Arena Stage Annual Gala

Tonia Wellons is the President & CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the largest public foundation in the Greater Washington region. Under her leadership, The Community Foundation launched a bold 10-year strategic vision to help close the region's racial wealth gap by directing capital, strengthening civic and philanthropic infrastructure, and centering economic justice. Tonia is a dynamic and values-driven leader known for her ability to navigate seamlessly between visionary leadership, strategy, and fundraising. Since her tenure as CEO, The Community Foundation has grown from $331 million to $500 million in assets under management. Tonia has deep relationships across both grassroots and grasstops communities and is a trusted convener and coalition builder. Her leadership reflects a combination of on-the-ground insight and high-level influence, enabling The Community Foundation to respond with both urgency and intention to the region's most pressing challenges and biggest opportunities. From instigating transformative initiatives like Guaranteed Basic Income pilots and Children's Savings Accounts to guiding major fundraising campaigns that expand the Foundation's impact, Tonia consistently brings vision, discipline, and heart to her work. Accolades include Power 100 Washington 2025; Washingtonian Magazine's “Hero of the Crisis,” and Washington Business Journal's 2020 Nonprofit Leader of the Year. Tonia is a graduate of North Carolina A&T, and a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Anna Deavere Smith is a playwright and actress. She's credited with having created a new form of theater. President Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She's the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and the George Polk Career Award in Journalism and the Dean's Medal from Stanford University School of Medicine. She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for two Tony Awards. Her plays focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view. They are composed of excerpts of hundreds of interviews. Plays and films based on them include Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field. Her work as an actress on television includes Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, and Black-ish. Mainstream movies include Philadelphia, The American President, and Rachel Getting Married. She's a professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She has several honorary doctorate degrees including those from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Spelman College, Juilliard, and Oxford.

Adrienne Warren's talent as a singer, actress, and dancer has established her as a dynamic triple threat.

Warren is perhaps most well known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Tina Turner in Broadway's Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Warren originated the role in numerous workshops of the show, working together with Tina Turner herself to embody the titular role. Warren transferred the role to Broadway following the 2018 West End production, for which she earned 2019 Olivier, Evening Standard, and Joe Allen Award nominations. 

Warren's performance in the Broadway run has been heralded as "extraordinary" (The Hollywood Reporter), "electrifying" (Rolling Stone), and "star-making" (The New York Times). In addition to the Tony Award, she also received a Chita Rivera nomination and the Drama Desk, Antonyo, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her iconic performance.

Warren previously earned Tony and Chita Rivera Award nominations for her performance as Gertrude Saunders/Florence Mills in the Broadway production of Shuffle Along opposite Audra McDonald. Warren made her Broadway debut in 2012's Bring It On: The Musical and previously appeared onstage in The Wiz (Encores! City Center) and Dreamgirls (The Apollo; NAACP Theatre Award nomination).

She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 with the New York Pops and continues to perform around the world. In 2023, she was featured on PBS’s annual A Capitol Fourth performing an electrifying tribute to the late Tina Turner.

Warren can currently be seen on season 2 of the Netflix series The Diplomat and in the films Rustin, with Coleman Domingo, and in The Woman King, with Viola Davis. She starred as Benny in Hulu's Black Cake, based on the best-selling book, and as Mamie Till-Mobley in Women of the Movement, a limited series for ABC. Other television and film credits include Paws & Fury: The Legend of Hank, Helpsters, Quantico, Black Box, Blue Bloods, and Orange is the New Black. Warren’s voice can also be heard as the iconic spokesperson for Maybelline Cosmetics.

Warren is a co-founder of the Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC), which unites artists, experts, students, and community leaders to use storytelling and artistry to combat systemic racism. BAC received a special Tony Award in 2021.

Adrienne recently completed a limited run on Broadway of The Last Five Years with Nick Jonas.

She is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia.

Arena Stage mourns the loss of Beth Newburger Schwartz, a towering figure in our community whose passion, leadership, and generosity shaped this institution for more than three decades.

Beth joined the Arena Board in 1993, embarking on a remarkable journey of service that would span the rest of her life. She served with distinction as a Trustee and Honorary Trustee across multiple terms before being elected a Life Trustee in 2023, a fitting recognition of her enduring commitment. Her imprint has been felt in the milestones she helped bring to life: co-chairing the celebrated Mead Center Opening Gala in 2010, chairing the Arena Board from 2013 to 2016, leading the Ovation Campaign, and lending her talents to countless other leadership and supporting roles over the years.

Beth's legacy at Arena is honored in lasting ways. The Beth Newburger Schwartz Award bears her name in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to the Greater Washington, DC, community. Her deep partnership with her husband Richard is commemorated in Richard's Place, the Richard and Beth Newburger Schwartz Café.

Beyond Arena, Beth's reach was extraordinary. A dedicated preservationist, a sharp political mind, and a highly regarded expert in marketing and communications, she was above all a fierce champion for women's rights. Her philanthropic work extended through her family foundation and her steadfast support of the National Children's Museum, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, and many other causes close to her heart. Most recently, she served as Executive Producer of Middle Finger Productions and as President and CEO of Richlynd Federal and Epoch Communications, roles that reflected her entrepreneurial drive.

Beth Newburger Schwartz leaves behind a legacy as bold, expansive, and enduring as the institution she loved so deeply.