Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater at present introduced Darren Edward Johnston as Affiliate Creative Director of Business Technique and Partnership. Following a decade of management on the Tony Award-winning theatrical manufacturing firm No Ensures Productions, most just lately as Senior Vice President, Creative, Johnston will be part of the Tony-winning regional theater this spring to assist form the subsequent chapter of its creative and institutional evolution.
“I consider deeply that the American theater have to be each a house for artists and a launchpad for work that resonates far past our wall. Darren embodies that chance,” mentioned Area Stage Creative Director Hana S. Sharif. “His extraordinary fluency throughout the nonprofit and industrial landscapes, paired along with his unwavering dedication to creative rigor and daring creativeness, makes him uniquely suited to this second at Area Stage. Darren intimately understands the best way to shepherd bold new American work from first spark to its fullest life, constructing pathways that permit tales nurtured right here in Washington, DC, to succeed in audiences nationally and past. I’m thrilled to welcome him into our creative household — his strategic perception, collaborative spirit, and expansive imaginative and prescient will likely be instrumental as we form Area’s subsequent chapter and strengthen our function as a significant drive within the American theater ecosystem.”
A pioneer of the regional theater motion, Area Stage has loved an extended relationship with industrial theater. The corporate has the excellence of being the primary theater to switch a present to Broadway. Howard Sackler’s drama The Nice White Hope had its world premiere on the DC theater in 1967 — in a manufacturing starring James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander — earlier than transferring to Broadway in 1968 and successful three Tony Awards, in addition to the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Over Area’s 75-year historical past, it has nurtured and produced 23 productions which have had a life on Broadway, together with Pulitzer recipients Subsequent to Regular and Sweat, Tony winner Expensive Evan Hansen, and, most just lately in 2024, The Avett Brothers-scored Swept Away.
“One of many issues I really like most concerning the American theater is the collaboration between the not-for-profit and industrial theater,” mentioned Johnston. “We’re one ecosystem, and we’d like one another to assist the artists we consider in and empower them to succeed in the widest viewers doable.”
“As Affiliate Creative Director of Business Technique and Partnership, pushed by the visionary management of Hana S. Sharif, I’m delighted to function Area’s major bridge to the industrial theater, in addition to collaborate with theaters throughout the nation, figuring out tasks with nationwide and industrial potential, and main the manufacturing technique for commercially enhanced productions at Area, performing firstly for the varied audiences of our nation’s capital.”
“For the final 9 years, I’ve had the nice privilege of working with Christine Schwarzman, Megan O’Keefe, all the staff at No Ensures Productions, and our many collaborators to provide artist-driven theatrical productions on Broadway, world wide, and with not-for-profit and regional theaters,” continued Johnston. “I depart with deep gratitude for all we’ve constructed collectively and nice pleasure for the collaborations nonetheless to return.”
Johnston assumes his new function at Area starting April 13, reporting to Sharif.
Darren Edward Johnston
Previous to becoming a member of Area Stage, Darren Edward Johnstonspent the earlier decade constructing the Tony Award-winning theatrical manufacturing firm No Ensures Productions alongside founder and CEO Christine Schwarzman and, later, President and COO Megan O’Keefe. On Broadway and within the West Finish, he lead-produced James Ijames’ Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated play Fats Ham, directed by Saheem Ali; Participant Kings, tailored and directed by Robert Icke from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Components 1 & 2 starring Sir Ian McKellen and Toheeb Jimoh; Jez Butterworth’s Tony and Olivier-nominated play The Hills of California, directed by Sam Mendes; and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Emerald Fennell, David Zippel, and Alexis Scheer’s musical Unhealthy Cinderella, directed by Laurence Connor. He led co-production and theatrical funding technique for No Ensures, with co-productions together with Sundown Blvd. (2025 Tony Award, Finest Revival of a Musical), Stereophonic (2024 Tony Award, Finest Play), Merrily We Roll Alongside (2024 Tony Award, Finest Revival of a Musical), Leopoldstadt (2023 Tony Award, Finest Play), The Lehman Trilogy (2022 Tony Award, Finest Play), Firm (2022 Tony Award, Finest Revival of a Musical), and Hadestown (2019 Tony Award, Finest Musical).
Off-Broadway and regionally, Johnston additionally produced and developed work from artists similar to David Henry Hwang, Jeanine Tesori, Leigh Silverman, Sam Pinkleton, Celine Track, Sammi Cannold, Whitney White, Jocelyn Bioh, Michael Thurber, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. Alongside Christine Schwarzman, he executive-produced the Nationwide Theatre’s movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (PBS/Sky), starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, directed by Simon Godwin. Their second stage-on-film collaboration, Demise of England: Face to Face by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams, was broadcast on Sky Arts and nominated for the 2022 BAFTA TV award for Single Drama.
Previous to No Ensures, Johnston labored on a wide range of performs and musicals with artists similar to Tina Landau, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Phylicia Rashad, Michael Mayer, and Mike Bartlett. He served on the employees of each Tectonic Theater Undertaking and the Public Theater, working intently with Creative Administrators Moisés Kaufman and Oskar Eustis. Outdoors of theater, he labored as a marketing campaign supervisor, organizer, and fundraiser in Democratic politics. He chaired the Consistory of Center Collegiate Church and served on the Collegiate Church of New York’s Consistory and Govt Committee.
Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater
The primary racially built-in theater in our nation’s capital and a pioneer of the regional theater motion, Area Stage was based in 1950 in Washington, DC. At this time, beneath the management of Creative Director Hana S. Sharif and Govt Producer Edgar Dobie, Area Stage on the Mead Heart for American Theater is a nationwide middle devoted to American voices and artists. We produce performs of all that’s passionate, profound, deep, and harmful within the American spirit, and current numerous and groundbreaking work from a few of the finest artists across the nation. Persistently contributing to the American theatrical lexicon by commissioning and creating new performs, Area Stage impacts the lives of over 10,000 college students yearly by its work in neighborhood engagement and serves a various annual viewers of greater than 300,000. arenastage.org
