Housing
How D.C. Became a Theater Boom Town
The city's largest theaters are thriving. But does success come at a cost?
Lifelong District of Columbia resident Jennifer Cover Payne has always loved theater. But Payne, now president of the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, remembers a very different arts city when she was growing up.
"Thirty years ago, the space where Studio Theatre is now? A drug infested building," she says. "Same with Woolly Mammoth. Most people who came to visit and even those who live here did not think of theater as having a presence in this environment."