For many of us in the audience of UrbanArias’ new production, Glory Denied, the Vietnam War is not distant history. Like the characters in this opera by Tom Cipullo, we carry that war inside us and move back and forth seamlessly but relentlessly between our current feelings and memories of who we were and how […]
Archives for January 2020
Tonya Beckman on Spring Awakening at Round House and the relevance of the 2006 musical to teens and parents today
Bethesda-based Round House Theatre will be staging the groundbreaking musical Spring Awakening under the direction of Alan Paul. Previews begin January 22nd. Set in the late 19th century Germany, the musical follows a repressed group of teenagers dealing with their emerging sexuality. With book & lyrics by Steven Sater and music by pop star Duncan Sheik, […]
“The audience won’t like him.” Family man Haysam Kadri on playing the villain in the Afghan play A Thousand Splendid Suns
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel encompassing the lives of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, living in war-torn Kabul and both married to the same man, Rasheed. The play has been living a successful theatrical adaptation in Canada, London, and California. On January 21st, this adaptation by Ursula Rani Sarma will be […]
7 upcoming plays which are about to tell us where we lost our humanity and where we can find it again.
Tim Treanor was asked to recommend 7 plays for the lecture DC Theatre Season 2020 held January 14 in the Smithsonian’s S. Dillon Ripley Center. Since we’ve had several requests for his remarks, we publish it here, along with our thanks to the other critics Chris Klimek (Washington City Paper),Nicole Hertvik (DC Metro Theater Arts) […]
Review: Sheltered at Theater J
A compelling story and witty script, a faultless. pitch-perfect cast under the savvy direction of Adam Immerwahr, and its excellent design make Theater J’s production of Sheltered a must-see before it closes in early February. In only its second professional production, Sheltered by up-and-coming playwright Alix Sobler is a cogent choice for Theater J, its […]
A fight breaks out in Bethesda’s Harp and Fiddle Pub. It’s Joe Calarco’s play, A Measure of Cruelty
In 2009, a 15-year-boy was doused with rubbing alcohol by four middle school classmates, who lit him on fire in a heinous tragedy that rocked a South Florida community. A few years later, playwright Joe Calarco was commissioned by the Mosaic Theatre in Plantation, Fla., to pen a play about the events, though he wasn’t […]
Review: Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop at NextStop Theatre
When a play about Martin Luther King, Jr. is set at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on the evening of April 3, 1968, it’s easy to assume that you know where the play is going. But The Mountaintop, by Katori Hall and being staged by NextStop Theatre Company, still has a few tricks up its sleeve. […]
Review: Three new operas showcased in WNO’s AOI Festival 2020. Is the development process working?
2020 marks the 8th year of Washington National Opera’s showcase of new compositional teams working in the most specialized art form of opera in a rollout of three twenty-minute operas. It’s clearly a much-needed service. Opera companies across the country are searching to develop new talent but, even more, to attract younger audiences. Most of […]
Review: The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. A community coping with the aftermath of a hate crime
How does a community face up to its history? And how does that community both move on while holding onto a pivotal moment that still elicits reactions from tears to indifference to denial? These questions rose to the surface as I experienced the powerful production of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later produced by Dark […]
Charlene V. Smith is making history with Brave Spirits’ 8 play cycle of Shakespeare’s histories. Here’s how she’s doing it.
Charlene V. Smith is not shying away from a theatrical marathon. As the artistic director for Brave Spirits Theatre (BST), Smith and the company’s productions have often focused on learning contemporary lessons from historical, usually action-packed, plays. The company’s tagline: Verse and Violence, acknowledges the nature of what you can expect from them, an appreciation […]
Theater J announces two new Jewish Play Prizes. Submissions close April 1, 2020.
Theater J, which in addition to its season of fully produced plays helps re-discover Yiddish plays through readings in its Yiddish Theater Lab, today announced the formation of two national Jewish Play Prizes. Submissions are being accepted now, with winners announced in the fall of 2020. The press release announced: “The Theater J Trish Vradenburg […]
Review: Richard the Second kicks off Brave Spirits’ History Project with panache
Brave Spirits – oh brave indeed! – have kicked off their ambitious plan to perform the entirety of Shakespeare’s double-tetralogy of history plays covering one of the most tumultuous periods of English history. This season is devoted to Richard the Second, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V (collectively titled The King’s Shadow), with each play opening over the […]
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