Trey Graham will headline as DC Theatre Scene makes its second annual appearance at the Smithsonian Associates’ preview of the upcoming theater year.
Graham, the DCTS writer who won the 2003-2004 George Jean Nathan Award as the nation’s best critic (other years’ winners include Hilton Als, John Lahr and Ben Brantley) will discuss what he anticipates most about next season’s productions.
Graham will highlight both encouraging trends and surprising peculiarities in the upcoming season, offering insight on the people and plays you’ll see on Washington’s stages. Graham’s guests will include Susan Galbraith, Artistic Director of The Alliance for New Music-Theatre who will address the opera season and Robert Bettman, founder of the arts magazine Bourgeon, who will discuss next season in dance. And keep an ear cocked as well for bonus contributions from a theatrical personality or two.
Among the shows we expect to see are plays about contemporary public figures Valerie Plame Wilson, Joan Didion and Norma L. McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, all at Arena; five world premieres (including two by local playwrights) at Signature, and the Kennedy Center’s celebration of the Centennial of John F. Kennedy’s birth. Round House and Olney Theatre will be co-producing Angels in America, and local theater icon Holly Twyford will appear in an iconic role: Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, at Ford’s Theatre. Rep Stage is featuring a musical about a famed transvestite who kept a dead body in his closet for years (it may have been a housebreaker who he killed and then didn’t know what to do with) and Mosaic, refreshed with a multi-million dollar grant, will present Terry Teachout’s one-actor show about Louis Armstrong and a new play about a charm school for transsexuals.
Graham and Company will deliver the presentation on August 16, starting at 6.45, at the S. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Drive SW. Tickets are $30 for members of the Smithsonian Association, and $45 for non-members.
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