Blue Door

What starts out as an ugly case of insomnia caused by Lewis’s personal and marital stress, professional challenges, and cross-road decisions gets even tougher when spirits of four generations of his ancestry come a’calling for reckoning and reflection. And you thought you had a rough night. Read more

African Continuum Names New Executive Director

African Continuum Theatre today announced that it has named JoAnn Williams as the company’s new Executive Director. Williams, a veteran Washington-area theatrical innovator, had been serving as Interim Executive Director of the Dance Institute of Washington. Read more

Intimate Apparel

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• Intimate Apparel
• Written by Lynn Nottage
• Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson
• Produced by African Continuum Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Set in New York City in 1905, Intimate Apparel showcases the power of the written word from an African American cultural perspective. Specifically, the impact of letters and letter-writing in an age of innocence.  Playwright Lynn Nottage gently and lovingly explores aspects of love and friendship, cultural identity, self- expression and survival.

Esther, the main character, beautifully rendered by Deidre LaWan Starnes, has all but given up on finding a soul mated kindred spirit, let alone a husband.  Read more

Jitney

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Gingham Dog

Produced by – African Continuum Theater

By: Debbie Minter Jackson

The breakup of a marriage is always hard to watch. The nastier the better only works to sell tabloids sporting celebrities shot in unflattering, compromised positions accompanied by exposes and come-uppance storylines. There is no vicarious thrill while catching the death rattle of the sad couple in Lanford Wilson’s, Gingham Dog, the season opener at the African Continuum Theater, and therein lies the crux of the problem with the script. At least the tabloids are enticing, appealing in their own sick way, and stir up enough interest to secure a purchase and a surreptitious peek among the pages. The sad leavings of Wilson’s couple offer nothing of the kind, nor do the characters go kindly and gently onto the next stages of their lives. No, they are stuck in a thrashing battle of wills divvying up the pitiful remains of their three-year marriage, and we are hapless witnesses to the unpleasant results.

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