“Shamelessly co-dependent is what we like to say.” So Patti Kalil, co-artistic director, describes Pointless Theatre. She is sitting beside a brightly painted backdrop before rehearsal for the company’s next show, Sleeping Beauty: A Puppet Ballet – which has since opened and runs until May 3rd at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. She is […]
The Thousandth Night
A simple tale about how tales are often more than simple, Carol Wolf’s The Thousandth Night at MetroStage is an enjoyable little punch to the gut.
Actors join Peter Marks’ Summit – some nights they earn less than the babysitter. Why do it at all?
A less contentious affair than last month’s Summit , this second of three, “In-Depth Explorations of D.C. Theatre,” led by Washington Post critic Peter Marks and hosted by Arena Stage was by no means a merely light and trivial evening. Whereas the focus of the first discussion, with local artistic directors, was the troubled American […]
Loveland
A good laugh can lift up the harshest material, and Ann Randolph’s Loveland keeps afloat with constant humor despite dealing intimately with death.
Ari Roth on The Admission at Theater J – even in good wars, bad things happen
Although controversy has swirled around the upcoming workshop presentation of The Admission at Theater J, artistic director Ari Roth is is looking beyond it. “The play’s the thing,” says Roth, speaking in his office at the DC JCC. “We’re all about the play leading the way. The controversy is not the thing, the workshop drama […]
Fresh interpretation of Caryl Churchill by the young women of Lumina Studio
With a pair of plays by Caryl Churchill, Lumina Studio Theatre looks to tap into the spirit of our times. “Top Girls… is sort of women on top, and Fen is sort of women on the bottom,” says David Minton, the company’s artistic director, who is also directing this show. “Fen is really about… wage […]
Playwrights producing – The Welders find their grail with Allyson Currin play
“Already I feel like this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” says Allyson Currin, local playwright. The Welders, the D.C-based, playwright-run collective previously profiled by DCTS here, is kicking off their innovative project – in which the five founding writers will take turns as artistic director of the company, staging one […]
Back to Methuselah, Part 1
With Washington Stage Guild’s gusty production of Back to Methuselah, less is more, and, also, more is more. Less is more: The set is appealingly minimal, the blocking clear and simple, the plot both minimal and simple. All the better to leave plenty of room for more ideas and personalities. More is more: Every time […]
Arena Stage’s first Summit, headed by Peter Marks, sparks online debate
About a month ago, Washington Post critic Peter Marks announced “The Summit,” a special series of three panel discussions. Arena Stage’s artistic director, Molly Smith, had offered Marks the opportunity to create and moderate the series as he saw fit, so on Monday night he began by bringing a quintet of local artistic directors to […]
Rainbow Theatre Project: GBLT company going beyond the expected
“While we may be trying to have all these lofty ideals, we still want people to have a good time.” H. Lee Gable, Producing Artistic Director for the Rainbow Theatre Project, knows that putting on a pleasing theatre production is about much more than the final product you see onstage, or even the rehearsal that […]
Jess Jung on her long road to Happy Days
“I think the DC Theatre scene is a great place for a director to pick up small projects, I think there’s a lot of theatres in town that are very supportive,” says Jess Jung, sitting down to talk about her production of Happy Days, currently running at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. “But I […]
“It’s a chiller.” Kasi Campbell on The Piano Teacher at Rep Stage
The Piano Teacher, next up at Rep Stage, may unsettle you, but mum’s the word about just what it’s going to unsettle you about. “You think the play is going to go one place,” says Kasi Campbell, “and because it’s a chiller, it goes a place you don’t expect it to go.”