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Celebrate the life of Gilbert Mead This Monday Evening

This Monday, September 17^th, a very special performance titled Gil Mead: A Celebration. will be held at the Kennedy Center to celebrate the life of Gilbert Mead, gentle man,  NASA  physicist, cultural philanthropist, who died this past May of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  Together with his wife Jaylee Mead, they funded plays and musicals, and have gifted future generations of theatre-goers with major donations to The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, and the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint.

One of the first theatres which quickened the imaginations of the Meads over 30 years ago was Arena Stage. When the new Arena Stage facility opens in 2010, it will be known as Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater.   

There is much to celebrate in Gil Mead: A Celebration which begins at 6 pm in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.  Dozens of performers, backed by a 25 piece orchestra under the direction of George Fulginiti-Shakar and Jon Kalbfleisch , will pay tribute to Mr. Mead’s life through song, dance and remembrances. We know he has many personal friends within our readership, and hope you will be able to attend.  It is free and open to everyone.  No reservations are required. The program will also be available for viewing on the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage archives.

Sail On, Great Ship Titanic!

Titanic: The Musical

Toby’s - The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Interviews by Joel Markowitz

It was the Press Opening Night of Titanic: The Musical, and I had the opportunity to sit down with its director, co-director and two other performers. (more…)

 

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Shakespeare Theatre Company Unveils Its Newest Theatre

Washington’s newest theatre will be open to the public for the first time this Saturday, Sept 15, when Shakespeare Theatre Company marks the opening of the Sidney Harman Hall at 610 F St. NW. The new 775-seat venue joins the 451 seat Lansburgh Theatre (Seventh and E Streets NW) to create the Harman Center for the Arts. 

To celebrate, Shakespeare Theatre has created a free all-day program that is open to the public.  The events begin at 11 AM with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, and continue until 7 PM.  Throughout the day, visitors will be able to see free performances of CityDance Ensemble, Afro Bop Alliance, take self-guided tours of the new theatre, and watch open rehearsals of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Taming of the Shrew and Tamburlaine.  There will be demonstrations on stage blood and stage combat techniques, activities for children and a craft-making booth where children can make their own crowns.

The Taming of the Shrew opens Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Fall season in the Lansburgh on September 24^th, and Edward II and Tamburlaine, performed in repertory, will be the first productions in the Sidney Harman Hall, opening on October 27^th and 28^th. More information on the STC website.

In case you missed the reference in today’s Audience Choice Awards show, Rorschach Theatre has given 6 playwrights - Norman Allen, Randy Baker, James Hesla, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Anne M. McCaw, Gwyddion Suilebhan - 6 days to Myth Appropriate tales from the Brothers Grimm.

This is the first of what promises to be an annual Magic in Rough Spaces event.  In the Rorschach blog, Scott McCormick warns everyone ‘Remember, we’re not Walt Disney. Yes, I know we have been referred to as a Mickey Mouse operation, but there the similarity ends.’

This year’s project is called MYTH-APPROPRIATION: The Brothers Grimm. There will be two performances of these modern takes on 6 Grimm fairy tales: this Saturday, September 8th at 8 & 10 pm.  Tickets are $10, and available online.  Performances at The Sanctuary Theatre in the Casa del Pueblo Methodist Church, 1459 Columbia Road NW, Columbia Heights, Washington DC.

AUDIENCE CHOICE - The Awards Show

No. We didn’t hold a real awards show without you.

But we are immensely grateful to all of you for telling us who your favorite actors and productions were for last season. Frankly, we were overwelmed by the response. More than 1500 votes cast! Wow.

We wanted to find a way to thank you for taking part, and what better way, we thought, than to put on a show for you. An Awards Show, of course, that takes place in your imagination. The kind which we very much doubt you will ever see.

James Konicek, actor and member of SoundIncentive, agreed to play the part of our Host. Debbie Jackson, Joel Markowitz, Tim Treanor and myself were the presenters. As soon as the polls closed, we were on the phones to the winners,, all of whom agreed to call in their acceptance speeches. And if you ever wondered whether your applause and support for our actors mattered, listen to what they say.

So here is our first Radio Theatre production. Tune is as we announce your choices and we hear from the winners and one nominee who, well, let’s just say he didn’t win. Listen here.

Enjoy the show, and thanks, as always, for supporting Washington area theatre.

Lorraine Treanor and the staff of DC Theatre Scene

 

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The Unmentionables

• By Bruce Norris
• Directed by Pam MacKinnon
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

We’re thrust into a fictional West African country with an edgy prologue delivered by Etienne (Kofi Owusu), an African teenager who wears earphones, carries a digital MP3, and shouts at us from the audience balcony to go home and watch TV, save time and money. Do not watch this “no good” show, he warns us.  Don’t take him seriously and leave.  The Unmentionables by Bruce Norris, when brilliantly performed by a troupe of polished actors, as it is here, is worth the stay, even if it raises questions that make us squirm. (more…)

Getting Out

• By Marsha Norman
• Directed by Deborah Kirby
• Produced by Journeymen Theater Ensemble
• Reviewed by Ronnie Ruff

As the house lights come up after Journeymen Theater’s production of Getting Out and the acoustic magic of The Indigo Girls’ Closer To Fine spills out of the speakers at The Clark Street Playhouse, one is reminded of exactly what playwright Marsha Norman was seeking to convey. Getting Out is a reminder that life is a journey that contains pitfalls all along its winding road and we hopefully will learn from those low points and excise our demons leading us to a place that truly is closer to fine. (more…)

AUDIENCE CHOICE polls close Wednesday, Sept 5th precisely at 6 pm.

If you haven’t voted, or if you have friends who haven’t voted, we hope you and they will take a minute to help us choose Best Play, Best Musical, Best Actor and Best Actress.  Click theAUDIENCE CHOICE button ad or click  here to see details of the nominations. The four polls are in the column to your right.

Help us give last season one more round of applause.

The staff of DC Theatre Scene

33 Variations  

By Moises Kauffman

Produced by Arena Stage  

Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

33 Variations.   Don’t be put off by the rather inaccessible title.  What does it mean?  Well, literally, they are the number of riffs or versions of a musical theme, composed by Beethoven no less… Or metaphorically, they could represent variations of the ever changing passages of our lives.  Have your eyes started to glaze over yet?  I urge you to get past the title, get over the whole historical Beethoven thing, and trust the undeniable genius of Moises Kaufman, writer of the Laramie Project and Gross Indecency; The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, director of I Am My Own Wife.  Then, prepare for the theatrical masterwork currently showing at Arena Stage, the likes of which will be hard to match for a long time. (more…)