History
NextStop Theatre Company was founded in 1988, as the Elden Street Players, an all-volunteer, community theatre company created predominantly by and for the residents of Herndon, Virginia. After little more than a year, the Town of Herndon quickly recognized the exciting potential for cultivating the arts in the community, authorized and funded the creation of a 114-seat, blackbox theatre in a local industrial warehouse complex, and helped secure a home for the emerging company.
From their earliest days, the Elden Street Players (ESP) stretched and challenged themselves to be bold and unique. A company dedicated to pushing the boundaries and expectations of theatre in a small suburban community, well outside the established Washington, DC circles of arts and culture. In a time when community theatres were viewed mainly as casual, “hobby” organizations that simply regurgitated popular comedies and classic musicals, ESP held themselves to a higher standard. They mounted hard-hitting social dramas, re-invented Shakespeare classics, created original works, and became particularly well known for cramming epic and edgy musicals into their blackbox space. They began drawing sell out crowds, receiving tremendous praise from area theatre critics, and winning numerous awards for all areas and levels of their productions.
For 25 years, ESP stood as a respected, organizational leader among the community theatres in the Washington Metropolitan area. Then in 2013, the company decided to once again stretch and challenge themselves to even greater heights. Having achieved exceptional success as an all-volunteer organization and recognizing the exceptional potential that lay ahead for the community, the board of directors made the strategic decision to re-imagine the company as a professional, regional theatre.
On January 1, 2013, the board officially appointed Evan Hoffmann as the company’s new Producing Artistic Director. Evan was a native of Herndon, who had performed in numerous ESP shows as a child and subsequently gone on to have a successful career as a professional actor and director at regional theatres in Washington, DC, around the country, and the world. With the increased capacity of an organization with a paid administrative staff, plus an exciting infusion of new professional actors, directors, designers, and technicians, the company was ready for an even brighter future and rebranded as NextStop Theatre Company.
Over the past few years, NextStop has once again established itself as a respected member (now of the professional, regional) theatre community. Building on the strong artistic traditions established by the Elden Street Players, the company has become a leader in the DC theatre scene, producing between 6-10 productions a year, employing more than 100 artists each season, and garnering praise from audiences and critics alike for their bold, diverse, and vibrant productions.
The name “NextStop” was chosen to pay homage to three critical factors:
To honor the history of the Town of Herndon, which first came to prominence as a critical stop on the W&OD train line, as it left Washington, DC.
To celebrate the bright and exciting future of the Dulles Corridor, as the Metro Silver Line completely reshapes and expands the character and vitality of our region.
To acknowledge and respect our company’s origins and always remember that we are not the first, but rather the next generation of an already exceptional organization.
