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• Go, Dog. Go!
• Adapted by Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz from the book by P. D. Eastman
• Directed By Karin Abromaitis
• Produced by Adventure Theatre
• Reviewed by Hunter Kieserman

Seeing a show at Adventure Theater is such a treat! Just walking around the grounds of Glen Echo Park where the theater is located brings back great memories of all the shows I have seen there. I have been seeing productions at Adventure Theatre since I was seven or eight years old and I am very happy to see that the theatre is still going strong.  

Unlike many of the children at the theater, I had never read or heard the story of “Go, Dog. Go!” by P.D. Eastman.  

 A Kids Stages review. Continue reading here.

Jan 17 — QuestFest -a two-week international festival celebrating visual theatre  (Jan 14-27)

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• Joel Markowitz talks with James Gardiner and Nick Blaemire
• Recorded by Gene Dickerson

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 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3377)

• By Richard Seff, columnist - NY Theatre Buzz

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Jan 17 — The League of Washington Theatres has announced that its annual open call for actors, known as the League Auditions, will not be held in 2008. For many years, the League Auditions had been an opportunity for union and non-union actors to show their talents to a large and diverse group of area casting directors. In recent years there were so many registrees that the League was forced to close its doors before everyone had a chance to sign up. (more…)

• Life’s a Dream   
• by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
•  Adapted by John Barton and Adrian Mitchell
• Directed by Alexander Strain
• Produced by Journeymen Theater Ensemble at Church Street Theater
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

When it comes to performing world masterpieces, better done than shunned. So bravo to Journeymen Theater Ensemble for dusting off this rarely produced 17^th century play.

The adaptation by Mitchell and Barton, both from the Royal Shakespeare Company, is a refreshing, freely translated interpretation of what is generally a convoluted text from the Golden Age of Spanish Theater, albeit filled with philosophical monologues such as the famous “.. all life, it seems, Is but a dream, and dreams are only dreams.” - in world lit courses, as familiar a speech as Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to be” soliloquy. (more…)

• F.U. (Forgive Us…what’d you think we meant?)
• By Keith Bridges
• Directed by Joe Banno
• Produced by Charter Theatre
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

At the start of F.U. (Forgive Us…what’d you think we meant?), the actors break the “fourth wall” between cast and audience with a lengthy yet funny digression about the upcoming show.  They state that they can’t tell the message of the play, but must show it to the audience.    Eighty minutes later we learn there’s not much of a point to the new Charter Theatre production other than the presentation of some mildly entertaining silliness.  (more…)

• Blood, Sweat & Fears
• A Trilogy of Grand Guignol plays: The Lighthouse Keepers, by Paul Autier and Paul Cloquemin, Tics, by Rene Berton, and The Final Kiss, by Maurice Level
• All translated by Richard Hand
• Directed by Lucas Maloney
• Produced by the Molotov Theatre Group at the Playbill Café
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

So where do you go if you want to see the depravity of man laid out in the raw, with bloody, homicidal doings supplemented by tawdry sexual escapades? (more…)

• Brothers Size              
• By Tarell Alvin McCraney
• Directed by Tea Alagic
• Produced by Foundry Theater. Presented by Studio Theatre
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

There’s something electrifying about a fresh, new voice and perspective in theater.  That’s why Tarell Alvin McCraney’s new work is getting so much buzz.  (more…)

The Sound of Music

• Jan 6 -How do you solve a problem like Maria? By having Jessica Ball play that role. Toby’s Dinner Theater has found the perfect Maria for their production of The Sound Of Music. Jessica Ball is so charismatic and so intriguing, that she has everybody in the audience smiling and tapping their feet along to the music. (more…)