Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater launches Power Plays, an initiative commissioning and developing 25 new plays and musicals from 25 writers over the course of the next 10 years. With Power Plays, Arena Stage focuses Washington, D.C.’s unique theatrical voice on politics and power, amplifying the theater’s role as a national center dedicated to American voices and artists, located in the heart of the nation’s capital. The undertaking features American stories of politics and power, exploring the people, events and ideas that have helped shape our country’s narrative and identity, with one story per decade, beginning with 1776 through today. Power Plays features work by both well-established writers as well as those who are in the beginning stages of their careers in theater, embracing the diversity of our country to understand who we are as Americans. Seven commissioned projects are currently in development, with playwrights Nathan Alan Davis, Eve Ensler, Rajiv Joseph, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Aaron Posner, Sarah Ruhl and John Strand, focused on topics including Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street,” Native American sovereignty, John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt. Inspired by true events, Jacqueline Lawton’s INTELLIGENCE, a political thriller that explores the cost of deception and the consequences of speaking truth to power, debuts as part of the Power Plays cycle and runs Feb 24, 2017 (to April 2) at Arena Stage. Press contact: Greta Hays/Arena Stage (202/600-4056)...