Minimal. Stripped-bare. Essential. Pure. Questioning. Uncomfortable. Profound. Spiritual. This is what you must expect when you experience a production by Peter Brook, one of the world’s great directors of the last seventy years.
Archives for March 2017
Shakespeare’s not the only Bard: Charlene V Smith, talking about Brave Spirits’ Incest Rep
“A King and No King has never been professionally staged in the DC metropolitan area before, and it’s our fifth play from the early modern era that we can say that about, in just six years of production. Five of the plays we’ve done are four hundred years old and have never been done in […]
Signature’s 2017-2018 Season: Love, Fear and God
Love, fear and the Almighty will run through Signature Theatre’s 2017-2018 season, according to a schedule jointly announced by Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland.
Hamburg Ballet’s exquisite The Little Mermaid (review)
A tale of unrequited love is also a meditation on the anguish and ecstasy of art in Hamburg Ballet’s exquisite The Little Mermaid. The dance theater tour de force by John Neumeir, the company’s artistic director since 1973, had its Washington premiere Tuesday night to a well-deserved standing ovation.
The uncompromising Ms Zinoman, legendary Studio founder, on directing Blood Knot for Mosaic Theater Company
“It’s like rehearsals are on fire.” Say “Joy” to anyone at all involved with theatre in DC — as practitioner or as audience — and that person will know immediately that you are talking about Joy Zinoman.
Think ‘Misery’ with music. Signature packs a new thriller musical into its smallest space
The world premiere of Midwestern Gothic is being staged at Signature Theatre’s intimate ARK Theatre marries music, lyrics and orchestrations by Josh Schmidt and book and lyrics by Royce Vavrek. Signature Theatre associate artistic director Matthew Gardiner, the musical’s director, told us it came about through Signature’s American Musical Voices Project.
LaChiusa’s soaring Los Otros at Everyman Theatre (review)
An indelible memory from a Michael John LaChiusa musical used to be the sight of Vincent Van Gogh (Jason Danieley) sitting in his bathtub and singing the score for The Highest Yellow in a 2004 production at Signature Theatre. Now, that may have been replaced by the soaring, heart-melting finale of Los Otros, the 2012 […]
Two Plays at once? “You can’t do that!”- Aaron Posner on doing just that with his newest play, No Sisters
Playing now at Studio Theatre, Aaron Posner’s latest adaptation, No Sisters, about the lesser characters of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, is a true companion piece to its renowned counterpart – also currently playing at Studio. The two plays run simultaneously, sharing the same cast members. So, yes, that means the actors are running backstage between two […]
Rep Stage turns to the classics for its 25th season
Howard County’s Rep Stage, which is presenting an adventuresome collection of plays this season, will be going old-school in 2017-2018 for its 25th anniversary, with three classics and one world premiere, the company announced.
Lisa Kron’s Well at 1st Stage (review)
Down with sick people! How annoying they are! When we want them to do something, they instead give us their excuses, their rheums and complaints, and what’s more, they present depressing pleas for sympathy, which distract people from us! It is bad enough when they have real, medically discernible symptoms. But far worse are those […]
Mosaic Theater of DC adds musicals next season
Mosaic Theater of DC’s 2017-2018 season will consist of eight plays, including two world premieres, the company’s first musical, the company’s second musical, a special three-night presentation of a ninth play, and a national tour of three additional plays. Not bad for a company’s third season.
Back to Methuselah concludes at Washington Stage Guild, 3 years after its start (review)
Perhaps we can call this ‘slow theatre,’ as an analog to the ‘slow food’ movement. George Bernard Shaw’s epic five-act Back to Methuselah is now being concluded, a full three years after Washington Stage Guild began presenting it. Even more so than Shaw’s other works, it is a drama mainly composed of ideas, typically expressed […]