– Shirley Serotsky has been directing theatre in DC for ten years, at the helm of projects with Theater J, Keegan Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, The Hub Theatre, and others. Her new production of Blood Wedding, produced by Constellation Theatre Company, takes the beloved Spanish romance in new directions. Serotsky spoke with DC Theatre Scene one day before previews about the surprises, challenges, and excitement in staging Federico Garcia Lorca’s play. — [Read more...]
Blood Wedding
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
When the lights come up, Death, impersonated by an ominous, stone-faced Matthew Pauli, stands center stage, softly playing a ukulele. Death, who is biding his time, often grinning, even leering, stalks with a cane through just about every scene and takes delight in lovers’ quarrels and family friction. [Read more...]
Arms and the Man
October 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man was first produced in 1894, yet his attack on his country’s romanticizing of war, misplaced heroism, and overzealous patriotism strikes a timely chord. The socialist Shaw was never afraid to debunk conventional mores and he used wit and words-words-words to get not only his antiwar message across but loaded his verbal canons against the societal norms of gender and class. [Read more...]
Constellation’s Ramayana becomes the next summer rerun to sell out
August 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
August is the hottest month for ticket sales too.
DC audiences are showing they like seeing their favorite shows the second time around. Yesterday morning, Constellation Theatre had only 30 seats left for its return run of The Ramayana at Source. They’re gone now, guaranteeing busy nights for the 14th Street venue through August 21st.
Woolly Mammoth, too, took a chance in bringing back its critically acclaimed Clybourne Park for a post-Fringe four week run. It sold out more than a week ago.
There are still tickets available to see the rerun of Scena Theatre’s gender bending The Importance of Being Earnest, which has earned an extension at H Street Playhouse through August 21st. Washington does love seeing a man in a dress and a woman in a tux, and the cast of Earnest doesn’t disappoint. Scena could also win an award for most innovative pricing structure. With a top ticket of $40, it’s $20 for staff of nonprofits (with a business card to prove it), $16 for students, $18 if you’re under 30 or, if it’s Thursday and you’re under 30, they throw in a free drink.
And, of course, in what could have been the biggest role of the dice of all time, the return of last October’s Oklahoma! to Arena Stage is drawing huge crowds to the new Mead Center for the Performing Arts. Jane Horowitz, in Wednesday’s Backstage column for the Washington Post reported: “Theater staffers say they’ve sold 35,000 tickets for the reprise run, with most performances selling at “near capacity.” Though they don’t release financial figures for individual shows, a spokesperson for the company says the revival will probably outpace the original fall production and become the best-selling show in Arena’s history.” The blockbuster musical, which opened July 8th, closes October 2nd. Tickets are still available.
The Ramayana
August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Monkey butt jokes, Bollywood-style dance sequences, parables about how to be the ideal husband and wife, delectable world music and actors who make virtue and duty seem kinda sexy intermingle in Constellation Theatre Company’s remounting of last season’s hit The Ramayana. [Read more...]
The Green Bird
May 10, 2011 By 9 Comments
Fairy tales and philosophy should make for strange bedfellows, and, at least in theory, even stranger bedtime stories. But in Constellation Theatre Company’s wondrous production of the 18th-century Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird, the two cozy up with remarkable affinity. Like all good relationships, they also bring things out in each other that even their best friends never would have guessed were there. Constellation’s artistic director Allison Arkell Stockman adapted and directs, commedia dell’arte-style, with not simply a creative thirst that drinks in fantasy, but gives the play the power to make audiences drunk on it. [Read more...]
On the Razzle
February 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
Before Tom Stoppard got all metaphysical and mathematical on us, he wrote fluff. The Stoppardian word gymnastics and clever silliness are very much evident in On the Razzle, but it has about as much substance as a Justin Bieber song. And like the Beatles-coiffed tween idol, you can simply enjoy Razzle for what it is—a passing fancy. [Read more...]
Women Beware Women
October 20, 2010 By 10 Comments
Constellation Theatre Company’s staging of Women Beware Women, while described by its 15th century playwright Thomas Middleton as a tragedy, is a wonderfully entertaining farce as boldly adapted by Jesse Berger. It’s a crazy, wild ride of a play where the terrific cast of morally depraved characters and their sly, knowing winks to the audience keep the laughs coming as friends and lovers become haters and co-conspirators, ultimately plotting each others’ demise. Shades of Sweeney Todd—only not as dark. [Read more...]
The Ramayana
May 11, 2010 By 2 Comments
Constellation Theatre has tackled the ultimate, a North American premiere of Peter Oswald’s The Ramayana, about the god Rama‘s adventures as he struggles to save his beloved from the clutches of demons. Based on a Sanskrit tale of passion and adventure, Ramayana, [Read more...]
Three Sisters
January 27, 2010 By 3 Comments
Chekhov’s Three Sisters is a classic rumination about life, death, and everything in between. Constellation Theatre has now put its indelible mark on the tale, immersing the story in perfectly paced physical movement, well tuned comedic interludes, and tender sensibility, all with an epic-size ensemble. [Read more...]
