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Janet Coleman of Washington, DC won a CD of the songs made up for her by the iMusical team (you can hear them on the Contest page), along with 2 tickets to any one of the last 2 shows by iMusical this month.
Susan Leckie of Rockville, MD won a pair of tickets to see Washington Shakespeare Company’s production of Macbeth.
Condolences to those hundreds of visitors who didn’t win, but you’ll have another chance in July when we announce our next ticket giveaway.
Interview with José Carrasquillo,
director of WSC’s Macbeth
playing now at the Clark Street Playhouse, Arlington, VA
by Lorraine Treanor
As house managers busily prepared for the sold-out audience to arrive on opening night, director Jose Carrasquillo told us how the creation of his unique setting for Macbeth began with the story telling from his childhood in Puerto Rico.
The style evolved into ’magical realism’. Actors play trees and animals, spirits and humans. The presentation is totally nude, not counting artistically applied body paint. It all works. Listen here to find out why.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
By William Shakespeare
Produced by Washington Shakespeare Company
Directed by José Carrasquillo
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
Let’s get this out of the way. From the first moments of this play to the final bows, the brave and generous actors in this production are, save for some stage mud and grass stains, completely naked. For some people, the thought of the human form undisguised by clothing is so shocking, repulsive or frightening that it is impossible for them to think of anything else. Such people should not see this show, and my review will be of no further use to them. [Read more...]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
By Sarah Ruhl
Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Reviewed by Janice Cane
A couple of months ago, I watched Rick Foucheux sit in a chair and reflect back on the life of the character he played. A couple of nights ago, I had the unexpected pleasure of watching him do it again. Unexpected because his character is dead. A pleasure because I discovered that Foucheux not only is a very capable dramatic actor, but also a gifted comedic actor with perfect timing.
Foucheux’s marvelously expressive face is as hilarious as the script in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, with wry twists of the mouth and sardonically raised eyebrows. He and Polly Noonan, as Jean, share this gift, which seems to embody the play itself. Dead Man’s Cell Phone raises an eyebrow at the many ironies of life, and manages to use humor to touch on the poignancy of death. [Read more...]
by August Strindberg
Adapted by Caryl Churchill
Produced by Constellation Theatre Company at the Source Theatre
Directed by Allison Arkell Stockman
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
Does the D.C. area really need another professional theater? You bet it does. As long as theater has important things to say, and theater professionals have the wit and craft to say them, we will benefit from it no matter who the producing company is – as this wildly ambitious, somewhat uneven but generally successful production shows. [Read more...]
That’s Joel’s roundup of Blood Brothers, iMusical: The Improvised Musical, 1776, Sweeney Todd, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and Spring Awakening, appearing now in this week’s Theatre Schmooze.
Blood Brothers . iMusical: The Musical . 1776 . Sweeney Todd . Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat & Spring Awakening
BLOODY GOOD, JAKE AND MICHAEL!!
What a way to start the month! I returned to Act Two Performing Arts on Friday, June 1st at The Olney Theatre Center to see their production of the long-running London hit musical Blood Brothers. After writing about their magnifique production of Les Miserables, I knew I was in for a treat. I had taken the Ushers to The Elden Street Players to see this year’s Watch Awards winner for Best Musical, and could not imagine seeing as good or close to that incredible production, which I named the best musical of the year in this column. [Read more...]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Latido Negro, Peru’s African Beat
directed by Rafael Santa Cruz
written by Fernando Barreto Arce
choreographed by Lalo Izquierdo,
review by Rosalind Lacy
Break down the barriers. Let fusion reign. In GALA’s world premiere of a new musical Latido Negro: Peru’s African Beat, intoxicating rhythms of African drums blend with echoes of sweet-and-sad Andean or Spanish flamenco-like melodies. Forget the story. It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s a frame for the poems, and songs, music and dancing passed down from the Afro-Peruvian soul. [Read more...]
By Oscar Wilde
Produced by Keegan Theatre
Directed by Dorothy Neumann
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson
“There’s such a vibration in the name ‘Earnest’”, the lady muses, as she caresses the name lovingly in her mind and tastes it deliciously on her tongue while uttering it aloud. Earnest, she ponders again, focusing not on the gentleman beside her, no– all this rapturous delight is over the name. The gentleman offers another name, his given one, hoping for a similar reaction, but the name sits flat on her tongue. [Read more...]
By William Shakespeare
Produced by Shakespeare Theatre
Directed by Michael Kahn
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
This lush, gorgeous, thrilling, lucid, hilarious, moving, profound production of Hamlet succeeds because it is illuminated by an observation which is brilliant in its simplicity.
Hamlet is a kid.
Jeffrey Carlson plays theater’s toughest role as if he was a fish on a line, jerking, fighting, gasping for air, flopping back until he is finally landed, exhausted and mortally wounded, in the play’s final scene. That is to say, he plays it as a twenty year old, suddenly commissioned by the shade of his dead father to avenge the father’s death at the hands of his own brother – who is now Hamlet’s stepfather. Hamlet is rageful. Agonized. Clueless. [Read more...]
I AM THEATRE (TCG) American Theatre Wing Interviews