Values

About our shows

In recent years, we’ve addressed LGBTQ issues (Love, Valour, Compassion!, Bent, Jeffrey, Take Me Out, The Boys in the Band, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead!, Last Summer At Bluefish Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch); mental illness (Assassins, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Carrie, Bug); suicide (‘Night, Mother), sexuality and sexual abuse (How I Learned to Drive, The History Boys); substance use and abuse (Reefer Madness, Bachelorette), and racism (Dreamgirls, Avenue Q, Until the Flood).  
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In a lighter mood, we’ll offer escapist fun like Gilligan’s Fire Island, Evil Dead: The Musical, Firebringer, Heathers the Musical, Brute Farce.   Each season, we try to present a full-scale musical, a play, and perhaps a hybrid.  There will usually be a comedy, or a comedic element.

History

1948
The Fairlington Players organized as a play reading club by neighbors in the Fairlington Apartments.  Management donated a basement room for auditions/rehearsals/meetings, a garage for set building, and a truck to move sets.  Most sets were constructed and painted outside, as the garage was unheated in winter and uncooled in summer.‍

JANUARY 1949
Produced the first show Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand, at the Fairlington Elementary School. The group used at various times the Charles Barrett School in Parkfairfax in Alexandria, the Abbington Elementary School in Farmington, the Fairlington Elementary School, a Catholic school, and NOVA at Bailey’s Crossroads. The Players also produced a tent show in a Fairlington park, summer shows at Fort Ward Park, one an original musical featuring Hexagon personnel, and a traveling Christmas show in churches, retirement homes, and schools.

MAY 1952
Incorporated as The Fairlington Players, with the following Board of Directors:
- Eleanor E. Baker, President
- Lionel C. Holm, Vice President
- M.K. Benjamin, Corresponding Secretary
- Worthy S. Gardner, Recording Secretary
- Margaret Kovach, Treasurer
- Leo C. Garcin
- Will Anderson
- John Sangster

1978
Arlington County Arts moved to Gunston Community Center and invited the Players. Our first production at Gunston Theatre One was Curley McDimple, by Robert and Mary Boylan, in November.

1990
Fairlington Players changed the name to Dominion Stage after overhearing audience members say they had never heard of Fairlington.

2020
Dominion Stage merged with Alexandria's Port City Playhouse, which had lost their performance venue.  We were longtime fans of the shows and work that PCP has offered over the years, and this was a natural fit for both groups. PCP board members joined the Dominion Stage board, and agreed to retire their name and become part of Dominion Stage. We encourage you to visit the Port City Playhouse page (Coming Soon) to remember this fine theatre organization, and know that it lives on as part of Dominion Stage.

2020-2021
While facilities were closed during the COVID-19 quarantine beginning in March 2020, we continued to reach out to the community:
- Online reading of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, by Jane Chambers, read by our original cast
- Filmed production of Until the Flood, by Dael Orlandersmith
- Recorded productions of Dead Air, by Chuck Smith (Playwriting Competition Full-Length category winner), and Tempting the Hand of Fate, by Greg Jones Ellis (Playwriting Competition One-Act category winner)

PRESENT DAY
In 70+ years, Dominion Stage has come a long way from the Fairlington Players of 1949. For us, "Anything But Predictable" means never flinching from sensitive topics that might inform and enlighten, or simply tell a story that someone in the community will relate to. For you, it means a local, affordable source for good theatre, powerful stories, memorable productions, and a fantastic night out in your own community.