WASHINGTON, D.C.: Amid a local scene that’s seen the threats to the existence of major arts centers like the Kennedy Center and Source Theatre, and a wider industry that’s recently seen mergers (such as those in Pittsburgh), the D.C. area is seeing the emergence of a new nonprofit model: At Southwest D.C.’s Revada Arts Center, the social justice-focused theatre company Theater Alliance is partnering innovative opera company IN Series and the nonprofit arthouse cinema 4EYE Film Center.
The new multidisciplinary arts center on 340 Maple Drive SW will serve as the official home for all three organizations, who are co-stewarding the building as creative partners brought together under Theater Alliance’s founding vision. It will include a black box theatre, cinema, micro-proscenium, rehearsal studio, scene shop, and community engagement and co-working space. It will welcome additional resident arts organizations, aiming to serve as a resource and gathering place for the broader community.
Collaboration consensus and solidarity economics are core values, said Theater Alliance executive director Shanara Gabrielle. “It’s super exciting to be piloting and testing this model.” Contrasting it with such multi-company D.C. models as Atlas Performing Arts Center and Source Theatre, Gabrielle said, “There’s a merger of resources, energy, and support, but each organization is growing. We’re increasing art, not decreasing. Often these things are done out of a scarcity mindset. But this was the opposite. It was a total abundance mindset.”
One of the terms of the new arrangement is programming autonomy, designed to create a boundary around each organization’s core mission. Theater Alliance’s focus is theatre; IN Series is opera; 4EYE is film. There may be crossover and intersections, but this term gives “power to the people and the artists.”
“It was really important that there not be any kind of brand confusion about what was happening in this space, that each arts organization could have total autonomy over their sort of genre and field of work, and that could just help it be more supportive and collaborative between all of us,” Gabrielle said.
Preparation has been taking place over the past 18 months. Theater Alliance first established the pop-up space in October 2024 and officially signed the lease in November 2025, with partnership agreements coming over the next nine months and a capital campaign beginning in July 2025. Theater Alliance’s own lease is for 29 years; both IN Series and 4Eye have 7-year contracts. The idea is that they are not “year-over-year” rentals, but instead that all the organizations are “really in on a collaborative partnership. Otherwise you’re just in a rental churn; you can’t do long-term planning or strategic partnerships.”
Added Gabrielle, “We’re really hoping that this is an innovative new model to create accessibility and create connection by the arts community and in the wider DMV [D.C/Maryland/Virginia area]. We want it to be a space that’s not driven by just the economics of space and the economics of real estate in Washington, D.C. We wanted to be driven by the core values of Theater Alliance and the other arts organizations that are partners.”
Civic engagement organizations that regularly partner with Theater Alliance will receive offers of free space and mutual aid, and three other resident partner organizations (including other theatres and a music organization) under a lower financial pocket will also use the space. Their long-standing Theater Alliance Presents events, which provides free space and support for startups, small companies, and innovative and risky projects will also continue.
A multi-day festival to celebrate the center’s opening will kick off on Oct. 23, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and panel discussion with the partnership’s leaders, stakeholders, and local luminaries. On Oct. 24, the Revada Arts Center will host a Community Day for the neighborhood, with family programming, music classes, acting workshops, and hands-on creative play, 12-2 p.m. An Open House with tours of the building will follow, 2-4 p.m. Each organization will host their own programming throughout the festival, from season preview events and workshops to a special sneak peek film screening.
For Ward 6 and the Southwest community, this space and partnership is emerging “at a moment when federal politics have changed the local landscape for arts,” said Ward 6 D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen in a statement. “In this moment of great upheaval, there’s an opportunity for our local arts and performance scene to grow and capture new audiences.” Said Dan Logan, chairman of the Revada Foundation, the family foundation for which the center is named, in a statement, “The family has been in the D.C. area for almost 50 years. We love this community, and we love the arts. We want to make sure that D.C.’s vibrant arts scene thrives for many years to come.”
For D.C. theatres in a city where artists, especially independent artists and small theatres, are often in search of viable performance and rehearsal spaces, the new complex promises to usher in a new era. Gabrielle believes it’s important to ensure this space stays in the hands of artists.
“I don’t ever want to displace art because of finances,” Gabrielle said. “When we displace art, it decreases our ability to serve the community, and it’s mission drift. So, yes, it’s a great new building, and yes, everyone’s going to be so excited to have it, but what we really want is to create space for art and for the arts organizations that are there, and also for as many other folks as we can as well.”
