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From our friends at the Actors Theatre Of Washington

There is an ANC (Area Neighborhood Commission) meeting for Ward 1B this Thursday evening at 7 p.m. for the district the Source Theatre Building is in. A collaborative that consists of The InSeries, ATW,  WIT and many other individual members of the DC theatre community are getting together to walk in a theatrical costume to the meeting from Source. We are reaching out to everyone interested in joining the band to meet (with a costume) at Source at 6 p.m. and get ready to walk over to the meeting a few blocks away. We want to show up in costume to point out in a bold statement the artists that have been directly affected by the history and presence of the Source Theatre Building and the closing of it as well as make clear that THIS (the live arts)  is what is about to be lost. THIS is what is about to be replaced with  beer and football. This is one way that this matter can begin to  circulate around the Source residential community and make the local  government aware of the issues at hand. Right now the best thing the  commissioners can do is to intervene to put a hold on the final sale of the property and make Source consider options.

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By: Ronnie Ruff         Boston Marriage - The Actor’s Theatre Of Washington

Anyone who has loved someone and thought they might be losing them can appreciate what Boston Marriage is really about. Not so much about the witty and terribly funny barbs that fly to and fro — the play is about is love and the fear that you may be in danger of losing it. This fear takes one’s thoughts and feelings hostage, you become oblivious to the words that escape your lips. This is exactly what has happened to Anna and Claire in David Mamet’s Boston Wedding.

Kate Eastwood Norris (Anna) is advised by Jenifer Belle Deal (Claire) that she is smitten by a young woman she has met and has invited her to Anna’s home for the purpose of exploring her newly found love interest. Anna is, of course, devastated because of her feelings for Claire and resists her attempts to have her accept the tryst with cutting, sarcastic jabs that are returned by Claire with similar velocity. The only thing that gets in their way is the constant interruption by Anna’s maid (Elizabeth Simmons) whose presence is an easy target for Anna and her sharp tongue. She (Ms. Simmons) delivers one of the show’s funniest lines that I cannot utter here without butchering it — you will just have to see the show!

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By: Tim Treanor

The Heiress, Olney Theater Center

Reviewing a show like Olney Theater’s The Heiress presents almost insurmountable difficulties. The purpose of a review is to describe a play’s successes and failures, evaluate them against each other, and come to a reasoned conclusion about the worth of the enterprise. For The Heiress, there are no failures. There are no flaws. It is one dazzling success after another. Director Join Going has scored an amazing accomplishment. Imagine that you’ve somehow stolen into Dr. Austin Sloper’s home, and hidden yourself in a way which permitted you to spy on their intimate lives. As you watch the family confront the crisis which will ultimately cause them to disintegrate, their secret hearts, opaque from each other, are transparent to you. That’s good theater. That’s The Heiress, as performed by Olney.

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Over at Curtain Up you can read 3 good reviews of This Lime Tree Bower, The Story and Carrie Potter and the Half-Blood Prom.  Check them out by clicking here 

By: Ronnie Ruff

This Lime Tree Bower                         Scena

Come on in and sit around the table with Dan Brick, Eric Lucas and Joe Baker.. Let them tell you an Irish tale full of laughs and fine lessons learned; storytelling is something these lads are very, very good at. These three actors take this play by Conor McPherson and turn it inside out, upside down and every which way but loose. Director Robert McNamara’s superb direction shines throughout as in past Scena productions.

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By: Ronnie Ruff      Death and The King’s Horseman       WSC 

Death and The Kings Horseman written by Wole Soyinka is thought by many to be his greatest work but it is rarely produced in the United States. The play is an aggressive venture for WSC but they historically have made it a point to choose plays that challenge and stretch their horizons. Death and The King’s Horseman is a story of cultures and how most of the time we can learn something from the seemingly more primitive one. (more…)

By: Tim Treanor

The Dybbuk       TheaterJ - Synetic Theater

So: what did you think a collaboration between Theater J and Synetic Theater would be like? After all, the coolly cerebral Theater J has staged productions about the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (Hannah and Martin) and about religious debates against the backdrop of the Inquisition (The Disputation). On the other hand, the wildly kinetic Synetic is committed to providing narrative through the movement of its actors. Synetic has been audacious enough to stage Hamlet without words (Hamlet…the Rest is Silence), for which it won the Helen Hayes Award for best Resident Play in 2003. The surprising answer is that The Dybbuk, in its most fundamental sense, appears to be a musical. Granted, there is not much singing. But, like a well-crafted musical, The Dybbuk tells the story of its characters’ outer lives through dialogue, and shows their inner lives through music and dance. (more…)

By: Ronnie Ruff

Eleemosynary                                         Catalyst Theater

Spelling Bees, flying children and the joy of articulate vernacular are all part of the simple diversion that is Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary. This is a story of three bright women;  a mother, daughter and grandmother and the ties that bind them together.

There is nothing traditional about these women or their relationships but that is the sheer bliss of Christopher Janson’s production. Echo (Lindsay Haynes), who’s opening monologue is simply wonderful, longs for the love of her mother but she is not able to find the maternal instincts needed to provide that love. Raised by her grandmother, she is a spelling bee champion and the only one with her head on straight. Artie (Kathleen Coons) is Echo’s mother, emotionally dysfunctional due to being raised by the overbearing, flighty Dorothea (Ellen Young) who is convinced that with wings Artie could and should fly. Dorothea suffers a stroke and Echo and Artie arrive to provide the extra care and support. Through a series of flashbacks we learn how these fragile relationships developed and why eleemosynary is ultimately the most important word used in this production where words are played as orchestral instruments.

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By: Ronnie Ruff

Midwives  Round House

Sometimes during a life threatening illness people feel the need to unburden their conscience of past mistakes and transgressions. Enter Midwives, the latest production from Bethesda’s Round House Theatre. The play is adapted from the Oprah Book Club selection, written by Chris Bohjalian and adapted for the stage by Dana Yeaton. Bohjalian has created a powerful look at how, stricken with cancer and fighting for life, a New England midwife contemplates her own mortality while confronting ghosts that haunt her every waking day. On a stormy New England night during a troublesome delivery a young woman dies while giving birth with the assistance of a midwife… or does she? Asking for the sharpest knife in the house, Sibyl Danforth (Alma Cuervo) the midwife, proceeds to do an emergency cesarean delivery that she is not licensed or trained to do.

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Velvet Sky
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Who hasn’t had an occasional bout of insomnia, hint of paranoia, or fear of things that go bump in the night? Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Velvet Sky explores all of these psychological elements in the context of an American family with serious and strange issues. From the first magical moments of a graceful, flying pterodactyl that pulls away the opening curtain, you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. The masterful set, lights and sound designs all work wonders, ushering us into the mind and world of a woman who hasn’t slept in 13 years. Bethany’s position in the opening scene sets the wary and jittery tone of the entire 90-minute piece before a word is spoken. She sits nervously with hallowed eyes and enters into a dialog with her teenage son Andrew about life’s dangers. Sure, the premise sounds typical enough, but the pristine white set is itself a menacing character with its low ceiling, inward sloping walls and black jagged schism down the middle. No, this isn’t your typical front room or mother-son chat. Dad’s entrance and subsequent bantering with his wife about her health and well-being, again, look typical on the surface but the subsequent events lead us on a psychological chase for safety and sanity. 

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