In light of the closing of Ford’s Theatre during the federal government shutdown, The Ford’s Theatre Society has announced two performances of The Laramie Project at First Congregational United Church of Christ Friday, October 4, and Tuesday, October 8. These will be free and open to the public. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m., at 945 […]
Archives for October 2013
The Laramie Project
In 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten and hung from a fence in rural Wyoming, just outside Laramie. With nothing but the sky, sun, stars, moon, and mountains looking on, he wasted into a coma from which he would never awake. We know Matt’s story, and we know the premise of The Laramie Project—HBO even put […]
Lulu and the Brontosaurus
Put Lulu on the list of indelible child characters who are loud, proud and unbowed. Lulu joins grumpy and much put-upon Alexander in author Judith Viorst’s pantheon of kids who act like stinkpots once in a while. Her 2010 book Lulu and the Brontosaurus gives the classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very […]
The music of Gee’s Bend finds a home at MetroStage
The lives of the Pettway women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama are stitched indelibly into the quilts they made. And as the presence of those quilts grew in the American consciousness — evolving from simple domestic wares into powerful social artifacts and, eventually, into American treasures — an unseen perspective on segregation and the Civil Rights […]
Heads of State: actors Kurt Rhoads and Scott Parkinson discuss Measure For Measure
A shutdown of the federal government only comes along every so often, but crises of leadership are nothing new. Since this week is shaping up to be a good one for some reflection on this point, let’s turn our attention to one of Shakespeare’s shrewder studies of civic disruption, Measure For Measure, and the modernized […]
Red Speedo
To see Lucas Hnath’s new play Red Speedo, you climb stairs from the second-floor gallery at Studio Theater, pass through a door into backspace, climb more stairs, pass through a door into the playing space, climb more stairs, and cross a catwalk to an usher, who will point to a seat in one of four […]
Ford’s Theatre shuttered by shutdown; future of The Laramie Project is uncertain
As late as Tuesday morning, October 1st, the staff of Ford’s Theatre was confident that their production of The Laramie Project would proceed during any shutdown of the federal government. After all, the Fords Theatre Society is privately funded and previous announced shutdowns allowed the theatre to remain open. By 4pm on Tuesday, the company […]
Rancho Mirage
Steven Dietz’s Rancho Mirage could also, with justice, be called Dinner with Horrible People, but that title would lack the mytho-poetic cachet of the title actually chosen. So the prolific Dietz’s new story is instead named after the gated community which is its situs, and which suggests the state of his characters’ material and emotional […]
Closer Than Ever – new cast recording
A new CD of a show I’ve loved from its earlier recording raises the question “Do I need another one?” Often, the answer for the normal collector is “No.” (Of course, I’m not your normal collector – I suffer from the symptoms of a condition known as compulsive completism.) But then the follow-up question is: […]
How arts lovers can survive the government shutdown
Nearly all performances scheduled will go on during the partial shutdown of the federal government, which went into effect today. Specifically: All productions at the Kennedy Center , including Million Dollar Quartet and Shear Madness, will be performed as scheduled, although at least 50 personnel operating on federal contracts will be furloughed, and the Kennedy […]