Root Family Stage at Omi's Pavilion
The Root Family Stage at Omi’s Pavilion is a flexible open-air performance venue that allowed Olney Theatre Center to continue serving its community during the pandemic, transforming the landscape into a resilient, year-round setting for performance and gathering.
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Set within the gently rolling landscape of Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., Olney Theatre Center for the Arts has evolved over nearly nine decades into one of the region’s most vital cultural institutions. Our work at Olney is guided by a long-term Master Plan and a series of phased renovations and additions that reframe the campus as a contemporary destination for performance, education, artistic production, and community gathering, while honoring its deeply layered history.
Originally envisioned as a later phase of the 2019 Master Plan, the Root Family Stage at Omi’s Pavilion emerged as a critical project during the COVID-19 pandemic, when live performance indoors became impossible. In response, Olney and the design team pivoted quickly to create an outdoor performance venue that would allow the institution to continue welcoming artists and audiences safely. This shift transformed the pavilion from a future aspiration into an immediate civic necessity.
The open-air stage is sited within the existing campus landscape, reinforcing Olney’s identity as a place where architecture, performance, and the outdoors intersect. Designed for flexibility and seasonal use, the pavilion supports a wide range of programming—from theatrical productions and concerts to community events—while maintaining a strong connection between performers and audiences. Its simplicity and openness allow the work itself to take center stage, while the surrounding landscape functions as an extension of the performance environment.
More than a temporary solution, the Root Family Stage at Omi's Pavilion has become a permanent asset to the campus and a powerful expression of Olney’s adaptability. It reflects the broader goals of the master plan: embracing the campus’s accretive character, prioritizing shared experiences, and using architecture as a framework for encounter rather than an isolated object.
Following the completion of the pavilion, the master plan continued with additional renovations and additions across the campus, including the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, the Bernard Family Theatre, and expanded production and education facilities—each advancing Olney Theatre Center’s long-term vision for performance, making, and community engagement.