As D.C.-area theaters are beginning their 2022-2023 seasons this month, many of them are collaborating to offer discounted tickets and special programming for the return of D.C. Theatre Week.

Despite the name, the event runs for more than two weeks, from Sept. 22 through Oct. 9.

Theatre Washington, a local nonprofit that partners with and promotes dozens of local theaters, is hosting its first Theatre Week since 2019. Amy Austin, Theatre Washington’s CEO, says the event is a celebration of all the hard work local theaters have done and continue to do in the midst of closures and uncertainty due to the pandemic.

“Theatre Week is about showing the depth and breadth of theater that we have in the region,” Austin says. “It’s about encouraging people to explore something new or something they haven’t tried by offering a specially priced ticket.”

The list of plays and musicals includes big names like Dear Evan Hansen at the Kennedy Center and Signature Theatre’s The Color Purple, as well as smaller productions like InterAct Story Theatre’s The Hero of Everything at the Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center. As part of the overall Theatre Week programming, there are also a handful of non-live-theater events, including panel discussions on some of the plays, a spoken word and open mic night, concerts, and post-show happy hours. (The popular #DCTheatre bike ride from Keegan Theatre to the REACH is already at capacity.)

Tickets for participating shows are on sale for $22, $33, and $44, though you can snag some of the related shows for $10 or less.

Don’t know where to start? To launch Theatre Week, the organizers are hosting a kickoff event at Arena Stage on Sept. 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free event will feature a fair where guests can learn about what’s coming to 40 theaters across the region this season, participate in a workshop with Washington Improv Theater or a drama class for kids, and see a panel with backstage theater workers, among other agenda items. Vendors like ANXO Cidery, DC Brau, and Carmine’s will offer free food and drinks. To top it all off, musicians from across D.C. theater will perform at The Wharf from 4 to 6 p.m.

Austin says that after dealing with new variants and constant change over the past two years, theaters are “ready for people to be back and embrace the work.”

And yet, COVID remains a factor in the local theater landscape.

On Sept. 1, a coalition of more than 50 theaters throughout D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, in partnership with Theatre Washington, extended their indoor mask requirements, while only three continue to require vaccine proof. It’s part of a unified COVID policy Theatre Washington first announced in August 2021 with three dozen theaters. The organization says the mask requirement will continue indefinitely as theaters continue to monitor data and health protocols.