Scena Theatre is Washington's premier cultural institution, bringing the best in international theatre to DC and stimulating cultural exchange between local and international artists. Founded in 1987 under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert McNamara and Managing Director Amy Schmidt, Scena produces an annual season of plays, a Workshop Series aimed at developing new work from around the world, special events, and the Washington International Theatre Festival, staged each year at venues throughout the city.

Beginning in 1987, Scena has produced Classic works of the contemporary European theatre a well as new plays by emerging playwrights from around the world. In 1989, Scena laid the groundwork for regular participation in international theatre festivals, taking touring productions to Edinburgh, Scotland, Slovenia (in Former Yugoslavia), and Italy. Achievements of special distinction in this period include Scena's highly-acclaimed 1990 Festival of Plays by Samuel Beckett, mounted in collaboration with the San Quentin Drama Workshop, and the 1991 East European Rep which examined themes of freedom and the break-up of the Communist Empire through the dramatic works of Czech President-playwright Vaclav Havel and Slovene playwright-novelist Drago Jancar.

A successful innovation of the 1994-1995 season was the inauguration of Scena Press with the publication of Swiss playwright Thomas Hurrlimann's "The Envoy" and Otho Eskin's play "Duet". Scena's stature as a producer of international drama is also receiving significant acknowledgement. Scena Theatre has represented the United States at the Slovene "Bosrtnikovo Srecanje" in 1988,1989,1992,1995,1996 2000 and 2002. Scena Directors McNamara and Schmidt served as official cultural observers at the "Witold Gombrowicz festival" in Radom, Poland in June 1995 as a preliminary step toward a Polish-American collaboration in the 1996 Scena Festival. Scena's 1995 overseas "Roadshow Tour" to Slovenia and Croatia netted the traveling company a "Best Actor" Award at the IT&D Theatre Festival in Zagreb. In 1996, Mr. McNamara received a prestigious "Kennedy Center Fellowship of the Americas for Directing."

Scena's 1997 staging of Euripides' powerful anti-war targedy "Women of Troy," set in a rape camp in Bosnia, was widely recognized and hailed as one of the year's "Top Ten" by Washington's own City Paper. In 1998 Scena celebrated Samuel Beckett's 92nd birthday at the Embassy of France with the first ever Workshop staging of his first play "Eleutheria."Other highlights that year included the area premiere of British actor/playwright Steven Berkoff's scatological version of the Oedipus legend,"Greek", a 100th anniversary celebration of German master playwright Bertolt Brecht with his "Jungle of the Cities" with noted Berlin director Gabriele Jakobi at the helm and a world premere of Otho Eskin's play about French poet and iconoclast Arthur Rimbaud, "Season in Hell". In 1999 Scena produced a highly successful Beckett Festival that showcased 13 of Samuel Beckett's plays, with participation from the internationally known and famed San Quentin drama Workshop, with Rick Cluchey in Beckett's own staging of his play "Krapp's Last Tape", and a German version of Beckett's "Das Letzte Band" with German actors and directors from the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus.

In 2000 Scena continued its modern day explorations of the Greek classics with its first installment of "The Euripides Trilogy", "Elektra". 2001 saw Scena with an innovative production of Beckett's "Radio Plays" at the Corcoran Gallery of Arts with an exciting ensemble of live actors complemented by live music. "Parts Two and Three of "The Euripides Trilogy," "Orestes" and "Iphigenia in Tauris," were also seen to wide critical acclaim, featuring noted Greek actress Ioanna Gavakou. The next season Scena celebrated the life and work of German-language playwright George Tabori in the "Tabori Festival" with a workshop production of his powerful play "Mein Kampf" and four of his other plays including "The Brecht File". In 2003/04, Scena staged the Washington premiere of Mark Ravenhill's controversial play "Shopping and F***ing", and toured three plays to the international Maribor Theatre festival in Slovenia ("Julie" by Otho Eskin based on Strindberg's "Miss Julie"), "Letter to Orestes" by Greek playwright Iakovos Kambanellis and a revival of Wallace Shawn's play "The Fever," which subsequently toured to Berlin.

In 2005, Scena continued its bold brand of international theatre with an update of the classical Greek drama, "The Persians", a unique staging of "No Exit", the riveting existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre (remounted in 2007), as well as the acclaimed world premiere of "Silent Partners" by Charles Marowitz. In 2006, Artistic Director Robert McNamara adapted to the stage the 1938 Orson Welles radio drama that terrified a nation - "The War of the Worlds". This production received widespread praise from DC-area critics, paving the way for its successful restaging in 2010 with a new lead actor playing Welles (longtime SCENA favorite Regen Wilson). In 2009, Scena flew in successful Irish stage and film actor Barry McEvoy to star in the lead role of Tommy in Kenneth Branagh's "Public Enemy". McEvoy actually began his professional career with Scena exactly 20 years earlier.

The first 23 seasons at Scena Theatre were powerful, indeed. We thank you for your attendance, support, and volunteerism. Yet, our company is very excited to launch our 24th season, which begins in fall 2011 with the Washington premiere of Mein Kampf by George Tabori, and Greek by the bad boy of British theatre, Steven Berkoff. On behalf of the board of SCENA Theatre, we look forward to having you join us for these dynamic plays and more at H Street Playhouse.