“A performance just ended. We just finished a matinee —in the sunshine.” Joseph Marcell had stepped off the stage after playing what is certainly one of the most demanding roles in the Shakespearean canon. He wasn’t being treated to a little rest or to some down time. He was being rewarded for his efforts by […]
Archives for August 2014
Body by Synetic: free video workouts from the award winning company
Just released – Synetic Theater has begun offering free fitness videos on their YouTube channel – inspired by their popular fitness classes. Synetic Fitness is an exercise class that develops strength, conditioning, and flexibility, based on the training techniques that Synetic actors use to prepare for physical theater productions. Synetic Fitness videos and classes are […]
Washington area gets ready to stage more than 400 shows this season
The 2014-15 season looks like it will be the busiest in our nine years of covering the theatrical scene. With today’s addition of Peter’s Alley’s three productions, the count of professional productions planned for our area (Washington metro to Baltimore) rises to 278, with full seasons yet to be announced by such producing regulars as […]
Sex with Strangers at Second Stage Theatre
This new two hander by Laura Eason opened July 31st but I was not available to see it during the press previews, so I apologize for reporting to you on it at this late date. Its run has been extended to August 31st, but that doesn’t give you much time to see it at Second […]
Molly from Scena Theatre
Love is lonely business in the literary-historical, one-person play Molly by George O’Brien. Molly Allgood grieves over her recently deceased fiancé, the Irish Revival playwright J.M. Synge. As his muse, Molly received some of Synge’s most inspired female rolls, but when faced with his early passing, she must read through the vague stage-directions of their […]
Sunday in the Park takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
Claybourne Elder, Paul Scanlon and other members of the cast of Signature Theatre’s Sunday in the Park with George accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from Landless Theatre’s prog metal Sweeney Todd to help raise funds to find a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Having risen to the challenge, the cast called out theatreWashington and […]
The Winter’s Tale, STC’s Free for All reprise
“Exit, pursued by a bear.” If there’s anything about The Winter’s Tale that audiences might know in advance, this–arguably the best stage direction ever penned–will be it. The Winter’s Tale challenges audiences in a way altogether unique in Shakespeare’s canon, bringing together elements of comedy, tragedy, and fantasy into one script. More than any of […]
Women playwrights featured in Kennedy Center’s 2014 Page-to-Stage festival
This Labor Day weekend, there will be 43 presentations in this year’s Page-to-Stage. Choose your best times to go with our sortable Guide to the Fest. The turn of the 21st century brought about a new frontier for the DC theater landscape, as it was the summer of 2000 when Arena Stage presented “Who Needs […]
Kathleen Akerley on Pol Pot & Associates and stretching her wings
For almost all of the last fifteen years, during the dog days of August, the devoted and discerning DC theatergoer knew that a stimulating experience would be in store at the Callan Theater on the Catholic University of America campus. In residence for its one-show-a-year season would be Longacre Lea Productions (LaL). Maybe it’s doing […]
Six year old theatre critic Iain Armitage goes viral on YouTube
Six year old theatre critic Iain Armitage is getting plenty of attention on YouTube. His beat is covering DC and Broadway shows. Five months ago, Iain saw Hairspray at Signature, his parents posted his comments on YouTube, and a career was born. He has posted 21 reviews since then, including Bullets Over Broadway and Waiting […]
Going to Woolly Mammoth or the Lansburgh? visit these 4 eateries
Penn Quarter is D.C.’s neighborhood for entertainment. From the Verizon Center to the National Portrait Gallery, the fluid parameters of Penn Quarter house a spectrum of art, culture and performance that draws and enthralls D.C.’s crowds of fanny-pack tourists and bespoke lobbyists. Not to mention, a stroll down 7th street will captivate any casual people […]
Shining City. Demons dwell here
Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s Shining City raises a question about our demons: do we make them up to punish ourselves, or do they exist outside us in the world? For most of the play, the answer seems to be that we are haunted by our actions and their repercussions, the gravest of which may come […]