AFRO American Newspapers: Hana Sharif builds worlds for a living. With the eye of a museum curator, she carefully selects the stories that will play out within them and the truths they will display.
She practiced crafting narratives for five years at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis (The Rep) as the artistic director. Sharif, 45, will continue to hone her craft under the same title at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
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As a DC-area native, I’m so excited to see Sharif take over Arena Stage! Arena Stage is such a beautiful building and is in such a lively area of DC. One quote I found especially inspirational from Sharif was “my job is to hold this space open, to create pipelines, so that when I step away it doesn’t close back.” To speak candidly, I was worried that when Molly Smith announced her retirement from Arena, the theatre would struggle immensely. Smith had been there for so long, and like other theaters experience, they crumble without the initial artistic director. Sharif having the wisdom to build systemic structure for the company is so wise and I’m interested to see if other DC area theatres take on this approach. One hope I have for Sharif is that she can galvanize the younger audiences of DC into visiting Arena. I consistently observe Arena to have an older audience base; while this isn’t an inherently a bad thing as Sharif attempts to create a long running “pipeline” theatre, I hope this includes engaging younger theatregoers.
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