Arena Players

About

Baltimore’s Arena Players is the Oldest Continuously Operating African-American Community Theater in the United States.

Story

Arena Players believes
•That the theater arts have a unique capability to regenerate the human spirit and that no other art form so totally embraces the whole being or so enriches one’s self awareness and relationship to others.
•That Arena Players is a community theater founded and dependent upon the interactions of people who combine their knowledge, interest, and pursuit of effort to perpetuate the organization. Herein is an opportunity for the development and display of the talents, technical skills, and crafts of all who would pursue the theater arts as a career, a vocation, or audience.
•That involvement in Arena Players has a reciprocal value in that experiences are self rewarding.
•That the membership is comprised of dues-paying volunteers who form a pool of people interested in all phases of theater and play production.
•That it is the responsibility of the individual members to strive to develop their talents as a ready source for the good of the organization and that the corporation has the responsibility of facilitating the development of the talents of its members.
•That purpose and integrity demands that efforts be to and through those who are affiliated with corporation by membership, and that dispensations be granted to others only when all resources of the membership have been reviewed and the corporation is found wanting.
•That Arena Players is a service organization to the good of the community, its cultural growth, and well being.
•That Arena Players should provide the community with a physical facility wherein all who are interested may avail themselves of the opportunity to participate in the theater arts.

Mission

Our mission is to entertain, educate, and serve the Baltimore community. We nurture and give growth to new, emerging, and established artists through cross-cultural endeavors while boldly illuminating the African-American experience through the preforming arts.