Clybourne Park wins Pulitzer
April 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
April 18, 2011 – Clybourne Park, a play by Bruce Norris, produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in 2010, was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama today. The jury’s citation praised the play as “a powerful work whose memorable characters speak in witty and perceptive ways to America’s sometimes toxic struggle with race and class consciousness.” [Read more...]
National Pastime
April 18, 2011 By 2 Comments
Most theatre companies line up as either devotees of drama or musicals. Keegan Theatre stakes its reputation on embracing and producing both. The company’s work is often strong and compelling. However, with National Pastime, the company has fallen into the sin of bad musical comedy: the actors are having more fun on stage than we are in the audience. [Read more...]
The Color Purple
April 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The musical version of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning “The Color Purple” is the story of Celie’s odyssey from utter despair to triumph. It is the story of discovery and the power of love. The touring production of musical version is back for a brief stop at The National Theatre and it assaults the senses with warm, affecting yet raw performances. [Read more...]
2011 Curtain Call – meet the producers
April 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
“Google “billionaire theater producer” and you will find no results. In fact, theater is often where investors go to lose money, as Mel Brooks hilariously taught us in The Producers. Why does any company do it, then – take on the incredible risks of producing a show or founding a new theater company? Generosity of spirit surely plays a role, but perhaps the most compelling factor is long-term wisdom, knowing that we need stories, both as individuals and as a species, to guide us forward against the endless looming night.” – Tim Treanor [Read more...]
Chesapeake
April 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
If you want to see a play about friendship, go see Art at Signature. But if you want to see a play about art, you should see Lee Blessing’s Chesapeake, now playing at the Bay Theatre in Annapolis. [Read more...]
Fragments
April 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Say the name Samuel Beckett, and most people think: Waiting for Godot, existentialism. Theatre of the absurd, where absurd means meaningless. As we watch Peter Brook and Marie Hélène Estienne’s spare but striking staging of five uneasy pieces by the late Irish playwright, the word also takes on its more everyday meaning. And we realize that Beckett is not only one of us. He sees inside of us. [Read more...]
2011 Curtain Call – the Helen Hayes Awards nominated Ensembles
April 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
“All acting (except for solo shows) is ensemble acting, and the folks in this section are among the best at it. You can sense when you’re in the presence of an excellent ensemble; everyone – even that guy sitting stage left with his feet up – seems engaged in the action, and when the characters interrupt each other, or speak on top of each other, it’s just like it is at your house. A well-acted ensemble production is a joyous collaboration among professional artists, and in this section, they tell you what it is like to be part of that.” – Tim Treanor [Read more...]
Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament 2011
April 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Summarizing what typically happens at the Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament is like trying to write a travel article on a city after talking with a few crazy people in a back alley. Who knows what world a wandering soul speaks for, other than the terrain of their own cracked mind? And even if they’re an interesting bunch, good luck finding them again. The city of FIST is in flux, with new populations flowing through every night. Nothing’s the same from minute to minute. It wouldn’t be a smackdown otherwise. [Read more...]
Sidney Harman 1918 – 2011
April 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
Sidney Harman, businessman, author, philanthropist, has died.
Sidney Harman, an extraordinarily successful businessman whose generosity contributed to the performing arts in Washington, died April 12 at the age of ninety-two. He suffered from acute myeloid leukemia. [Read more...]
2011 Curtain Call – the Helen Hayes Awards nominated actors
April 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
“We sometimes think of actors as men who put on a character, and duplicate whatever gestures and mannerisms the playwright describes or implies. But this isn’t true at all; the best actors are at every moment themselves on stage – it’s just that “themselves” have become the characters. The men in this section have dedicated themselves to authenticity, and to bringing out the truth of their characters.” – Tim Treanor [Read more...]
