Kate Robards is blonde and white, and she is about to play some Chinese people. Should we be worried? “No!” she says. “It’s not that kind of show. And it’s embarrassing for a whole bunch of other reasons instead.” In her solo show Mandarin Orange, which premieres at Fringe this month, Kate details the strange […]
About Hunter Styles
Noises Off
Faced with an ailing actress unable to perform on Sunday night, Noises Off director Doug Wilder made the rather unusual decision to pull on a spare dress and play the role himself, venturing onstage with a copy of the script in hand. This turned out to be the best solution anyone could have found. The […]
Maurice Hines on his life in tap and Lady Gaga
Some interviewees, once seated, need a bit of a prod to get talking. But Maurice Hines has left them all in the dust by the time I hit ‘Record.’ The renowned director, singer, and choreographer is supremely excited about Tappin’ Thru Life at Arena Stage, and our afternoon conversation at the theatre plays at high […]
Protest
The Mead Theatre Lab has rarely felt as inviting as it did for Wednesday night’s performance of Protest, the thoughtful political two-hander currently being produced by the internationally-minded Ambassador Theater. Snacks, drinks, and colorful tablecloths cover the small tables arranged nicely throughout the room, creating an evening cafĂ© environment suited to some nice pre-show conversation […]
The Immortal Jellyfish
Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality? Last winter, when The New York Times Magazine ran a feature under that headline, the idea of a creature that lives on and on with no biological death captured many readers’ imaginations. Turns out it’s real. It’s a hydrozoa called Turritopsis dorhnii, and it routinely reverts from […]
Shrimp & Griots
It’s not a coincidence that so many solo performers touch on isolation in the stories they tell. These are individuals who, more often than not, had the spotlight shined on them in some way before they ever stepped onstage, and often not for the right reasons.
The Argument
At first glance, the handsome high-ceilinged apartment in which nearly all of The Argument plays out seems too spacious. How are two actors — even two very good actors — to fill it? But we’re quickly reminded that homes contain more than the mere bodies of their inhabitants. We unpack enormous amounts of ourselves among […]
Center Stage audiences experience Bayley’s refugee drama from inside a shipping container
Most visitors to the Baltimore Book Festival weren’t expecting to stumble upon some great theatre parked in the middle of Mount Vernon Square. But if you had the good fortune to visit Center Stage’s booth at a few select times, the big clanging doors of a shipping container swung open just for you and fourteen […]
Unearthing Art: Director Stevie Zimmerman Discusses The Pitmen Painters
An accomplished teacher and educator as well as a talented director, Stevie Zimmerman has become rather adept at bringing out the creative potential in people. So it’s fitting to have her at the helm of The Pitmen Painters, Lee Hall’s 2007 play about the unlikely rise of an art movement among a largely untrained group […]
The music of Gee’s Bend finds a home at MetroStage
The lives of the Pettway women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama are stitched indelibly into the quilts they made. And as the presence of those quilts grew in the American consciousness — evolving from simple domestic wares into powerful social artifacts and, eventually, into American treasures — an unseen perspective on segregation and the Civil Rights […]
Heads of State: actors Kurt Rhoads and Scott Parkinson discuss Measure For Measure
A shutdown of the federal government only comes along every so often, but crises of leadership are nothing new. Since this week is shaping up to be a good one for some reflection on this point, let’s turn our attention to one of Shakespeare’s shrewder studies of civic disruption, Measure For Measure, and the modernized […]
Estelle Parsons is living life at top speed
For someone who plays a suicide bomber every night, Estelle Parsons keeps an awfully sunny disposition. The Oscar-winning actress, 85, is in DC to play Alexandra, the headstrong protagonist of Eric Coble’s new play The Velocity of Autumn, in what may turn into a pre-Broadway run but can be seen now at Arena Stage. Alexandra’s […]
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