[1] The National Park Service has operated Carter Barron, having offered a variety of quality performances, including reggae, Latin, classical, gospel, musicals, pop, R&B, jazz, new age, theater, and dance.

The National Park Service (NPS) found that the stage's substructure was structurally unsound to handle the onstage weight of performers and equipment.

As Vice Chairman of the Sesquicentennial Commission, Barron envisioned an amphitheatre where "all persons of every race, color and creed" in Washington could attend musical, ballet, theater and other performing arts productions.

[3] Plans called for outfitting the amphitheatre with state-of-the-art technology including a communication system which allowed the stage manager to speak to any actor or stagehand from his desk and the best lighting and sound equipment available at the time.

[4] Paul Green, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and author of the symphonic outdoor drama "The Lost Colony", was commissioned to write the opening season production.

In the 1970s, the Feld Brothers added a three-pole circus tent to cover part of the stage which was changed to a truss and canvas roof system by the Shakespeare Theatre Company in cooperation with NPS in 1991.

In 1953, Washington Festival, Inc. operated by local television celebrity Constance Bennett Coulter, won the contract for the summer season which featured "Show Boat," "Annie Get Your Gun," and "Carousel."

Acts included The Kingston Trio, Victor Borge, Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Ethel Merman, Henry Mancini, Harry Belafonte, Andy Williams, Louis Armstrong, The Temptations, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

The venue began to include soul and rock 'n' roll acts like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Diana Ross & the Supremes, B.B.

Due to competition from other centers for performing arts and changes in production values, the Feld's company Super Attractions began to incur heavy losses and asked to be released from its contract and in 1976 Cella-Door-Dimensions, Inc. was hired as new management.

They scheduled acts such as Kool and the Gang, Bruce Springsteen, United States Navy Band, National Symphony Orchestra, Shakespeare Festival, Richard Pryor, Chick Corea, and the D.C. Black Repertory Co. in order to attract a more diverse audience.

The Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Trescott wrote "The hordes of teenagers were back, but scattered among the visors and t-shirts were family groups, black and white couples in their 20s and 30s and a large number of women dressed in the latest fashions."

Shows today include reggae, Latin, classical, gospel, musical, pop, R&B, jazz, new age, theater, and dance.