Making Change
Caring for our community
NextStop Theatre Company
Theater by the community, for the community
Artistic Director Evan Hoffman on NextStop Theatre Company
In a small, unassuming warehouse in Herndon, Virginia, the magic of theater comes alive. NextStop Theatre Company brings high-quality professional productions directly to its community, employing local artists and sharing unique stories.
The nonprofit theater is easy to miss from the outside. But on a performance night all you have to do is follow the small crowd that forms outside its doors. With only 104 seats, shows feel close and intimate. The stage is level with the floor, so if you sit in the front row, you’ll find yourself face to face with the actors. Even in the furthest row back it feels like you could reach out and touch the set.
“NextStop Theatre is the little theater that could,” said Debra Cope, MainStreet Bank’s Communications Chief, EVP. She and Aurelia Dinoso, Senior Business Banker, SVP, made a $1,000 donation to the theater through MainStreet Bank’s Making Change program.
“I’ve been coming here with my kids for years. We saw this company make the big leap from being a community theater to being a professional theater, which requires a lot of drive and support,” Debra said. “They are well regarded in professional theater circles across the D.C. region, and they have always maintained very strong connections to the Herndon community.”
The Town of Herndon is at the heart of NextStop. The theater got its start in 1988 as an all-volunteer troupe called The Elden Street Players. Their performing space was municipally owned until 2006, and in 2013, after 25 years of being a community theater the troupe transitioned to a professional theater. That’s when they picked the name NextStop Theatre Company, inspired by the town’s history as a railway stop and its current location on the Metro’s Silver Line.
NextStop’s mission is to use theater to form community connections that inspire, educate, and create meaningful experiences. And in recent years they’ve been working to bring stories from lesser known playwrights that share more experiences of marginalized communities to the forefront.
Above: Aurelia Dinoso, NextStop’s Director of Development Tomoko Azuma, and Debra Cope. (Photo: NextStop Theatre Company)
Debra and her family love theater and see several shows a month in the Washington, D.C., area. She’s based in Alexandria, Virginia, but is always up to make the trip to Herndon to see a NextStop production. Her daughter is an actress who has performed on NextStop’s stage.
“In the realm of Washington theaters there are successful, well-funded professional theaters and there are shoestring-budget professional theaters. NextStop is at that end of the spectrum,” Debra said. “They bring the magic of theater to a community that doesn’t have the proximity to Washington, D.C.”
NextStop strives to keep ticket prices affordable, and even gave out 100 subsidized tickets to one of their shows this year to help expand their reach. In their 2023-2024 season, NextStop performed for 10,874 audience members, staged 150 performances, worked with 255 artists, and their education programs reached 443 students.
The education programs at NextStop are one of the highlights of the theater, bringing high-quality theater instruction to local kids and teens. Programs like their “By-Kids-for-Kids” and “Stars on Stage” series are tuition-free for all participants, making the programs accessible to everyone in the region, regardless of income level.
Corporate support and community donations are essential to keeping these programs running. But Debra says with many larger organizations vying for contributions, it’s easy for smaller nonprofits like NextStop Theatre to get lost in traditional corporate giving. MainStreet Bank’s Making Change program gives them a chance to step into the spotlight.
“With this employee-driven program, we can expand our reach to organizations that simply don’t have the marketing resources to get in front of the executive suite.” she said. “This enables the little guys to whom our employees have a personal connection to benefit from corporate generosity, and gain funding that in turn helps them serve their community.”
Top left: “A Steampunk Christmas Carol,” Winter 2023. Top right: “School Girls,” Spring 2024. Lower left: “Reefer Madness,” Spring 2024. Lower right: “Ride the Cyclone,” Fall 2023. (Photos: NextStop Theatre Company, DJ Corey Photography)
To learn more about NextStop Theatre visit nextstoptheatre.org