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 Richard Skipper as Carol Channing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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by: Laura Shaine Cunningham

Produced by: TheatreJ

Reviewed by: Debbie Minter Jackson

“It is safe to dream again,” says young Lily, while looking at the stars in the final line from Sleeping Arrangements, a world premiere playing at Theater J. This mild and quirky drama by Laura Shaine Cunningham is based on her memoir set in the 1950’s Bronx with stories as seen from the eyes of a precocious eight year old. Effectively staged by Delia Taylor, the script functions like a hidden camera and we see and hear what happens, the profound, the mundane, the funny and poignant moments in Lily’s young life. The set design by Kathleen Runey and especially the lighting by Colin Bills serve this play well in versatility, transforming the sparse stage into Bronx stoops, friendly neighborhood streets, a Catskills summer camp, wandering snowflakes, and even the “Dark Park,” filled with menacing, unsavory, yet colorful characters.

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King Lear by William Shakespeare

Co-Produced by the Folger Theatre and the Classical Theatre of Harlem

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Shakespeare Theatre Artistic Director Michael Kahn has called Shakespeare "a playwright for our town" and in no play is it more evident than in King Lear.  In Lear, power is acquired through lies and flattery, maintained through blood violence, and surrendered, kicking and screaming, in abject humiliation.  The Classical Theatre of Harlem (clearly the lead partner in this production, at least on the artistic side) readily identifies the surreal, hallucinatory intensity of the play, and delivers the goods with the physicality for which it has become justly celebrated.  The cast is stuffed with award-winners, including Emmy awardee and Tony nominee Dr. André De Shields as Lear, and the Director, Alfred Preisser, is a co-founding member of Classical Theatre of Harlem. (more…)

Written and produced by Tyler Perry                                       

by Debbie Minter Jackson

                      Mr. Brown & Cora  (David Mann & Tamela Mann)

The Tyler Perry Experience                  

Tyler Perry.  The name alone can pack a playhouse with patrons shelling out $50 a pop for a ticket without a word of print advertising or even a notice in the mainstream media.  Before his movies, television appearances, or blessings from Oprah, Tyler Perry made a liar out of anyone who said that black folks don’t attend theater.  When he writes, they come in droves by the busloads as seen in his current touring production, What’s Done in the Dark at the Warner Theater.  (more…)

Hope & Joy in Shirlington

By Joel Markowitz
YOU’RE GONNA LOVE TOMORROW!!
     It’s Thursday, January 4^th. Only nine days to go before hundreds of enthusiastic theatregoers, subscribers and Shirlington neighbors come to see what all the fuss is about. Will they be ready?
     Wearing hard hats with the word “SIGNATURE” on it,  and surrounded by drywallers, carpet layers, chandelier installers and carpenters, Lorraine Treanor and I and members of the press stepped into the new unfinished Signature for a tour lead by a very well-informed, enthusiastic and confident Director of PR and Marketing Olivia Haas and Marketing/Sales Manager Rachel Applegate. We were about to view Co-founders Eric Schaeffer and Donna Migliaccio’s dream - a new, improved Signature (they dropped the “Theatre”) with comfortable seats, state of the art technology, huge rehearsal spaces, dressing rooms and two state-of-the-art black box theatres. It was jaw dropping. I saw critics speechless - a minor miracle.
     And when we ended our tour in the new Zickler rehearsal room and saw the beaming faces of Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Sam Sweet. I asked the first question, “Can you tell us about the sound?”  Eric explained that they had spent numerous hours and lots of money on ensuring that the sound was fantastic in both the 299 seat black box MAX and 99 seat ARK theatres. And then as questions were asked and answered, all of us who were fortunate to be there that day realized that this new complex would and could be a center of endless production possibilities. (more…)

by William Shakespeare  Adapted by Paata Tsikurishvili and Nathan Weinberger  Choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili

Produced by Synetic Theater

Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

 (l to r) Armand Sindoni, Mike Way, Niki Jacobsen and Courtney Pauroso as Ensemble and Irina Tsikurishvili as Lady Macbeth. (Photo: Raymond Gniewek)

                Get the next generation hooked on the ecstasy of live performance. Take them to Synetic Theater’s 90 minute Macbeth that just opened at The Rosslyn Spectrum. This company of performing artists blends dance, pantomime, music and message so vigorously, Hell rises to a new level. That’s not a negative comment. The Synetic brings to life a vision of what’s happening in today’s real world. Only the Synetic productions can make such a descent so exquisitely enjoyable. (more…)