New Source Website: GET FEARLESS

The new Source website is finally up and running! After weeks (I guess months, really) of planning, writing content, editing content and going back and forth about the design, the tagline, etc, the site is at long last live, alive and fully functional. We worked with VIVO Design in Arlington and they were terrific and oh so patient (I think we only changed the tag-line three times, but who’s counting?). Brigitte Tran, a freelance designer, did the Source Festival portion of the website.

Anyway, the site is great – it’s a marriage between being edgy, arty and fun, but it's still really easy to navigate and has tons of useful information. We’ve got information about the re-launch of the Source Festival, the Source Campaign, the history of the theatre and more.

So come virtually visit Source at our shiny new website - sourcedc.org.

"Source" of Knowledge

Recently, I had the opportunity to help Pat Murphy Sheehy, Producing Artistic Director Emeritus of Source Theatre Company, organize old Source archives. All I can say... WOW. Source has such an unbelievably rich history. Being from California, I did not have the benefit of growing up with the Source Theatre Company. I do, however, have the unique perspective of having only gotten to know Washington over the past year. So I can see what a night and day difference there is between the 14th Street of trendy stores and hip restaurants and the 14th Street where a police officer once warned Pat to go home quickly for her own safety. Flipping through twenty five years of photos, the building changes only a little, while the changes around it are incredible. You realize what an impact the scrappy theatre community had on what was, after the '68 riots, a pretty bleak neighborhood. And simply because it refused to go away, decided to give 14th Street a go, even when others left for greener pastures. Rehearsals sometimes took shape in the back alley, alongside other, less legal activities. People lived in the second floor of Source. Pat was warned by the police to go home before she became the victim of a crime, and, more memorably, was once stopped by officers who thought she might be - as a lone female pacing the sidewalk outside of Source - perpetrating a crime of her own. Looking through pictures, you see not only up and coming actors, directors and producers, but Washington lumineries and power players - Mrs. Walter Mondale, even! Something special must have been going on. Another thing that sticks out when you are shuffling old papers and flipping through programs of plays long since gone are the names. Even for someone whose knowledge of Washington theatre is, admittedly, underdeveloped, the names speak to how important Source was in the lives of so many. Actors, directors, playwrights, producers, costume makers... so many people in the Washington theatre community got there start at Source. One of my favorites was a snapshot of Patrick Stewart, Executive Director of Atlas Performing Arts Center, as an intern at the Washington Theatre Festival. It is, at the end of the day, wonderful to know that the work I am putting into saving Source for a new generation of theatre professionals and 14th Street residents will someday give someone their big (or little) break.

still a long way to go!

welcome to insideSource -- those of you who know me well, know i was reticent to blog. well, our eagerness to keep you in the loop about source won out over my aversion to the latest form of electronic publicity. i have invited cudc staff, board members, project architects, neighbors and pretty much anyone else involved with the revitalization of source to post their thoughts and feelings here. as you’ll see in the coming months, major changes are underfoot but we have a long way to go. hard to believe this process started about 18 months ago. seems like just last week, i was sitting in c/m graham's conference room trying to make the case for saving the building.

in case you are new to this effort, cudc bought source after convincing the board of source theatre company that we could afford to buy it, renovate it and operative as a collaborative performance facility. this idea was our response to the community outcry against the plan to sell the theatre and create a grant fund with the proceeds. our hope is to raise $3M, fully renovate the place and reopen it by next march. if you would like to get involved, give us a call. we would love to have you help create the dynamic, multi-user performing arts space that will be the new source. and if you have been to source lately, come see constellation theatre's A Dream Play running through july 8th. cheers!

CuDC at the Helen Hayes Awards

At April's Helen Hayes Awards, CuDC was honored to accept the Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community for our commitment to restoring Source. Watch CuDC Executive Director Anne Corbett's acceptance speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egBcptosCyk

Up & Running

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