Arena Stage

Arena Stage has been doing the work since 1950, when it became one of the first racially integrated theaters in the United States. Today it runs out of the Mead Center for American Theater in the Southwest Waterfront, a purpose-built home with three stages and 1,400 total seats. Its whole focus is American theater - new plays, revivals, work that wrestles with the American experience - and it's got a real track record of growing productions that go on to Broadway.

So this is the place to catch something before it blows up, often staged in the round where you're close to the action from any seat. The programming swings ambitious; check what's on, because Arena's premieres have a habit of becoming the show everyone's talking about a year later.

Location-wise you hit the jackpot: The Wharf has turned into one of D.C.'s best dining stretches, with the Municipal Fish Market - the country's oldest continuously running - right there for blue crabs before curtain. Find Arena Stage shows on Evil Tickets and make a waterfront night of it.