Anxious days are ahead. Daunting questions come to mind for the DC-area theater community as the new Administration and new Congress arrive to grow ever more assertive. What might be in store for our DC-area theaters still dealing with the exhaustion of COVID and its aftershocks? Trials and tribulations may be coming. Thinking “This too shall pass” — the old tried-and-true — may no longer be the best way of survival. How will our robustly vigorous DC-area theater community, the second largest in America, respond to what might be a frontal assault on live theater’s uncensored creative expression, distinctive storytelling, activist role, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in programming and hiring? Is it so silly to consider that there can be unpleasant consequences to vulnerable, unprotected theaters, their donors and leadership, for being too creative and too “woke”? DCTA graphic. Photo of the U.S. Capitol by Hannah Tu on Unsplash. So many questions, I began to freeze up trying to write this. But then a savior came. I read a blistering opinion piece in American Theatre magazine: “Against the Dying of the Light: Toward a Risky Theatre” by Kelundra Smith, director of publishing at Theatre Communications Group and a member of the American Theatre Critics and Journalists Association. Writing with fearless fire and unafraid directness, Smith opined that America’s theater communities should “resist the darkness.” In the face of the incoming Administration and other cultural forces, she said: I’m concerned that we will do the fascists’ work for them by dimming our own light. … As artists and arts administrators, we must commit ourselves to a collective fearlessness. … My greatest hope for theatre in America and around the world is that it rises above the fear of censorship to speak its many truths. How do we turn such muscular notions into tangible action? Isn’t that the task at hand, with so much at stake for DC-area theaters and so many unknowns? Then I began to freeze again. Are DC-area theaters more exposed and vulnerable than those in the more protected environment of New York City? And if so, why? DC, Maryland, and Virginia theaters are unique in their location inside the Federal government bubble. The business of the DC area remains strongly governmental: federal, state, and local services, along with the defense industry, tech, and consulting firms eager to please those now holding the purse and policy strings. DC theaters can’t hide from the close-by eyes and ears of the new folk coming to town. Metro DC is unlike NYC with its almost sealed-off, protective, urban and suburban “blue political landscape.” And I would imagine the DC-area theater community does not want or plan to cave to outside forces at their doorsteps. So what next? Would DMV theaters boldly join together and provide aid to defend other theaters if one theater is attacked? Would the well-off bold-name theaters help those less well-off if a lawyer was needed? Might DC-area theaters develop and implement a strong public coalition, a coalition for which individual budgets or number of seats or artistic vision does not matter? Doesn’t NYC commercial theater do that? Is a public pledge about the importance of preserving, protecting, and enhancing DEI commitments and artistic programming of any value — or would that just ruffle feathers? Is there value if area theaters enlarged the scope of taking care of their own to seek out allies with shared interests who likely will be in similar predicaments, such as museums? Is DMV theater asking audiences and donors what they see as the future — like what was done when COVID hit? Inauguration Day 2025 is here. That famous Shakespearian bear is not exiting the stage. That bear is arriving center stage with white-hot spotlights burning. Is Kalundra Smith right when she writes that “we must commit ourselves to a collective fearlessness”? How is that accomplished in the real messy life that awaits the DMV theater community? SEE ALSO: Questions confronting theater at the onset of possible tyranny (by David Siegel, December 1, 2024) How will the next Administration affect DMV arts? (by David Siegel, November 23, 2024) What will happen to DMV theater in the next four years? (by David Siegel, November 13, 2025)