A "Value Ecology" Approach to the Performing Arts

This study is an analysis of three local theatres' technology and online fundraising plans to determine if they employ practices and offer programming that appeal to Generation Y, whose engagement is essential to safeguard the sustainability of these arts organizations. The goal of the study is to answer the research question' how can theatres best use e-philanthropy to engage Generation Y and increase donations from this demographic?A mixed method methodology was utilized in this study in which representatives from three theatres in the Philadelphia region were interviewed and the results were compiled. Varied levels of interest to engage Generation Y were discovered in the process. Interview results revealed both strengths and weaknesses in attracting members of Generation Y. Effective tactics to engage this critical demographic are essential because without this audience, there will be a void in attendance, support, funding, programming, and sustainability. The actual existence of these theatres is in jeopardy. Therefore, theatre companies and non-profit organizations must adapt their programming and fundraising strategies to appeal to younger generations, in particular Generation Y.

During the period when the Taiwanese government championed with much vigor its anti-communist/anti-Soviet national policies, the Taiwan Provincial Local Theatre Association came into being in 1941. Its establishment was dominated by the KMT organizations. On the one hand, it carried out the government's determination to steer the direction of civil theater troupes' productions. On the other hand, it was a platform where combined the troupes and artists in strengths to gain their living, welfare, and development, very similar to a guild in its nature and function. Therefore, the Taiwan Local Theatre published by the Taiwan Provincial Local Theatre Association also possesses the two-folded features mentioned above. In the eyes of theatre history scholars, it provides rare and important documents. From the Taiwan Local Theatre, I have collated a) Sixty-six troupes with their managers' names. They include goa-a, luantan, jiujia, stage plays, musical theatres, and acrobatic troupes that actively sought performance opportunities between 1952-1953. b) Thirty-seven theatres with information of the managers, addresses, and telephone numbers . These were commercial theatres that provided stages for local performances. c) Two stage setting factories that produced artistic scenery background professionally. d) Two embroidery workshops that provided tailored costumes for theatres. The Theatre Column in the Taiwan Local Theatre introduced five performance art troupes, including Taipei Black Cat Musical Company, Mailiao Gongle Society, Gaoxiong Gaoyue Theatrical Company, the Butterfly Musical Company and the Duma Theatrical Company. These are first-hand information documented in between 1952-1953. Artists Column had introduced 32 performing artists. It is the basic material for studying the history of Taiwanese actors and actresses. There is also a column that announced performance schedules of famous troupes, which I compiled into a chart in the appendix. Even though the Taiwan Local Theatre had only published five issues, it reflected the Taiwanese governmem's attitude towards local theatre and witnessed the birth and eventual booming of commercial theatres in postwar Taiwan.

Performing Race and Place in Asian America: Korean American Adoptees, Musical Theatre, and the Land of 10,000 Lakes1 Lei Ouyang Bryant (bio) During the spring of 2005, two Minneapolis-based theatre companies staged musical productions regarding transracial and transnational adoptees coming of age in the American Midwest.2 The Asian American theatre company, Theater Mu, produced The Walleye Kid: The Musical, the story of a young Korean American adoptee in her rural White Minnesotan home. Similarly, Mixed Blood Theatre (a multiracial company dedicated to cultural pluralism) produced Found!, the story of a young woman born in Colombia and adopted by a White Minnesotan family.3 Both musicals follow the young women along their personal journeys of self-discovery as Latina and Asian Americans in their Minnesotan homes. Written by local artists and produced by local theatre companies, the musicals serve as attempts to illuminate stories of transracial and transnational adoptees and their search for identity within the snow-covered backdrop of the American Midwest. The themes of the musicals generally fall in line with the regular repertoire of the two theatre companies since they both position themselves as advocates for multicultural education and awareness within the larger community. However, that both companies chose the vehicle of the musical to express the complex issues surrounding transracial and transnational adoption is quite curious to me.4 Why the musical? Does the particular form somehow facilitate in expressing the transracial and transnational adoptive experience? If so, how and why? My exploration focuses on the Minneapolis-based Asian American theatre company, Theater Mu, and their 2005 production of The Walleye Kid: The Musical; I examine the musical as an Asian American cultural production of the American Midwest. As a selected work of Theater Mu’s parent organization, Mu Performing Arts, I utilize The Walleye Kid: The Musical as a case study to examine the creative processes employed in contemporary Asian American artistic expression. Moreover, through the specific investigation of Mu Performing Arts and the Korean American adoption experience in Minnesota, I seek to contribute to more general discourses that examine the growing diversity of community, performance, expression, and experience within Asian America. [End Page 4] I begin with an introduction to The Walleye Kid: The Musical followed by conversations with artistic directors, playwrights, actors, and audience members regarding the development, context, and reception of the project. Through these multiple perspectives, my goal is to share the particular details of one specific group within the Twin Cities Asian American community and how they construct and perform their unique identity in the theatre. The Story: Introduction to The Walleye Kid: The Musical The program notes for The Walleye Kid: The Musical sets the piece in early 1990s Minnesota with the following introduction: Since the Korean War, over 10,000 Korean children have been adopted into Caucasian families in Minnesota. This is the largest population of adopted Koreans in a single state in America. This play is dedicated to these children, many of whom are now adults, and their families.5 (Program notes, The Walleye Kid: The Musical) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Shaman (Sara Ochs) and Annie (Isabella Dawis) (photo by Charissa Uemura, courtesy of Mu Performing Arts). [End Page 5] The Walleye Kid: The Musical (see Figure 1) tells the story of a young Korean American adoptee and her exploration of the complex intersections of identity, race, and place. A childless White couple eagerly accepts young Annie from a mystical Shaman (disguised as a walleye) while ice-fishing one cold winter’s day. Over the years Annie is showered with love by her family though her rural Minnesotan community struggles with how to accept a Korean American into the exclusively White neighborhood. The local grocer offers to special order rice, tofu, and chopsticks and Annie’s peers tell her that she will “never be American” (The Walleye Kid: The Musical 2004, 33). Meanwhile, the Shaman appears periodically to call attention to the racist and ignorant remarks of the community through asides to the audience. Annie is confused by the comments she over-hears from her elders and the ridicule of her peers; she begins to question where she came...

Theatre performances in Hong Kong have been performing educational functions for almost nine decades, since the 1930s when Hong Kong was a British colony, and when there were no professional theatre companies. Chung Ying was the first theatre company referring to itself as a "theatre in education" company. London Bubble's renewed understanding of performer-theatre relations informed the early mode of Chung Ying's school tours and some of its site-specific mainstage productions. Theatre companies large and small are dependent on public funding and charities' trusts to sustain their productions and operations. Alice Theatre Laboratory, a local theatre company in Hong Kong known for its versatility in experimental performances, dedicates their theatre in education (TIE) productions to making a difference in local educational practices. Generous funding support has become a key contributing factor to integral participation in TIE practices in Hong Kong. The theatre and drama experiences created spaces for students to affectively link language learning to their school life.

This research project explores the potential of network visualisation as a tool for stakeholder communication and academic analysis within the performing arts sector, using three Brisbane-based performing arts companies as case studies. The AusStage database was used alongside each organisation’s archival data to develop network visualisations for the purpose of communication with stakeholders and furthering understandings of industry composition. The study concludes that while network visualisations may require more investment than they generate in return for individual performing arts organisations, the developed methodologies have the potential to generate new industry knowledge within broader professional and academic contexts.

Refined liquid fuels provide conveniences for road, rail, air, and marine transportation due to high energy density, ease of transport and storage, and existing production and distribution infrastructure. Biomass conversion technologies can help diversify and increase the supply of liquid fuels towards a more robust energy future. The backbone of such development must include reliable, high-volume biomass supply chains and efficient utilization of those resources. These activities, if pursued, will lead to rural infrastructure development and new jobs. Refined liquid fuels provide conveniences for road, rail, air, and marine transportation due to high energy density, ease of transport and storage, and existing production and distribution infrastructure. Biomass conversion technologies can help diversify and increase the supply of liquid fuels towards a more robust energy future. The backbone of such development must include reliable, high-volume biomass supply chains and efficient utilization of those resources. These activities, if pursued, will lead to rural infrastructure development and new jobs. In this study we focus on woody biomass conversion via catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) to produce CFP oil, a partly-stabilized oxygenated liquid. The CFP oil fuel intermediate can then be hydroprocessed to produce liquid hydrocarbon fuels compatible with the existing petroleum fuels infrastructure. CFP involves fast pyrolysis with the rapid heating of biomass to ~500 degrees C to produce vapors that are catalytically upgraded to increase the stability of the produced CFP oil after vapor condensation. The projections in this report are based on bench scale experimental results used in conceptual process models, assuming the successful scaleup of bench-scale performance. A well-developed biomass supply chain and mature CFP technology are assumed for future projections; results are also influenced by the underlying assumptions presented. Uncertainties associated with pioneer plants are not addressed in this report. Thus, the results represent the future potential of this technology pathway, and not its current status. The production and transport of biomass along with preprocessing for compatibility with the CFP process, and conversion to CFP oil, are the most expensive steps in this pathway, hence related R&D can open the biggest opportunities for cost reduction. The focus of this report is on understanding process implications and associated costs of introducing CFP oils into hydroprocessing units. Hydroprocessing is a family of well-established petroleum refinery operations involving reactions of petroleum feedstocks with hydrogen. These operations help refiners achieve fuel quality and quantity goals based on market demand and associated fuel regulations. Leveraging the existing extensive petroleum infrastructure to process CFP oils can be economically advantageous. However, the differences in properties of incumbent petroleum feedstocks with CFP oils, including a significant proportion of constituent oxygen in CFP oils, require careful R&D to understand the changes necessary when CFP oils are introduced in hydroprocessing operations designed to handle petroleum feedstocks. CFP oil hydroprocessing, both with 100% CFP oil and coprocessing with petroleum feedstocks, is a topic of ongoing research. Additional public domain experimental data is necessary in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of reaction behavior in various setups; this can help develop predictive reactor models that can accelerate process development, scaleup, and refinery adoption of CFP oils. This report does not address the required experimental efforts, but explores other process requirements, such as changes necessary to control the reactor temperature because of the different exothermic behavior of CFP oils compared to petroleum feedstocks. In summary, commercial advancement of this biomass conversion pathway requires: (1) the development of an efficient high-volume supply chain that addresses biomass feedstock quality requirements for CFP, (2) large volume, reliable, and efficient production of CFP oils from biomass, (3) further experimentation to understand CFP oil reaction behavior in hydroprocessors to facilitate adoption by refiners after making necessary changes to address risks. The focus of this report is on understanding process implications and associated costs of introducing CFP oils into hydroprocessing units. Hydroprocessing is a family of well-established petroleum refinery operations involving reactions of petroleum feedstocks with hydrogen. These operations help refiners achieve fuel quality and quantity goals based on market demand and associated fuel regulations. Leveraging the existing extensive petroleum infrastructure to process CFP oils can be economically advantageous.

IntroductionIn regional Australia and New Zealand, museums and art galleries are increasingly becoming primary sites of cultural engagement. They are one of the key tourist attractions for regional towns and expected to generate much needed tourism revenue. In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were three million visitors to regional galleries and museums (MGNSW 13). However, apart from those (partially) funded by local councils, they are often run on donations, good will, and the enthusiasm of volunteers. Regional museums and galleries provide some paid, and more unpaid, employment for ageing populations. While two-thirds of Australia’s population lives in capital cities, the remainder who live in regional towns are likely to be in the 60+ age cohort because people are choosing to retire away from the bustling, growing cities (ABS). At last count, there were about 3000 museums and galleries in Australia with about 80% of them located in regional areas (Scott). Over the last 40 years, this figure has tripled from the 1000 regional and provincial museums estimated by Peter Piggott in his 1975 report (24). According to a 2014 survey (Shaw and Davidson), New Zealand has about 470 museums and galleries and about 70% are located outside capital cities. The vast majority, 85%, have less than five, full-time paid staff, and more than half of these were run entirely by ageing volunteers. They are entrusted with managing the vast majority of the history and heritage collections of Australia and New Zealand. These ageing volunteers need a diverse range of skills and experience to care for and interpret collections. How do you find the time and budget for professional development for both paid staff and volunteers? Many professional development events are held in capital cities, which are often a significant distance from the regional museum—this adds substantially to the costs of attending and the time commitment required to get there. In addition, it is not uncommon for people working in regional museums to be responsible for everything—from security, collection management, conservation, research, interpretation and public programs to changing the light bulbs. While there are a large number of resources available online, following a manual is often more difficult than learning from other colleagues or learning in a more formal educational or vocational environment where you can receive timely feedback on your work. Further, a foundational level of prior knowledge and experience is often required to follow written instructions. This article will suggest some strategies for low cost professional development and networking. It involves planning, thinking strategically and forming partnerships with others in the region. It is time to harness the power of modern communications technology and use it as a tool for professional development. Some models of professional development in regional areas that have been implemented in the past will also be reviewed. The focus for this article is on training and professional development for workers in regional museums, heritage sites and keeping places. Regional art galleries have not been included because they tend to have separate regional networks and training opportunities. For example, there are professional development opportunities provided through the Art Galleries Association of Australia and their state branches. Regional galleries are also far more likely to have one or more paid staff members (Winkworth, “Fixing the Slums” 2). Regional Museums, Volunteers, and Social CapitalIt is widely accepted that regional museums and galleries enhance social capital and reduce social isolation (Kelly 32; Burton and Griffin 328). However, while working in a regional museum or gallery can help to build friendship networks, it can also be professionally isolating. How do you benchmark what you do against other places if you are two or more hours drive from those places? How do you learn from other colleagues if all your colleagues are also isolated by the ‘tyranny of distance’ and struggling with the same lack of access to training? In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were 8,629 active volunteers working in regional museums and galleries giving almost five million hours, which Museums and Galleries NSW calculated was worth over $150 million per annum in unpaid labour (MGNSW 1). Providing training and professional development to this group is an investment in Australia’s social and cultural capital.Unlike other community-run groups, the museums and heritage places which have emerged in regional Australia and New Zealand are not part of a national or state branch network. Volunteers who work for the Red Cross, Scouts or Landcare benefit from being part of a national organisation which provides funding, support workers, a website, governance structure, marketing, political advocacy and training (Winkworth, “Let a Thousand Flowers” 11). In Australia and New Zealand, this role is undertaken by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association AMaGA (formerly Museums Australia) and Museums Aotearoa respectively. However, both of these groups operate at the macro policy level, for example organising annual conferences, publishing a journal and developing Indigenous policy frameworks, rather than the local, practical level. In 1995, due to their advocacy work, Landcare Australia received $500 million over five years from the federal government to fund 5000 Landcare groups, which are run by 120,000 volunteers (Oppenheimer 177). They argued successfully that the sustainable development of land resources started at the local level. What do we need to do to convince government of the need for sustainable development of our local and regional museum and heritage resources?Training for Volunteers Working in Regional Museums: The Current SituationAnother barrier to training for regional museum workers is the assumption that the 70:20:10 model of professional development should apply. That is, 70% of one’s professional development is done ‘on the job’ by completing tasks and problem-solving; 20% is achieved by learning from mentors, coaches and role models and 10% is learnt from attending conferences and symposia and enrolling in formal courses of study. However, this model pre-supposes that there are people in your workplace whom you can learn from and who can show you how to complete a task, and that you are not destroying or damaging a precious, unique object if you happen to make a mistake.Some museum volunteers come with skills in research, marketing, administration, customer service or photography, but very few come with specific museum skills like writing exhibition text, registering an acquisition or conserving artefacts. These skills need to be taught. As Kylie Winkworth has written, museum management now requires a [...] skills set, which is not so readily found in small communities, and which in many ways is less rewarding for the available volunteers, who may have left school at 15. We do not expect volunteer librarians to catalogue books, which are in any case of low intrinsic value, but we still expect volunteers in their 70s and 80s to catalogue irreplaceable heritage collections and meet ever more onerous museum standards. That so many volunteers manage to do this is extraordinary. (“Let a Thousand Flowers” 13)Workers in regional museums are constantly required to step outside their comfort zones and learn new skills with minimal professional support. While these challenging experiences can be very rewarding, they are also potentially damaging for our irreplaceable material cultural heritage.Training for museum professionals has been on the agenda of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1947 (Boylan 62). However, until 1996, their work focused on recommending curricula for new museum professionals and did not include life-long learning and on-going professional development. ICOM’s International Committee for the Training of Personnel (ICTOP) and the ICOM Executive has responded to this in their new curricula—ICOM Curricula Guidelines for Professional Museum Development, but this does not address the difficulties staff or volunteers working in regional areas face in accessing training.In some parts of Australia, there are regional support and professional development programs in place. For example, in Queensland, there is the Museum Development Officer (MDO) network. However, because of the geographic size of the state and the spread of the museums, these five regionally based staff often have 60-80 museums or keeping places in their region needing support and so their time and expertise is spread very thinly. It is also predominantly a fee-for-service arrangement. That is, the museums have to pay for the MDO to come and deliver training. Usually this is done by the MDO working with a local museum to apply for a Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) grant. In Victoria there is a roving curator program where eligible regional museums can apply to have a professional curator come and work with them for a few days to help the volunteers curate exhibitions. The roving curator can also provide advice on “develop[ing] high quality exhibitions for diverse audiences” via email, telephone and networking events. Tasmania operates a similar scheme but their two roving curators are available for up to 25 days of work each year with eligible museums, provided the local council makes a financial contribution. The New South Wales government supports the museum advisor program through which a museum professional will come to your museum for up to 20 days/year to give advice and hands-on training—provided your local council pays $7000, an amount that is matched by the state government—for this service. In 2010, in response to recommendations in the Dunn Report (2007), the Collections Council of Australia (CCA) established a pilot project with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in West

Allen, D.The Invisible Work of Nurses: Hospitals, Organisations and Healthcare. London: Routledge. 2014. 170pp £85 ISBN 978–0‐41572325–1 (hbk)

There is significant financial pressure on the performing arts sector in South Africa. Demand for the performing arts sector needs to grow if this is to change. This requires inter-organisational collaboration. This study explores, through a grounded qualitative approach, the barriers to inter-organisational collaboration amongst performing arts organisations (PAOs) in South Africa, as seen through the experience of strategic leaders in the sector. These included views from commercial producers, theatres, festival and independent companies, and performing arts promoters. These organisations were professionally run with paid staff. The findings are then compared with the emerging literature in the field, conclusions drawn and recommendations made. Barriers identified include personal pride, artistic ideology, the survivalist reality, fragmented audiences and lack of support from government. The contextual complexity of South African post-apartheid society also acts as a barrier to collaboration. Ideas from the literature for overcoming these barriers are included. For practitioners, the problem of inter-organisational collaboration in the performing arts was identified. It appears as if inter-organisational collaboration (as a means of stimulating primary demand) is constrained when the financial pressures on a sector are so great as to push organisations into a corner. For academics, this study makes a contribution to the literature that is part of a broader relational and ‘shared-power’ turn in leadership studies, where collective action is increasingly required. The strong importance of contextual barriers confirms the call for an increased ‘field-level’ analysis.

The question “What does this have to do with everything else?” refers to ecological thinking. In this article, we use an ecological approach to explore the interrelationships between the incidence of the influenza pandemic of 1918–19, its trajectories and impacts on education. Our emphasis on children and their environment, as specific ecological arrangements, allows the mapping of associated social, institutional, cultural and material contexts and relations, alongside axes of experiences, behaviours and choices during a life-threatening crisis. To achieve this we apply the multiple perspectives that an ecological approach demands and use four different sources of evidence, from Sweden, Portugal, England and Spain, respectively: a teacher obituary, a magazine article, a school Log Book and an artist’s drawing. Each piece of evidence helps to identify lines of articulation and strands of entanglements projected in time and space. Their joint ecological reading enables the grasping of glocal connections, uncovering a few tesserae of a much larger mosaic, and pointing to the inherent potential of an educational-ecological approach to the study of past pandemics.

Performance evaluation of a fuel processing system based on membrane reactors technology integrated with a PEMFC stack

A review of catalytic partial oxidation of fossil fuels and biofuels: Recent advances in catalyst development and kinetic modelling

In this paper, we analysed how the adoption level of food safety practices varies with milk procurement system in the informal milk processing sector and also developed a composite food safety index (FSI) deliberating the interplay of factors and actors. Primary data were collected from value chain actors, viz ., small and micro dairy processing units (main actors), milk supplier, i.e. , dairy farmer and milk vendors (upstream actors) and traders (downstream actors) in Karnal district of Haryana state of India. FSI of two identified milk procurement systems, viz. , (i) own collection centres, and (ii) private vendors were compared. Processing units with own collection centres in production catchments have been able to establish better linkages with dairy upstream actors and resulted in better overall FSI (0.66) than those processing units procuring milk from private vendors (with FSI as 0.51). Further, the profitability of the processing unit is positively associated with the FSI, as consumers are willing to pay higher prices for safe milk. There was a need to design efficient milk procurement systems; design and development of efficient milk transport systems and processing technology along with training in post-milking handling for small vendors and processors for better food safety compliance in the milk value chain of the informal sector.

This exploratory study researches and analyzes the empirical effects of financial levels of government support and marketing practices on the financial health of nonprofit performing arts organizations. Declining government subsidies and increasing competition from non‐traditional sources have presented these organizations with unique opportunities and challenges that call for a market‐centered, as well as an art‐centered approach. Financial health is critical for the long‐term success of a nonprofit performing arts organization. Few empirical studies have examined the interrelationships between these key variables. This study analyzes a sample of 63 American professional symphony orchestras employing 20 years of data. The correlations among financial levels of government support and marketing activities were positive and significant, the correlations among levels of government support and financial health were negative and significant, and the correlations between levels of marketing activity and financial health were negative and varied in significance. Causal analyses were less conclusive, but significant causal relationships were found for large symphony orchestras, indicating that segmentation research may be warranted. Implications and opportunities for future research are presented which have potential application for government agencies, academic researchers, and arts organization managers, boards of directors, and donors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual MeetingFull AccessThe Play—and the Musical—Is the Thing in D.C.Ken HausmanKen HausmanPublished Online:21 Mar 2008https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.43.6.0017Washington, D.C., has gained fame for a lot of reasons other than its array of theater offerings. But in fact, it is often considered to have one of the liveliest and most abundant theater scenes in the country, following only on the heels of New York and Chicago.In a dramatic riverfront setting, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts stages world premieres and traveling companies of plays and musicals, as well as the world's leading symphony, ballet, and opera companies. The National Symphony and Washington National Opera will have performances during the annual meeting.Credit: Washington, D.C., Convention & Tourism Corporation (WCTC)The most famous of the theater venues is the Kennedy Center, a five-theater complex that showcases pre- and post-Broadway productions of musicals and dramas, and sometimes offers world premiers of works by famous playwrights and the most respected names in musical theater. It is also the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.In early May, as in every month for the last 20 years, "Shear Madness" will be playing in the center's Theater Lab. This murder mystery takes place in a unisex hair salon in Georgetown after the murder of the concert pianist who lives above the eponymous salon. Of course, all of the people in the salon have a motive to kill the musician. Its popularity no doubt derives from its inclusion of the audience in solving the mystery. It is now the second longest running play in the United States, following only its sister production in Boston.The symphony will have concerts on May 3 and 8, and the opera will be performing Handel's "Tamerlano" on May 4, with Washington National Opera Director Placido Domingo in one of the lead roles.Also there are free performances every evening on the Millenium stages in the Kennedy Center lobby.Washington is also justly proud of the nationally known Shakespeare Theatre Company, whose mission "is to present classic theatre in an accessible, skillful, imaginative, American style that honors playwrights' language and intentions while viewing their plays through a 21st-century lens." During the annul meeting the company is staging "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra." Expect innovative takes and several surprises.The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C.'s trendy Penn Quarter neighborhood mounts innovative takes on plays by the eponymous writer as well as rethought versions of plays by other classical playwrights.Credit: Washington, D.C., Convention & Tourism Corporation (WCTC)The Shakespeare Theatre has been so successful that last year it built an additional venue, the Harman Center for the Arts, a block away, which presents plays by local, national, and international companies.One of Washington's unique theater experiences can be had at Theater J, which is part of the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center. Theater J has gained international fame for presenting new and always thought-provoking works and rethinking older ones. It describes its mission as the" development and production of new work by major writers and emerging artists exploring many of the pressing moral and political issues of our time." Its repertoire celebrates the "distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy."During the annual meeting week Theater J will be presenting the world premiere of an innovative new musical, "David in Shadow and Light," which the theater describes as "an epic retelling of King David's astonishing trajectory from boy shepherd to superstar ruler to aging king as he wrestles with the lowest and the purest of human impulses."Another of the city's theatrical gems is Arena Stage, which has won a Tony Award for best regional theater. This May, as part of its Arthur Miller Festival, Arena Stage will present "Death of a Salesman." On Monday evenings the theater holds readings, screenings, and lectures that will delve into other of Miller's plays. As the theaters in its Southwest Washington complex are being renovated, Arena will perform for the next year at the Forum in the Crystal City Marriott in nearby Arlington, Va. The theater is next to the Crystal City Metro stop, about a 10-minute ride from downtown.The always surprising Studio Theater in the Logan Circle neighborhood never stages the traditional or the expected. For those staying a few days after the meeting, Studio will be presenting "The Internationalist," developed by New York's innovative theater company, 13P. The play" follows an American businessman lost in translation in this mysterious, multilingual romance."Another of the genuine treasures of the local theater scene is Signature Theater in Arlington, Va. Signature made its reputation by restaging musicals in creative, scaled down, and often startling ways, particularly those of Stephen Sondheim, the most honored Broadway composer of the last 50 years. Each year it stages one of his musicals, and Sondheim is a trustee of the theater.This May Signature will present one of the triad in its celebration of the Broadway composing/writing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. The pair is most famous for writing "Chicago," "Cabaret," and" Kiss of the Spider Woman." In early May theater lovers can enjoy one of their rarely seen works, "The Happy Time." It's the story of "a world-traveling photographer, Georges Bonnard, who returns home to French-Canadian St. Pierre in search of his happy youth. Along the way, Bonnard fires up the romantic spirit of his home-town's inhabitants and tempts his godson with dreams of escape," according to Signature. The theater is a 10-minute cab ride from downtown D.C. Those staying in town until May 13 have a real treat in store—Kander and Ebb's "The Visit" will be staged and will star two-time Tony Award winners Chita Rivera and George Hearn.MORE INFORMATIONKennedy Center New Hampshire Ave. at the Potomac Washington, D.C. (202) 467-4600 http://kennedy-center.orgShakespeare Theatre 450 Seventh Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. (202) 547-1122 www.shakespearetheatre.org/about/index.aspxTheater J 16th and Q streets, N.W. Washington, D.C. (202) 777-3210 http://washingtondcjcc.org/center-for-arts/theater-j/Arena Stage 1800 S. Bell Street Arlington, Va. (202) 488-3300 www.arenastage.orgSignature Theater 4200 Campbell Avenue Arlington, Va. (703) 820-9771 www.sig-online.org▪ ISSUES NewArchived