The Rise of the House of Usher

By Tim Treanor

So you’re sitting in your seat - excellent seat, second row center - watching Caroline, or Change and some cretin starts talking behind you. Well, they’ve reminded everyone to turn their cell phones off, and to put their candy away, but they forgot to say stop talking. And this guy is nattering on. [...]

Welcome Fiona and Valeria to our group of writers

Fiona will be covering DC productions for us and Valeria will be covering childrens theatre.  We are super happy to have them with us!

Fiona Zublin is a sophomore honors student at the George Washington Univeristy, where she plans to major in Dramatic Literature and Journalism. She works for the student newspaper and taught theater at [...]

Taking No Prisoners

By: Ronnie Ruff
Irish Authors Held Hostage — Jt Burian Theatricals
 
I did not really know what to expect at a show with the rather wacky title of Irish Authors Held Hostage but I purchased my large cup of java at the Warehouse coffee bar and made my way through the long drab hallway leading back to [...]

Almost Whole

By: Tim Treanor
Whole Against the Sky, at Trumpet Vine Theatre

Paul Donnelly’s new play, Whole Against the Sky, has much going for it. The dialogue is witty, the characterizations are sharp, and there are scenes of enormous emotional authenticity and power. The play is still a few rewrites away from being the strong theater it could [...]

The Autumn Garden — The American Century Theater

By Tim Treanor
The Autumn Garden by Lillian Hellmen at The American Century Theater

Imagine, if you will, a roomful of morose men and women of late middle years. They are too old for optimism or other forms of self-deception, and so pass their time in reading, heavy drinking, and aiming barbed witticisms at each other. It [...]

In children’s theater, anything goes!

By: Tim Treanor and Valeria Lamarra
Haroun and the Sea of Stories   Theater Alliance
 
L to R: Ian leValley and Carlos Bustamante     Credit: Colin Hovde
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a children’s play, adapted from a children’s novel by the great Salman Rushdie. I am a 55-year old lawyer. Should I be reviewing this play?
I don’t [...]

We Needed The Rain

By: Debbie Minter Jackson
The Rainmaker        Arena Stage                                                               

The Rainmaker feels so contemporary; it’s hard to believe it’s been around for fifty years. Packed with themes of love and yearning, laced with messages about self-worth, confidence, and the redemptive power of truth, there’s a reason why it was so successful on Broadway, as a movie–who can forget Katherine [...]

The Mai

By: Ronnie Ruff
The Mai — Solas Nua 

Irish playwright Marina Carr offers many observations of importance in The Mai currently mounted at The Josephine Butler Arts Center in Columbia Heights. One of note is “Everyone is deranged — Some people just hide it better”, another and the central theme of the play is “There are two kinds of people [...]

Coming Soon

Thinking about taking your little one to see Haroun and the Sea of Stories at the H Street Playhouse? Tim Treanor and an eleven year old co-writer will attend Sunday’s performance and give you the low-down from a child’s eye!
Debbie Minter Jackson attended the opening of Arena’s Rainmaker last night. I have it on good [...]

Sex Habits starts rehearsals (UPDATE)

From the Signature Blog

Hello cyber-Signature fans! Welcome to a preview of the fabulous world of Julie Marie Myatt’s hysterical and powerful new play, The Sex Habits of American Women. My name’s Michael Baron and I’m the director. Based on the conversations the cast and I’ve had during the first week of rehearsals, this promises to [...]

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