Archives for July 20, 2010

A seedy motel room, a bag full of beer and narcotics, and unresolved sexual abuse from a decade prior; no, I’m not referring to how some of us might have spent our weekends (thanks Knight’s Inn in Rockville!), but rather Alchemy Art Project’s production of Tape, masterfully directed by Marshall B. Garrett.

The female body has long since been a topic of conversation in books, magazines, movies, and TV. But what about the male body? What about the relationship between a man and his body?

Vampires plus hospital soap opera equals the potential for many varieties of comedic mayhem, including bloody sight gags, sordid love triangles, devious plotting, and “acting” hammier than a Christmas dinner.  (Yeesh.  Sorry.) All of these, for better or for worse, are showcased in Nights at St. Januarius.

There are a number of ways a solo show can go wrong: narcissism, meandering (or lack of) narrative, simple difficulty sustaining audience interest, and so on.  That Tara T. Handron avoids these in her one-woman performance Drunk With Hope In Chicago is commendable.  That she does so in a show about alcoholism, a subject matter that is […]

Andrew Korfhage enters The Point carrying bread and wine. Walking onto the stage, he greets the audience as any preacher would, and immediately we are transported into a real church. It certainly helps that the audience sits in pews at The Point, but even if that were not the case, Korfhage is so convincing as […]

Shirley Dreaming? Surely, I wished I were dreaming. A dream sequence peppered with stereotypical characters, and odd song and dance numbers, The Apron Theatre Company’s production, Shirley Dreaming, wasn’t exactly a bedtime fantasy.

Blink and you miss it. This life goes roaring by, and on lesser days we end up standing dazed by the wayside. If you blinked more slowly – if you really shut your eyes, took a breath, and sent your passion right into the dark path of those fleeting minutes and seconds – could you […]

Few nightmares rival those of a parent whose child has gone missing, even if that child is a young adult.  Yet this nightmare was far too common in Argentina during the 1970s following a military coup as police frequently picked up young people suspected of being anti-government subversives.  Writer-performer Jennifer S. Jones chooses this setting […]

If you have ever suffered through an interminably bad recital or talent show, you may be a little nervous about attending Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite.  But go anyway. The show is a nice comic vehicle for two former Wesleyan University students (who look much younger) and one of the better comic offerings of The […]

The program of Fringe Youth–Led Producers is a composite of monologues written and performed by D.C. high schoolers.  Through writing exercises and group discussion, young people get a chance to take the stage, sometimes for the first time in their lives, and share their own life lessons. The dedication and genuine affection from the Fringe […]