Forum Theatre was founded in 2004 by Kelly Bartnik, Michael Dove, Paul Frydrychowski, and Mark W.C. Wright. Instead of using a single performance method, Forum would explore storytelling styles and artistic media. The founders had backgrounds in film, dance/movement, music, visual art, and theatre. The company also aimed to bring new or seldom-performed plays to Washington, using the shows to promote artistic expression and discussion. The company's first productions were a collection of
Samuel Beckett short plays and a movement and video piece called
All Things Seen, based on
Jean-Paul Sartre's
No Exit. The company performed at the Arena Stage in Washington,
Warehouse Theater,
Church Street Theater,
The University of Maryland,
The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and
Round House Theatre in
Silver Spring, Maryland before taking up residence at the
H Street Playhouse in northeast DC in June 2007. Its production history includes the world premieres of Israeli playwright
Ami Dayan's
UpShot and a new translation of
The Gas Heart commissioned by the company, along with the DC premieres of
Hamletmachine,
Václav Havel's
The Memorandum,
Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh,
Caryl Churchill's
The Skriker, and
Don DeLillo's
Valparaiso. In October 2006, Forum founded and produced (with the Irish-American arts organization Solas Nua) the DC Samuel Beckett Centenary Festival, to celebrate the writer's work and impact on contemporary art. The festival, which took place in several DC venues, included two weeks of theatre productions, film screenings, panel discussions, academic symposia, book clubs, downloadable radio play
podcasts, and the international touring production of
Waiting for Godot by Ireland's
Gate Theatre. The festival was sponsored by the
Embassy of Ireland,
The University of Maryland, and the
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For its 2007–08 season, the company produced
Jean Anouilh's
Antigone,
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by
Stephen Adly Guirgis, and
Marat/Sade by
Peter Weiss. The group later launched a
blog called "OpenForum". At one point, the group has 16 performers, technicians, and theater administrators, supported by a 13-member board.
The Washington Post noted that Forum was among the first theatres in the D.C. area to both pursue gender parity when selecting which playwrights they performed and to employ a "pay what you want" admission policy. ==Production timeline through 2009==