Amy Austin’s leadership at Theatre Washington has become a steady force in shaping the identity and visibility of the DC theatre community. With roots in journalism and storytelling, she has transformed those skills into a driving mission: making theatre more accessible, more diverse, and more connected to the fabric of everyday life. In this interview with Diplomatic Watch, she reflects on the evolving landscape of theatre in Washington, the power of narrative to inspire change, and why this year’s Helen Hayes Awards are more relevant than ever. Excerpts.
You’ve built a remarkable career at the intersection of journalism, storytelling, event production, and theatre. What drew you to this path, and how have these worlds influenced your leadership at Theatre Washington?
Like many of our paths, it’s not a direct one. Theatre was the way I blossomed as a young human being, where I found my place when I was in high school, a new way of expression through acting. By playing somebody else, taking on somebody else’s emotions and stories, it transformed me. In many ways, I could see myself differently and others differently through working in theatre. And of course, there is an enormous amount of collaborative work, so you develop deep friendships doing it, even when you are young.
So, that was the beginning of my journey. Since then, I have worked in theatre, and for a very long time, I have seen theatre as a continuous narrative within my own story. When I went into journalism, I was able to use the skills and the way I was able to look at the world and apply it to journalism, which is another form of storytelling, based on facts. But in journalism, you find the narrative through reporting and then figure out how you tell a story. We need stories as humans in order to connect and to see each other, and to make the world a better place.
Journalism can make the world a better place by weaving together an understanding of your local community. In my case, I am very focused on local journalism and having people discover something they didn’t know or get ready to take action because of something they read. So, I love the power of storytelling to have people evolve, take action, transform—all the things we want in this life.
The Helen Hayes Awards are more than just a ceremony—they’re a reflection of the city’s creative spirit. What makes this year’s edition special, and what are you most looking forward to?
Every year seems special, and we say it’s a time when we gather together, which makes me reflect on the pandemic and how there was such urgency and a need to gather after the pandemic. In this time with all of the disruptions in the world, in the city that we are living in, in the region that we are living in, we have a tremendous loss of jobs, a tremendous shaking of educational structures, anxiety about how our local economy is changing, and we have a lot of vitriolic change that is being demanded over diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is embedded in our way of being. It is not something that can be tossed away.
So, this sense of demand for change in ways of being and in organizations, structure, and our local economy has been relentless. We need to be together, to be settled with each other. To find ways to connect is more important than ever. So, that is one of the things the awards do; to bring the community together, to remind them of the importance of what they do, of the stories they tell, and how essential and powerful the work is. It provides a connection, and it provides understanding that we live in a supportive community.
Over the years, how have the awards evolved to better represent the depth and diversity of DC’s theatre community?
The one thing we celebrate is that we have so many wonderful theatre organizations and theatre practitioners – theatre makers, in the area. When you talk about the diversity of the scene we have, it’s built into who the DC theatre community is. So, there is an array of theatres that come at their storytelling in very different ways—from Shakespeare to Opera, to New Plays, to reviving old classics, to doing children’s theatre, and so much more. There are so many different examples of the organizations and their approach; their missions are very diverse from other organizations – that’s what makes it such a vibrant scene.
The stories theatres choose to tell are always about the time we are living in, and they are very cognizant of the stories that need to be told. In this time, we want the diversity of voices from people telling their narratives who are geographically diverse, racially diverse, economically diverse, etc. And you will find all of that storytelling at any one time in the theatres in Washington, D.C.
If you look at our biggest nominees from this year’s awards, which are based on our 2024 production, there is The Nance, which was at First Stage in Tyons Corner, and had LGBTQIA+ stories; Private Jones at Signature Theatre, another theatre in Virginia, was about a disability—the musical is about a deaf soldier, and it’s a musical that is beautifully told; and another show that got the many nominations is Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Arena Stage and was a co-production with Berkeley Repertory and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Jaja was about an immigrant African community and their stories of their personal relationships, and what it is like to be an immigrant in America. If I just name those three productions, you can see the diversity that is on the stages; it’s there. It’s built into the DNA of what the theatres do, and at a time when that kind of diversity is being questioned, those stories are more essential to be shared.
You often speak about theatre’s power to build empathy and understanding. How does Theatre Washington help turn that belief into action across the city?
Well, our job is to increase the visibility of the theatre in the region, so that’s what we do. The Helen Hayes Awards are part of bringing attention to the community. They are known across the nation. You see them in playbills all around the world. So, that is one way we do it. One of the biggest programs we run is called Theatre Week, and that happens in the Fall. It’s a wonderful time when we encourage theatre-going. The theatre organizations work collaboratively with Theatre Washington to create events, occasions, and ways to buy tickets based on affordable pricing. It’s time to explore the diversity of theatre here. Many people, when they think of theatre in DC, they will think of the Kennedy Center, they will think of Arena Stage, and are not sure what the third one is, when in fact we have over 80 theatres in the region. So, Theatre Week brings that into focus and helps people discover the diversity of theatre around them.
When you enter a theatre, for me, you’re automatically going to have an empathetic experience. You are sitting with a group of people; the audience takes on a life of its own. Every audience is different, and every performance is different. So, you are connecting on an emotional level with the people around you and with the people on the stage, and that human connection is what builds empathy in all of us.
So, it is just part of the experience of going to the theatre, it helps you connect with your empathetic self as soon as you sit in one of the seats and put everything else away; you engage with what’s going on the stage, and you engage with the audience members around you.
What are some of the intentional steps Theatre Washington has taken under your leadership to support emerging voices and promote inclusion?
I would point to a few examples, but my intention is to build it into every decision that we make. We are not perfect in that, but essentially, that’s the way you build it by thinking through your everyday decisions. The Helen Hayes judges, who are all volunteers, saw 162 shows last year. So, there are ways in which every theatre, every organization that is doing professional work, will be seen by the judges. We do not discriminate based on theatre size or how many people are in the audience. Some shows seat 25 people, some shows seat 2,000. We are very mindful that creativity and great work can come from many places. We are deliberate in making sure that our judges are seeing all the professional productions that are in the region. For the Helen Hayes Awards, we celebrate in two categories: one we call The Helen and one we call The Hayes. The Helen Award is for productions that are generally from smaller organizations, they are with theatres with smaller budget sizes. We have The Helen and The Hayes; we are celebrating the diversity of the community again by including different sizes of organizations within that awards ceremony.
A while back, we changed the awards to be gender-inclusive. So, what that means is we took away outstanding actress and actor, and we made it outstanding performer. That allows for people who do not identify with either gender or don’t want to be gendered to represent themselves however they want. The change allowed for everyone’s identity to be seen. We work with the artists, and we have a space on our website where everyone can put up their work profile. This allows for people who are new in the business, younger, maybe they don’t have the networking places to go that others might have access. It gives them a way into the theatre scene and ways for people to find them that is not based on personal networking. That often creates barriers, personal networking, so the Theatre work profiles help break down a few of those barriers. We have an incredibly powerful mentoring program that we are very proud of community.
From your perspective, what makes Washington, DC such fertile ground for live theatre, and how does it differ from other cultural hubs?
Washington, DC is a cultural Mecca. We have the largest diplomatic community in the world. I remember when I first moved here, how excited I was to be on the Metro or walking down the sidewalk, to hear all the different languages and experience people from all parts of the world who were sitting next to me at a restaurant, sitting next to me on the Metro. The community in Washington, D.C. is so culturally diverse. D.C. is a very thoughtful city. If you live in the world of politics, we have everyday conversations about what is happening in the world, how politics can affect it, and what our government should and should not be doing. That’s an everyday conversation in the area, and that leads to a lot of discourse. And theatre storytelling is one way of discourse. It’s one way of bringing up issues and having conversations about them.
The other thing that is different about us is that when you go to New York City for theatre, you have a concentrated area, and it’s a well-known tourist destination. That is not what we have here. We have theatres that are concentrated in many neighborhoods. There are very strong, wonderful institutions that are not concentrated in any one area. We are near people where they live and work, and to me, that is very exciting. We are so fortunate. There are a whole bunch of theatres that are DC Theatres that are nationally known, and the best in the Nation. Certainly, the Kennedy Center, which is a National Performing Arts Center, and a place for local theatre. In the disruption that we had recently at the Kennedy Center, it is resonating how many of us who live and work in the region think of the Kennedy Center as local, as ours, even though it’s the theatre for all Americans.
We have Arena Stage, which is one of the first Regional Theatres and one of the first theatres to get rid of segregated audiences, and produces The Great White Hope with James Earl Jones. We have places like Synetic Theater that does a very specific type of movement theatre; they do training that comes from Georgia in Russia. We have Woolly Mammoth Theatre, which is nationally known, and which won a Tony Award recently for A Strange Loop, when it went to Broadway. We have Ford’s Theatre, a very historical theatre that was closed for over a hundred years and then reopened, and does exciting work. My point is that they are all nationally known institutions that are right here in DC. You can go to any one of them any night of the year.
How do the arts, tourism, and local storytelling intersect in DC—and why does that matter for the future of the city?
It matters so much. Well, first, there is this huge economic impact of these organizations when they are up the streets at night. That is, people who are going to the theatre every night of the week—seven to eight shows a week—these audiences then go out to eat; they are coming into the city. That’s a real economic driver that makes for a better city when you have people engaging and going to the theatre, and getting out of the house and going to have a great night out.
Again, we need to be sitting together, hearing the same story, laughing together, crying together, and feeling the same feelings that are coming from our remarkable actors every night of the week. So that also creates a great community, having those shared spaces.
What has been one of the most fulfilling moments in your time leading Theatre Washington?
That is a hard question; I have so many fulfilling moments. I have had the privilege of seeing so many great theatres. So, that is just a wonderful part of my job. I think it was working during that very terrible time of the pandemic. It was such a terrible time. The art of theatre is the art of gathering, and we were not allowed to gather as we traditionally would have done.
But one of the things that happened during that time is we have a program called Taking Care, and in March of 2020, we decided that we would open up the program for small grants to anyone who applied who worked in theatre. The program is for emergencies and has been established since 2011. So, theatre artists who lived and worked in the community, any theatre makers—administrative, technical people, actors, whatever they are doing in the industry—they could apply for emergency funding. We were immediately giving out grants of at least $500. And there were many people who weren’t sure how they were going to pay their rent because their contracts were suddenly gone.
So, we had a tremendous amount of people who were applying for the money, and that was met by a tremendous amount of people who were giving us money. In the course of the Pandemic from 2020 to 2021, we raised a million dollars and were able to give a million dollars, which was far more than we generally raised. So that showed the ability of the community to come together so quickly. It was March of 2020, and it went through December of 2021 of just keeping that pace up and keeping mindful of people’s needs, and it was just beautiful and very powerful to be a part of that. To raise a million was just a testament to the community.
Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of DC’s theatre scene and your continued role in shaping it?
Looking ahead, Theatre (the Art) forms how it affects people; it seems more important than ever in this divisive environment that we live in. We are doing Gay for #DCTheatre for World Pride coming up in a few weeks. I am looking forward to talking more about the stories that are on these stages because all of them, without exception, are for these times. They are stories that need to be heard now. I feel the urgency of going forward and shaping our future.
