– DC Theatre Scene has been able to lure actor/director Christopher Henley into writing for this site. Here is his personal account of co-directing Dracula . A Love Story, the Fringe show written by DCTS writer Tim Treanor. – Between Bela Lugosi and Bella from the Twilight series, there was Hammer Studios. From the late […]
Archives for July 2014
The Mutualistic Melody, a Fringe Peek
By guest writers Taylor Rascher (director) and W.R. Heispascher (playwright) Heispascher: The play’s genesis began with a single charge: to analyze the role that relationships play in our lives. This structure prompted an initial phase of research; thus, I turned to nature’s various relationships. The natural world exhibits the gambit of diversity when it comes […]
A Fringe Peek at John Feffer’s Interrogation
The artist Hasan Elahi was detained in the aftermath of 9/11 and subjected to six months of questioning by the FBI. Elahi comes from Bangladesh, and the FBI was very interested in his travel itineraries. Eventually, after a harrowing series of interrogations, the FBI released him. But Elahi retaliated by providing the FBI – and […]
The Yellow Wallpaper, closes this weekend
The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which captures a woman’s slow descent into utter powerlessness and madness, has been sending shivers down readers’ spines for over a century. The woman, only identified as “Wife,” is sequestered in a bedroom by her husband to help her “rest and recover” after childbirth, but […]
Stone Tape Party and the Art of the Soundtrack, a Fringe Peek
Sex, drugs, jazz – you know, the classic ghost story. So reads the tagline for Nu Sass Productions’ 2014 Fringe show, Stone Tape Party. The play is making its world debut at DC’s summer Capital Fringe festival this July, but the production team has been working hard round the clock since mid-April to get the […]
The Village Bike, still time to take it for a spin
Penelope Skinner’s very dark comedy The Village Bike first appeared in 2011 at the Royal Court’s Upstairs Theatre in London. In 2012 it played the Sheffield Theatres, what we would call a regional theatre. Now it’s at the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street for a commercial off-Broadway run, this time under the direction of Sam […]
13 Men, a Fringe Peek into the frisky comedy cabaret
– An interview with Faith Hayden and Kendra Keller, co-founders of Leopard Print Productions Tell us about the moment where you said to yourself: “I just have to do this!” Hayden: In my mid-20s I literally moved 11 times in a three-year period because I was constantly moving in and breaking up with a different […]
Chesapeake, a Fringe Peek
We’re a fairly new company, and we were looking for new and unknown work to produce for the Capital Fringe Festival (also a first for us). But behold, the face of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever came to us in the form of Lee Blessing’s Chesapeake, and we were hooked. This one-person play has been done […]
This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?, a Fringe Peek
This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss? is a solo show that has been 20 years in the making. Twenty years ago I detoured from acting into academia. I became so frustrated trying to explain what I teach (Remedial English is for dummies, right?) and more particularly whom I teach (What do you mean your […]
Pinkalicious from Adventure Theatre/MTC
Pinkalicious shows how too much of a good thing, no matter how tasty, sweet, and bubblelicious can have unfortunate consequences.
Madama Butterfly at Castleton Festival opening weekend
Opening the 2014 season, with Lorin Maazel scheduled to conduct, word came down from il Maestro himself that this production of Madama Butterfly was the “real thing.” The place was packed and the air was electric in Castleton Festival’s gigantic performance tent. (Certainly this was a different kind of electricity than had met me two […]
Cross the Line, a Fringe Peek
A few years ago I took a semester to study abroad in Spain. On returning, I realized that my circles of friends at school had found other friends and created new worlds that no longer included me in them. I felt alone and isolated until I heard that a family member of mine had committed […]