Closing concert for go mama go! this Sunday
March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Ganymede Arts Artistic Director Jeffrey Johnson is organizing a special benefit concert titled “Go Mama Gone” on Sunday, March 13 in support of the popular home decorative store go mama go! and the family of its founder, theater benefactor Noi Chudnoff. The store, which closes its doors on March 31st, has been left with some debts which he hopes the benefit can help offset, Johnson told us. [Read more...]
Falsettos’ Family Therapist and the Bar-Mitzvah boy
September 27, 2010 By 5 Comments
Noah Chiet and Tony Gudell on playing Jason and Mendel in Ganymede Arts’ Falsettos
I’ve seen Noah Chiet perform in several productions at Musical Theater Center, and I knew that if he was given the chance to play a lead role in a musical, he would have the audience and critics applauding. So, it didn’t surprise me that Tom Avila, a local reviewer for MetroWeekly raved, “… huge applause must go to Chiet. An incredibly mature performer at a very young age, Chiet displays a brilliant comic timing. He often – very rightly – steals the show”. [Read more...]
Falsettos
September 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Turning thirteen comes with its share of bad luck. The precocious young Jason (Noah Chiet) sees his upcoming bar mitzvah as an entry into adulthood, but the move from point A to point B can prove to be a rocky one. As director Jeffrey Johnson’s modest, intelligent production gently reminds us, our life paths are marked most memorably by the unexpected twists and turns. If you’re good — or maybe just lucky — you can fake it ’til you make it. [Read more...]
Naked Boys Singing
May 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The theatre can be a great venue for envisioning life through metaphor. But, sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. And a man can, at times, find it best to be thoroughly naked, regardless of whether he’s feeling emotionally exposed. So writing out a justification for Naked Boys Singing – a droll little cabaret with some not unsizeable talent – is probably best done by mentioning what it is not. [Read more...]
After the Garden: Edith Beale Live at Reno Sweeney
March 7, 2009 By 11 Comments
If you’ve seen the documentary (The Beales of Grey Gardens) and/or the musical (Grey Gardens) you already know “Little Edie” Beale. If you are a hard core fan of this absurdly pathetic character and cannot wait for the upcoming Jessica Lange/Drew Barrymore movie, you can feed your appetite further with Ganymede Arts’ world premiere production, After the Garden: Edith Beale Live at Reno Sweeney. If you lack any special affection for her, however, you’ll find this show only sporadically funny and increasingly tiresome. [Read more...]
A New Name and Vision for ATW
May 25, 2007 By Leave a Comment
As reported last night in DCist: DCist has had the opportunity to enjoy a number of Actors’ Theater of Washington productions over the years. But we’ve learned that the theater company, which targets Washington’s gay and lesbian community, will be expanding its focus and rebranding its identity.
ATW will soon begin to operate as Ganymede Arts, a name taken from the first Greek myth to reference same sex love, and a character and concept that has found its influence in everything from Renaissance art to church history to astronomy (Jupiter’s largest moon, for instance). Read more here.
Tramps and Vamps
July 17, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Tim Treanor
Tramps and Vamps (Ruffian on the Stair/Vampire Lesbians of Sodom), Actors Theater of Washington
The great immortal succubus, stage name La Condesa (Nanna Ingvarsson) requires the blood of virgin women to continue living – or rather continue undying. A woman (Rick Hammerly) of indeterminate age (she says fourteen), having experienced the world’s worst lottery luck, is selected to appease the monster’s appetite. But as the succubus bites into the poor little victim (Hammerly looks to be about six feet tall), the victim bites back – thus assuring that not one but two vampires will catapult after each other throughout history. Two of their battlegrounds take place in those two Meccas of virginity, 1920s Hollywood and 1980s Las Vegas.
A Boston Marriage At Source
February 26, 2006 By 1 Comment
By: Ronnie Ruff Boston Marriage – The Actor’s Theatre Of Washington
Anyone who has loved someone and thought they might be losing them can appreciate what Boston Marriage is really about. Not so much about the witty and terribly funny barbs that fly to and fro — the play is about is love and the fear that you may be in danger of losing it. This fear takes one’s thoughts and feelings hostage, you become oblivious to the words that escape your lips. This is exactly what has happened to Anna and Claire in David Mamet’s Boston Wedding.
Kate Eastwood Norris (Anna) is advised by Jenifer Belle Deal (Claire) that she is smitten by a young woman she has met and has invited her to Anna’s home for the purpose of exploring her newly found love interest. Anna is, of course, devastated because of her feelings for Claire and resists her attempts to have her accept the tryst with cutting, sarcastic jabs that are returned by Claire with similar velocity. The only thing that gets in their way is the constant interruption by Anna’s maid (Elizabeth Simmons) whose presence is an easy target for Anna and her sharp tongue. She (Ms. Simmons) delivers one of the show’s funniest lines that I cannot utter here without butchering it — you will just have to see the show!
