As the dimming lights turned the deep red walls of the Kennedy Center Opera House into darkness, the spiky celestial chandeliers seemed to glow with unusual brilliance, welcoming us into another season of Washington National Opera.
Archives for September 2016
The Diary of Anne Frank at Olney Theatre Center (review)
It is a daunting challenge to perform as Anne Frank. Not only is she an historical figure whose face is known worldwide, but she is also one who went through puberty during the events that made her famous. Anne received her diary for her thirteenth birthday and died almost three years later at Bergen-Belsen concentration […]
theatreWeek is on! Grab the best deals before October 2
theatreWashington’s annual theatreWeek is with us again, and this year it’s lasting a little more than a week — until October 2. Thirty-four Washington-area theaters are offering tickets to musicals, dramas, comedies, and theatre for young audiences for $36 and less for patrons who purchase during this golden period.
Meet Lisa Carr, 2016 Gary Maker Audience Award recipient
“Don’t be afraid to jump in and see everything.” Sage advice from Lisa Carr, this year’s Gary Lee Maker Audience Award honoree, who will receive her award at the September 28th performance of Brave Spirits’ Anthony and Cleopatra.
Want to see America’s most produced plays? You (probably) already have
Excluding Shakespeare and holiday plays, eleven of the twelve plays being produced in America this season have either found a home in a DC-area theater or will do so soon.
DC playwright wins MacArthur Genius Grant
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the DC-born playwright whose Appropriate and An Octoroon astonished audiences at Woolly Mammoth, has won a MacArthur Fellows Award — also know as a “genius grant” — of $625,000.
A high spirited Sense and Sensibility at Folger Theatre (review)
Are you an Elinor or a Marianne? We’d probably prefer to think of ourselves as Elinor (Maggie McDowell), gracious, restrained and noble in her suffering. But let’s face it, we probably more closely resemble Marianne (Erin Weaver), spontaneous and emotional, flinging herself higgledy-piggledy into everything from reading Shakespeare to romance.
A brilliant Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare Theatre Company (review)
Alan Paul’s direction of Shakespeare is brilliant. As familiar as I am with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, upon viewing this vibrant production, I felt as if it had been written today. The passion, the romance, the inevitable tragedy – all wrapped in Shakespeare’s delicious verse – gains an immediacy under Paul’s fresh approach to the tale […]
Sister Act at Toby’s Dinner Theatre “heavenly” (review)
There’s some serious jiving going on at Toby’s Dinner Theater. No need to dress up too much- just grab your rosary and hymnal, and head out the door to Sister Act. It’s— yes, yes, wait for it- paradise.
Blackberry Daze creators on turning a popular murder mystery into a jazzy musical
In 2012, Ruth P. Watson’s novel Blackberry Days of Summer became a critical darling. The story is an exciting historical whodunit, where a young black man is murdered at the beginning of the 20th Century, and even though suspects abound, no one is trying too hard to find his killer. The show was adapted into […]
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Company opens dance studio in Glen Echo Park
Past the pottery yurts, glass-blowing demonstrations, and children’s theatres, a troupe of dancers practiced enthusiastically in the Hall of Mirrors at the recent Glen Echo Park Open House. Jan Tievsky, manager of the new Dana Tai Soon Burgess studio at the Park, invited passersby to watch the company as they practiced for an upcoming performance […]
Eric Tucker on his off-the-wall production of Sense and Sensibility at Folger Theatre
Eric Tucker is the Artistic Director of Bedlam, a theatre company in New York City “committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience,” creating works that “reinvigorate traditional forms” of theatre. They brought their four-actor, repertory versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Shaw’s Saint Joan to Olney Theatre Center in 2013. […]