So here we go with our interviews…
Page To Stage — The Interviews
August 31, 2006 By 4 Comments
Well theatre fans, this weekend is the annual Kennedy Center Page To Stage Festival for new works in the realm of theatre. Who but DC Theatre Reviews is going to bring you the behind the scenes coverage you want to read. We were batting around how to let everyone know about some of the really cool stuff that will be at this years festival. Lorraine as usual came up with a really great idea and we went to work contacting some of the brilliant people behind some of the great shows this year. What we have for you is a virtual round table of artists discussing their new projects. We asked the questions and they provided the answers. So without further ado here is DCTR’s Page To Stage Interview Fest
Five Favorite Musical Performances of 2005-2006 That Made Me Stand Up And Cheer-Bravo! Bravo!
August 27, 2006 By 9 Comments
CATCH THESE 4 RISING STARS:
As the new fall musical season approaches, let’s look back at five performances that left me breathless from musicals that graced our local stages the past year.
(1) AND (2) FELICIA CURRY IN AIDA AT TOBY’S-THE DINNER THEATRE OF COLUMBIA, AND TWO QUEENS, ONE CASTLE AT METROSTAGE.
A hot and spicy curry burned up the stage in two hot shows last year. Auntie Em! Auntie Em! Watch out for this human cyclone!! Felicia Curry, a petite powerhouse actress and singer extraordinaire, caused the earth to move at Toby’s-The Dinner Theatre of Columbia, and MetroStage where she portrayed Aida, the Nubian princess trying to save her father and her people in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical, and writer Jevetta Steele, whose world falls apart when her “down low” husband, who is infected with HIV, cheats on her with a man.
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE GREAT
August 25, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard
Produced by Longacre Lea at Catholic University.
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
“Give us this day our daily cue,” prays Guildenstern (Jonathan Church), cueless and clueless, late in the second act of Longacre Lea’s remarkably satisfying production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Alas, Guildenstern’s problem is not too little instruction but too much, and too little context. Without reliable memories, reliable information or reliable assumptions – even the law of averages seems problematical! – Rosencrantz (the excellent Jason Stiles) and Guildenstern are cat’s-paws for everyone brighter or luckier than they. Which is, as it turns out, everyone.
3/4 Mass for St. Vivian
August 22, 2006 By Leave a Comment
3/4 A Mass For St. Vivian – Theatre Alliance
By Ronnie Ruff
It wasn’t night time when I attended 3/4 A Mass For St. Vivian. It was a wonderful Saturday afternoon, really warm outside, a bit of a breeze blowing. Inside the H Street Playhouse it was that purple haze of dusk, the moon clear and bright, a wonderful story is being told on a gray shingled roof that has been constructed in the black box space
3/4 A Mass For St. Vivian is a story of friendship and eventual truthfulness, growing up fast and getting all the wiser for it. How wise can one be at the young age of seventeen? That, my friends is how old Phoebe Rusch, the playwright responsible for this very exciting piece of theatre is at present — she was fifteen when she wrote it.
Emily (Marybeth Fritzky), an import from the Midwest, arrives in the big city to tell this story of two young women that are nothing alike but have the ability to communicate their feelings and share their fears and eventually secrets. Emily is the bookish one, conservative yet looking to explore her limits and the new world that surrounds her. Vivian (Nora Woolley) is a free spirit, flashing the peace sign with that huge smile — she holds inside her the tangled feelings of her own demise. She is living her young life at a breakneck pace, not wanting to miss out on anything even the least bit worthwhile. Both young women learn there is far more to life than what they previously had thought. Growing up in the mid seventies myself, I can say being a teenager was difficult at best and Miss Rusch captures many of the insecure feelings and much of the out of control culture of those times that are still etched in my memory today.
Paul-Douglas Michnewicz’s direction is refreshing and without fault throughout the eighty minute production. Ms. Fritzky and Ms. Woolley are delightful, entirely enveloped in their roles, they leave us with that nice feeling inside that comes from seeing a play that just feels right. The interaction between the two always seems natural and unforced almost as if they were really close friends. The staging was simple yet imaginative, a perfect match for such an intimate yet accessible story. Soft lighting with colorful shadows wash over the rooftop stage creating a setting that seemed like home.
It is a brave company that starts off its season with a play by a seventeen year old playwright albeit an award winning one, Jeremy Skidmore shows the depth of his artistic vision and his willingness to take risks by staging this production of 3/4 A Mass For St. Vivian. There is little doubt why Arena Stage picked Theater Alliance as the smaller company they wish to support with a newly announced mentoring program that will be a huge help to this small company. Refreshing and simply brilliant writing by an award winning playwright along with quality direction and spirited acting make this a production you should not miss. The show has been extended and it is suggested to buy your tickets right away!
Out Pops a Grade AAA Jumbo
August 13, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Review and Podcast By: Ronnie Ruff
The Disappearance of Janey Jones — The Hatchery Festival
Janey Jones never disappears during this wonderful new play mounted at the 2nd annual Hatchery Festival at DCAC, in fact she is all over the stage because Janey is her grandmother and her mother before her. A victim of bi polar disorder, Janey’s grandmother commits suicide in a lonely home for the aged. Janey, depressed herself struggles with her doctors diagnosis of her depression and her family history. Can she get control and attend the funeral? Is she destined to live her life taking pills and sleeping constantly or will she live her life as it should be?
Phoenician Women
August 13, 2006 By 6 Comments
Phoenician Women
– Natural Theatricals
By Ronnie Ruff
Natural Theatrical’s mounting of a new translation of Phoenician Women is a must see for anyone wanting to see how to make use of every bit of space a venue has to offer. The auditorium at the Masonic Temple in Alexandria is a grand ornate structure that seems vast for such a small company. Bob Bartlett who directs this classic story has his actors speaking to you from every corner of the vast space, making it seem so much smaller and intimate as a result. The sound design and sound effects by Todd Edwards are a perfect match for the tragic themes of this play and give it a somewhat spooky feel. [Read more...]
My Fair-Mein Herr Schmooze Something Old Is New Again
August 12, 2006 By 10 Comments
by Joel Markowitz
FIRST TEENY SWEENEY, NOW SIGNATURE’S TEENY LADY TICKLES THE IVORY (2 OF THEM), AND A LOCAL STAR EMCEES, WHILE LOLA CAUSES A FUHRER AT ARENA.
TOBY DOES IT TEENY WITH HEART
Helen Hayes Award Winning local Director Toby Orenstein has been doing it for years-it’s in your face theatre, taking musicals that were “epics” on Broadway, and reducing them, so the story and lyrics are the stars of her productions, not the special effects and not the gorgeous sets and costumes.
(She describes this “method” in the interview I conducted with her
On July 29th, press night at Buddy-The Buddy Holly Story..
http://dctheatrereviews.com/review/2006/07/05/buddy-at-tobys-oh-baby-y ou-knoooooooow-what-i-like/
It’s the rage now on Broadway-and it’s cheaper to produce. The slimmed down version of Sweeney Todd, (which closes on September 3rd) utilizes 10 actors (who also double as musicians), a ladder, and a coffin on two wooden horses on a stage made of wooden planks.
Very few Broadway Sondheim productions (A Little Night Music made money) have recouped its investment, but this “scaled down version” of Sweeney Todd recouped its $3.5 million investment in 19 weeks (as of March 12th).
Has John Doyle’s (This year’s Tony Winner for Best Director of a Musical) stripped down Sweeney Todd on Broadway and his stripped down Company, transferring from Cincinnati to Broadway next month, started a trend where we will see empty orchestra pits on The Great White Way and in our local theatres? Or is this just a phase that that will lead to the eventual return of the mega-musical?
Long Distance Artistic Director?
August 11, 2006 By Leave a Comment
We missed speaking with Linda Murray the Artistic Director of Solas Nua before she was wisked away to Ireland after the Capital Fringe Festival. We descide to get together for a virtual interview for our readers.
Ronnie Tell our readers how you came to be across the Atlantic for the next year. I know its not just a vacation.
Linda Essentially my visa is up and I have a two year requirement tagged to it, which means I cannot be resident in the USA until April 2008. That said, the stipulations of my visa were not met on the US side and so I have a wonderful immigration lawyer crusading on my behalf for an exemption to the two year requirement. We’re confident that I won’t be away for more than a year, and hopefully even less than that.
Ronnie How will you direct Solas Nua’s artistic vision from such a long distance? That has to be hard.
Linda Well, next season is set in terms of its artistic direction and Dan Brick should be releasing that soon. Obviously, if I am gone all year it will be a challenge and I will have to fly back to D.C. regularly to monitor things, but honestly, as the AD and one of the Irish members of Solas Nua, a lot of my work for the organization involves dealing with artists and government bodies in Ireland, so hopefully that will get easier instead of harder! And our tiny staff is extremely capable of running things on their own. If anything, this year will prove how little they need me.
Picasso at Lapin Agile
August 5, 2006 By 3 Comments
Picasso at the Lapin Agile, by Steve Martin
Produced by Keegan Theatre at the Gunston Arts Center
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
I saw the world premiere of this play fourteen years ago – a somewhat lackluster performance at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. At the time, I remember wondering how good Picasso would be if it was staged by people who really understood it; who knew how to draw out the concerto of wit that Steve Martin stuffed the play with, and who could underscore the heartbreaking truths that were at its core.
I have seen Picasso staged by Keegan Theatre and directed by Scott Pafumi, and I’ve found my answer.
It’s good. It’s damn good.
