Venue Information

Arena Players has provided continuous performances of live and exciting community theater in Baltimore since 1953 when the founders—Jimmie Bell, Bernard Byrd, Doris Dilver, Aurthur Thurogood, Irvin Turner, Joe Wilson, Julius Wilson, and Sam Wilson—took their final bow for “Hello Out There,” William Soroyan’s one act drama. Arena Players is now one of the oldest theater groups in the country and boasts an unbroken string of periodic performances, which grows annually.
Arena Players began as an outgrowth of “The Negro Little Theater.”  Nomadic for the first ten years, this group performed in a variety of Baltimore locations, including Coppin State University, the Druid Hill Avenue Branch of the YMCA, the Great Hall Theater of St. Mary’s Church in the Walbrook neighborhood, and the Carl J. Murphy Auditorium at Morgan State University.  In 1962 the group moved into its present location at 801 McCulloh Street and establishe ...