly expanded to include a program for elementary school children called It’s Elementary. [LBA] Wanting to expand their offerings to include everyone in the community, Encore created Act III, a summer program involving youth and adults in a big Broadway-style production. [Encore]

Today, Encore Stage & Studio serves around 15,000 children and their families throughout the year through eight staged productions, programs embedded with local schools, classes, workshops, and a robust summer program for kids of all ages. Started in 2017, their latest program, Flip the Script, features student-written work about the history and heritage of Arlington. Although they are based in and sometimes practice or perform along the Langston corridor, their productions occur throughout Arlington County and are open to participants from all over the region. Encore is proud to say that participation in the productions has been and will be free to the community. [Encore]

After forty years of volunteer leadership, Encore Stage & Studio consolidated in 2010 as a nonprofit professional theater, with Sara Strehle Duke joining as full-time Executive Director. Sara sees Encore being “a place where kids can be themselves…a place where we invite the whole community of children to come in.”  She views the theater as “a tool for creating great young people…a means for developing teamwork, confidence, and creativity.” [LBA] Under her and her team’s leadership, Encore will continue to be an open and equitable environment where students can learn everything about the theater, from stage design to makeup design, playwriting to acting.

SEE A LIST OF ENCORE’S PRODUCTIONS THROUGH THE YEARS:
https://encorestage.org/throughtheyears/ 

Footnotes

Encore Stage and Studio, “About Us,” https://encorestage.org/staging/2656/staging_v1/aboutus/.
Langston Boulevard Alliance, “People & Places Interviews: Encore Stage & Studio,” Video interview, September 2024