Searching for Gabriela

Writers, one could argue, wield the most power out of any of us, since they build and destroy worlds with the flip of a pencil, the turn of a new idea. In Sybil R. Williams’s new play for the In Series, Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral speaks more humbly of her craft. “The people walking on the road, they leave me their stories,” she murmurs, “and I pick them up where they fell.” [Read more...]

Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies

Top Pick! – Through the end of May, it’s going to seem just like old times at U Street’s landmark Lincoln Theatre, which first opened its doors in 1922 during the peak of the District’s black cultural and entertainment renaissance, and is now hosting Arena Stage’s snazzy revival of Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. [Read more...]

Son of a Stand Up Comedian

The estimable Paul Scott Goodman, who gave us the semi-autobiographical musical Rooms: A Rock Romance two years ago, is in town with his much-more-autobiographical Son of a Stand Up Comedian. Careful, Paul! Real life is incomparably messier than the tight narrative arc you crafted for Rooms, [Read more...]