≡ The Helen Hayes Awards
Last night, The Helen Hayes Awards, Washington theatre’s most glamorous evening, was presented before a sold-out audience at the Warner Theatre.
≡ The Rise of the House of Usher
By Tim Treanor
So you’re sitting in your seat - excellent seat, second row center - watching Caroline, or Change and some cretin starts talking behind you. Well, they’ve reminded everyone to turn their cell phones off, and to put their candy away, but they forgot to say stop talking. And this guy is nattering on. What do you do?
If you’re Joel Markowitz, you know that some behaviors can’t be tolerated. So you turn around, peer into the darkness, hesitate - he seems like a big guy, and vaguely familiar - and then say, “Please, sir. Would you mind? I’m trying to watch the show.”
But then it’s the second scene, at that long, emotional soliloquy which starts the scene, and he’s at it again. Loudly. Even the actress - Tonya Pinkins - seems flustered. So, since you’re Joel Markowitz, you turn around again and in a steely voice say, “air, you need to stop, or I’ll have the house manager remove you.” And the loquacious man and his wife finally stop. Tonya throws a thank-you nod in your direction.
