Beertown
November 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
As an experiment in audience participatory theatre, dog & pony dc’s Beertown is an interesting and memorable adventure. [Read more...]
Shining City
November 15, 2011 By 2 Comments
The playwright Conor McPherson spins ghost stories. He uses spectral encounters as a way of exploring a theme rooted in the human experience: guilt.
Unfinished business is at the heart of Conor McPherson’s play, Shining City, an often potent and truthful accounting of the way we live. Currently onstage at Quotidian Theatre in Bethesda, Shining City quietly attempts to lay bare no less than the titanic demons that live in the abyss of human alienation – that painful self-awareness that emanates from each man-as-an-island, and the regret and guilt that originates from knowing that your being hurts others’. [Read more...]
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Making the most of a Muppet
When Kevin Clash plays Elmo, his face takes on an otherworldly demeanor as his arms manipulate the furry red monster. You can see his eyes drift off like they’re staring at somewhere far away, almost rolling into the back of his head. He looks like he’s possessed, like the high-pitched baby voice protruding from his mouth is being put there by the puppet on his hand instead of the other way around. Is it so crazy to think that being a Muppeteer involves a bit of cosmic reverse ventriloquism? [Read more...]
American Buffalo
November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
CenterStage’s American Buffalo hits its high point when Teach (Jordan Lage), a bald guy with a mustache who sports a leisure jacket and bellbottom highwaters, pulls out a shiny silver gun and starts to load it. He’s sort of trying to hide it from Don, the other guy in the store. In other words, he’s trying to hide it, but hide it in a way that makes Don notice that he’s hiding it. And then Don (William Hill) asks what’s going on. [Read more...]
Venus in Fur
November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
David Ives’ contribution to our Broadway season, courtesy of the Manhattan Theatre Club is, as the King of Siam used to say, “a puzzlement.” Starting as a hilarious backstage comedy involving a playwright/director and an aspiring actress who, though late for her audition, is desperate to be allowed to read, and through all sorts of chicanery, allure and chutzpah, gets her chance. [Read more...]
Lucia di Lammermoor
November 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened last night at Washington National Opera, is not your daddy’s Lucia. If you had come to pay homage to Donizetti’s original impulse and bask in its early romanticism, complete with Scottish mists and moors, you were in for a shock. [Read more...]
Private Lives
November 12, 2011 By 3 Comments
Like the character Amanda Prynne’s (Deborah Hazlett) heart, Private Lives is jagged with sophistication. Noel Coward’s oft-produced 1930 play—which he starred in with his great friend and co-conspirator Gertrude Lawrence—combines Brit wit, class and style in its wicked laceration of upper-class manners and unconventional mores. [Read more...]
Relatos Borrachos/Tales Told Under the Influence
November 11, 2011 By 1 Comment
“I’ve been dying for a drink,” says Young Woman (Daniela Alvarado). That’s scene one’s startling first line that unreels Venezuelan playwright Enrique Salas’ glib dialogue. When one drink becomes one drink too many, the results can be high hilarity (pun intended) or a desperate search for dignity and recovery. [Read more...]
Behind the scene with Stay’s creators
November 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A son’s bedtime wish was the creative spark for Stay
A bottle of wine can lead to many things, but for playwright Heather McDonald and choreographer Susan Shields, it led to an artistic collaboration. [Read more...]
Arena to stage dinner and a show for our veterans
November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Arena Stage will be hosting a complimentary Thanksgiving dinner and an evening of theater for America’s veterans and their families on Friday, November 25th, the company announced yesterday. [Read more...]
