The partnership between Washington National Opera and The Kennedy Center continues to dominate the opera scene in Washington. But Deborah Rutter, at the helm of the entire arts complex, continues to think “out of the box,” the Kennedy Center box that is, creating new spaces, reaching out to new audiences that better represent our city’s […]
Archives for April 2018
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s next season: dramas and comedies inside and outdoors
You’ve binge-watched “Breaking Bad,” “Orange is the New Black,” and “House of Cards.” So why not binge-watch the reign of England’s King Henry IV? asks Chesapeake Shakespeare Theatre Company. The Baltimore-based troupe has included Henry IV Part I and II in rep in its schedule for next year’s season, along with other classics from the […]
The Kennedy Center Arts Summit 2018: imagining the ‘what if’s’ that could change everything
Deborah Rutter, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts announced the Citizen Artists Initiative in 2016, and she has been bringing together a group of talented young artists each year to engage community and break down the walls that continue to separate art making and opportunities as citizen-leaders in initiatives for social […]
The Kennedy Center’s 2018/2019 Dance Season
“I always think of our audience,” says Meg Booth, director of dance programming for the Kennedy Center. “There are always some attending their first performances, and subscribers of 20 and 30 years who have seen it all and want to be challenged.”
Review: I Did It My Way In Yiddish (in English) at MetroStage
Why is Yiddish the language of so many comics? Because nearly every word is inherently funny. String a random batch of Yiddish words together, and you pretty much end up with a standup routine. Case in point (read this out loud, spittily): Di krant administratsye iz referd durkh veevils. Which roughly translated means ‘The current […]
Fly by Night musical gets first rate production at 1st Stage (review)
If you love musicals but aren’t in the mood for a familiar warhorse, then head out to 1st Stage in Tysons’ Corner for the area debut of Fly By Night. You will find, as I did, a charming chamber musical with a pleasing folk-rock score, wrapped around the timeless theme of finding your way through […]
Martyna Majok wins Pulitzer Prize for Cost of Living
Martyna Majok, whose play Ironbound was one of the outstanding plays of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival, has been awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. Premiering at the Williamstown Festival, Cost of Living received an Off-Broadway production from the Manhattan Theatre Club in June, 2017.
Meet the puppets and their creators from Snow Child at Arena Stage
As we speak, Emily DeCola (Puppet Designer) is in New York City, directing a puppet, bookcases, and fish for a new Puppet Kitchen production, The Little Red Fish, with New York City Children’s Theater. Eric Wright (Puppet Director) is rehearsing with the cast of Snow Child in Washington, D.C., looking out on a rare March […]
Kennedy Center has a big season for young audiences coming up
Hah! Did you think that the Kennedy Center forgot about you just because you are, like, eight years old? No way. The enormous theatrical machine that is the Kennedy Center will turn out seventeen productions of theater, music and dance in its Theater for Young Audience 2018-2019 program. Some of them only run for one […]
Review: Athol Fugard’s confessional play, “MASTER HAROLD” … and the Boys
What does radical empathy look like? Look no further than the plays of Athol Fugard. He has made his life’s work giving voice to the Black Africans of South Africa who were not allowed to tell their own stories and breaking down the imposed divides between the races of the system called apartheid. Fugard is a […]
Lauren Gunderson wins second Steinberg Award for The Book of Will
The Book of Will, in which surviving members of the acting troupe The King’s Men decide to put Shakespeare’s First Folio together, has won the $25,000 Steinberg Award for playwright Lauren Gunderson, the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announced. The Steinberg goes to the best new American play from regional theaters. (Plays that have been […]
Matthew Gardiner on directing Girlfriend at Signature Theatre
In 1991, singer/songwriter Matthew Sweet became something of a radio staple after the release of his third album, “Girlfriend,” which was hailed by critics and fans alike, and established the singer as the king of jangly guitar power pop.