All posts by Tim Treanor:

Tim Treanor DCTS Senior Reviewer Since 2005, Tim has written almost 400 reviews and numerous news articles, features and interviews for DCTS. He has been a member of the American Theater Critics Association since 2009 and sits on its New Plays committee. He is also a fellow of the National Critics Institute, run by the O'Neill Theater Center. His interactive murder mystery, Murder in Elsinore, enjoyed a brief run in 2003. By day he is a trial lawyer for the Federal government. He lives with his dear bride, Lorraine, in a log house in the woods of Southern Maryland.

The life and times of director PJ Paparelli

PJ Paparelli, having been through a battle or two of his own,
knows how to direct the conflict besetting the two gentlemen of Verona.

A young man of promise, moving forth from a working-class background, has an unbroken string of successes. Along the way, he meets other young people, some born of great wealth, who have found themselves in terrible situations, and his compassion for them feeds his art. But as he reaches artistic maturity, he is confronted with the possibility of failure and he must use all his resources to solve his dilemma. [Read more...]

Shakespeare Theatre announces it 2012-2013 season

Familiar hands to be at the tiller : Kahn, Muse, Posner, McSweeney, Lord and Taichman

A brand new adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, done in repertory with a production of Coriolanus directed by Studio Theatre Artistic Director David Muse, highlights the 2012-2013 theater lineup which the Shakespeare Theatre announced yesterday.  [Read more...]

A most original Tom Jones from Lumina Studio

There are companies which do epics, and then there is Lumina Studio. Having put together a sixty-character amalgamation of Henry VI Part 1, 2 and 3, in which no actor was above the age of 19, Lumina now tops itself by producing a seventy-character musical version of Tom Jones, with songs imported from John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.

Showoffs! [Read more...]

Vpstart Crow’s new season announced, and calls for directors

First look at what lies in store for us in the 2012-2013 season comes from Vpstart Crow

Manassas-based Vpstart Crow Productions yesterday announced that its 2012-2013 season would feature four plays with large Washington area followings to be produced in the Hylton Performing Arts Center of George Mason University’s Prince William campus. Although the company has a general idea as to when it will schedule the productions, it has not nailed down specific dates. [Read more...]

DC theatre community mourns the passing of Lance Hayden Kump, artist and Studio Theatre staff member

The theatre community has lost another member. We are sad to report that Lance Hayden Kump, Marketing Manager for Studio Theatre and a gifted visual artist, died suddenly January 20, 2012.

As reported last night on TheatreWashington, Studio Theatre will hold a memorial service for him at 2pm on Saturday, February 28 at Studio Theatre in the Milton Theatre, 1501 14th Street, NW. Any questions about the service can be directed to 202-232-7267.

Kump, who joined Studio Theatre as a consultant in 2008 and rose to the position of Marketing Manager, was known for a hyperrealistic painting style which recalled Andy Warhol and for his remarkable digitally-manipulated photography. Both styles of work are featured on his website, which also features his astonishing “Kim Jong Il #1.”

As a marketer and arts management consultant, Kump served several theatre companies, including Shakespeare Theatre as well as others such as DC Theatre Scene, and showed the same imagination and decisiveness which characterized his work as an artist. “It was amazing how quickly Lance grasped a concept and could execute a perfectly rendered interpretation,” said DC Theatre Scene editor Lorraine Treanor, for whom Kump did some consulting work. “He was generous, sweet man and will be missed.”

Our condolences to his family and friends and the staff of Studio Theatre.

 

Marcia Gardner, Signature superwoman (1945 – 2012)

Marcia Murdock Gardner, an actor, educator, dramaturg, casting director and literary manager most frequently associated with Signature Theatre, died January 20 at her Alexandria home after a battle with cancer. She was 66. [Read more...]

Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s hormone-drunk Two Gentlemen of Verona is a story of mad children at play in the house of their own hearts, adrift and rudderless in a storm of their passions, laughing and drinking and singing and skating closer to death than they can possibly understand. It is the interpretation one might expect from a director who co-authored columbinus, the chilling reimagining of the Columbine killings drawn from interviews with high schoolers and produced a few years back at Round House. It is also, perhaps, the only interpretation that works. [Read more...]

Craig Wallace agrees to step in for Toney in Necessary Sacrifices

Ford Theatre adds five performance dates 

Local actor Craig Wallace will replace David Emerson Toney as Frederick Douglass in Richard Helleson’s  three-actor Necessary Sacrifices, Ford’s Theatre announced late yesterday. [Read more...]

Brush up your Klingon

Shakespeare in Klingon II: The Wrath of (Michael) Kahn

“I’ve never worked with Klingons before and I figure, after all these years, it’s about time.”  - STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn on his role in the March fundraiser for WSC Avant Bard. [Read more...]

Alex Webb – on writing and performing his new Civil War drama Amelia

At Washington Stage Guild, an extraordinary story about the foot soldiers of history.

History is a tale written by the victors, Machiavelli tells us. But it is usually lived by the losers – those who have lost their homes, or their fathers, or their arms or legs to some tragedy – war, invasion, or worse. [Read more...]