Arena Stage announced Tuesday that it won’t stage Tazewell Thompson’s Mary T. and Lizzie K. this spring because the National Capital Arts and Cultural Program has no money, or at least no money that it’s willing to give Arena Stage. Keep in mind that Mary T. and Lizzie K. is about the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker, freed slave Elizabeth Keckley, and if Lincoln + strong female friendship + freed slave + dresses can’t get a play financed, then whoa. Arena Stage says they’re going to try and stage the play as part of a slightly stripped-down 2012-13 season. (FULL STORY: Peter Marks and Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post)