The Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive (WAPAVA), located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is one of only four public archives of theater and other performing arts in the United States.
The archive was established in 1991 with the goal of creating and preserving a videotape collection of stage performances in the Washington, D.C. area.
WAPAVA also has the rare distinction of being one of only two AEA-approved performance collections in the United States.
However, in the autumn of 2004, the archive announced a co-location agreement with the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland.
Additionally, Duplicate copies of all live performance recordings will be available at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.