Southwest's First Cinema Opens October 23, in a Room Three Nonprofits Agreed to Share

For a year and a half, anyone who went to a Theater Alliance show on Maple Drive SW and needed a restroom walked to the preschool next door. The company had moved into a ground-floor space at The Westerly under a pop-up permit. Executive Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle described it to The 51st as a "totally empty cement box" with little electricity. More than 5,000 people still came to the five shows produced there.

On October 23, that same address at 340 Maple Drive SW opens as the Revada Arts Center. It has a black box theater, a cinema, a rehearsal studio and a scene shop, and three organizations share it: Theater Alliance, the IN Series opera company and the new 4EYE Film Center. The Southwester calls the film center Southwest's first cinema. That cinema exists because its founder didn't have to cover the rent and utilities alone.

A Retail Bay Held for a Stage, Filled by a Pop-Up

The space was set aside for performing arts long before anyone performed in it. The Southwester reported in 2024 that the first floor at The Westerly had been reserved for a theater or performing-arts venue but sat empty as retail space. Theater Alliance moved in that year through DC's pop-up permitting program.

Theater Alliance needed a room. It had spent just over a decade at the Anacostia Playhouse before losing that home in 2024, right around the time Gabrielle was named incoming artistic director. The pop-up permit lets tenants take leases of up to a year on short notice. The program was built to fill empty commercial space after the pandemic, and here it worked as a trial run. Those 5,000-plus patrons were the proof. Theater Alliance went on to sign a 15-year lease with the landlord, Hoffman & Associates, and raised more than $5 million. The money came from individual donors, a large grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Revada Foundation, an Alexandria family foundation the center is named for.

By February 2026, Washington City Paper was describing the plan as a 9,000-square-foot shared arts space.

Why a Cinema Could Only Arrive This Way

DC doesn't have much big-screen capacity to begin with. In her Southwester interview, 4EYE founder and executive director Emily Lenzner said only nine movie theaters operate in all of DC, with about 52 screens in total. She remembered roughly a dozen theaters along Wisconsin Avenue from Georgetown to Friendship Heights when she was growing up, not counting The Avalon and the Uptown. She also said Southwest, for all its growth, still had no independent movie theater, meaning one built around film as an art form.

A new arthouse would struggle to open in that market on its own. According to The 51st, Lenzner started 4EYE as a nonprofit last year after working on a proposal for the historic Uptown in Cleveland Park. The idea of teaming up with Theater Alliance came out of a lunch with Gabrielle two years ago. Lenzner told The Southwester that pooling everything "from rent to utilities to staff" frees each group to spend more on programming and education. She told The 51st that planning has felt "less daunting" because she isn't carrying rent or utilities alone.

The mix of art forms is part of how the arrangement works. Opera, film and theater don't compete for the same ticket buyer the way three theater companies would. Gabrielle put it this way in The Southwester:

"We didn't set out to build a new building; we set out to build a new way of sustaining art."

She told The 51st that the structure builds in "both cooperation and a lack of competition. A win for one is a win for all." Lenzner says programming will sometimes pair a film with whatever is running on stage, whether that's an opera or a play.

The cinema's name points to its location. 4EYE takes its name from the center's spot near Fourth and I Streets SW.

Opening Week, Day by Day

The official launch page lists the celebration as October 23 through 27, 2026. Several days still don't have posted times.

• Friday, October 23. An opening ceremony with a ribbon cutting, followed by a conversation. 4EYE opens its "Made in DC" series the same day. The series features well-known and lesser-known feature and documentary films shot in or about Washington. Individual titles had not been posted when we checked.
• Saturday, October 24. Family programming includes a Frozen singalong screening, poster design, improvised opera, music and acting classes, a photobooth, face painting and crafts, followed by a building open house. The RSVP form lists family programming from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the open house from 1 to 3:30 p.m. DC Theater Arts reported noon to 2 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Check with the center before you go.
• Sunday, October 25. The listing says simply, "We're open: stop by!"
• Monday, October 26. A Hub Activation from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with co-working for creatives and solidarity-economy groups plus free headshots. RSVP is requested on the sign-up form.
• Tuesday, October 27. A 4EYE and IN Series screening of Blue Moon, with refreshments and a concert of Rodgers and Hart songs. Reservations will be announced later.

The co-working area is meant to stay open after launch week. Gabrielle told The Southwester the co-working area and community hub are "built to be a resource, not just a lobby. Come on by!"

What a Seat Costs

The shared model also shows up in the prices. Theater Alliance lists several ways to buy a ticket, and The 51st reported expected prices for 4EYE screenings.

4EYE also plans some free screenings for community groups. Lenzner says most films will be followed by post-screening programs, including filmmaker Q&As.

The First Season Inside

Theater Alliance will stage all three of its mainstage productions this season in the new black box. The season opens with Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick, directed by Tom Story, running November 19 through December 13, 2026. The play had an acclaimed off-Broadway run. It centers on ten-year-old Meek, who wants a nuclear radiation detector for Christmas in 1987. Early 2027 brings Sam Shepard's Fool for Love with local DC artists, then the DC premiere of Business Ideas, a dark comedy about hustle culture. The Hothouse New Play Block Party returns in June 2027.

IN Series opened its season down the street at Arena Stage on October 10 with "The MAKADO," a reworking of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado." Its later operas move to Revada: "(N)O King(S)," January 23 to February 7, 2027, and "Theodora," April 10 to 25, 2027. The Southwester describes "Theodora" as the company's largest production ever, with a full baroque orchestra and choir.

Arena Stage Down the Street, and a Park Across the Corner

Revada joins a block that already has a large theater on it. Step Afrika!'s The Fruits of Our Labor runs on Arena Stage's Fichandler Stage through November 1. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? opens in the Kreeger Theater on October 17 and runs through December 6. Its "Southwest Nights" performances, October 17 through 21, offer $29 tickets to people who live or work in Southwest. In the week Revada cuts its ribbon, a Southwest resident can see a $29 Arena show one night and catch the October 27 Blue Moon screening at Revada a few days later. In late November, Theater Alliance's $1 walk-in seats join the options.

The corner 4EYE is named for is changing too. The DC Department of General Services lists the Southwest Town Center Parks renovation near the southwest corner of 4th and I and 900 4th Street SW as under construction. The project has a $6 million budget, started in spring 2026, and is scheduled to finish in spring 2027. The plans include café seating, terraced seating, an event stage, public art, and a multipurpose area for a farmers' market, craft fair, holiday festival and pop-up commerce.

By next spring, the area around Fourth and I should have a shared arts building and a shared public plaza with a stage, both designed for several groups to use rather than one anchor tenant. Revada's three founding organizations also say the center is helping build Southwest's growing arts and culture district.

Jeanne Phil Meg has spent a long time watching DC neighborhoods change one storefront at a time, and a cinema opening in a once-empty retail space is the kind of change worth following. If you have questions about what new arrivals around Fourth and I mean for your own corner of Southwest, Contact Us. We're happy to talk it through over coffee, or after a show.