[Editor’s note: Much has been written about the extraordinary production of Oklahoma!, now enjoying a return engagement at Arena Stage. We’ve asked our dance reviewer to look at it from her perspective.] When choreographer Parker Esse joined the creative team of Arena Stage’s Oklahoma!, he was entering sacred territory: previous choreographers of the Rodgers & Hammerstein […]
Hello, Hedgehogs! A Storytelling Show
I haven’t been to many Fringe shows that ended with everyone in the audience asking for a picture of the performers. Then again Hello, Hedgehogs! deviates from the norm in a bunch of ways. Its solo performer, Ellie Shinman, must not have heard the dictum “never share the stage with small children or live animals!” […]
Illuminate: A Martial Arts Experience
If Bruce Lee had played Lite-Brite as a youngster, Illuminate is the kind of show he may have conceived. Instead kudos go to Johnny Shryock, producer, director and composer of Illuminate, who performs with an incredible cast: Jamie Noguchi, Charles Shryock IV, Nick Oben, Mike Stahly, Brad Lust, and Zach Stahly. Together they wrote and […]
A Day at the Museum
The premise is enticing: A Day at the Museum is a wordless glimpse of various characters passing in front of three images in a gallery. The set design creatively positions three frames where the stage ends and the front row of seats begins so the audience has the perspective of the women in the paintings: […]
My Name is Pablo Picasso
Picture this: there’s an artist (painter/actor/musician/dancer) you admire and one day you hear about less savory details of their private life. Does it change your opinion of their work? Do you dismiss the information as rumor started by a rival? Are you Machiavellian and believe the end justifies the means, no matter what lives are […]
Illuminopolis
Fifteen minutes into Illuminopolis I was happy I had chosen a seat far away from the front row: it meant there was more room between me and the woman licking fire on stage.
2nd Annual Fool for All: Tales of Courage and Poultry
To borrow a phrase from Gene Kelly in “Anchors Aweigh”, The 2nd Annual Fool for All, directed and devised by Matthew R. Wilson, is not for grouchers, groaners, cranks, and moaners. It’s a feel-good show designed for people who appreciate silliness and folly: 43 actors have created a total of 9 scenes (4 on view each […]
Step Afrika
SLAM tap tap tap tap… SLAM tap tap tap tap…. Like a shot from a gun or a huge book crashing to the ground, the SLAM defies description. It’s a sound not so much heard as felt. The impact of the man’s shoe on the stage sends vibrations into my chest.
Finding the funny in a Commedia class
It was mid-October, the air was crisp, the leaves were changing and the people in Sidney Harman Hall were metamorphosing. I was an observer in Matthew Wilson’s Master Class for actors, and the long sequence of “exercises to warm up the neck” was a dead giveaway: this workshop was going to be as physical as […]
garage/dances
Liz Lerman has blazed a trail for artists and audiences not only in DC but also nationally and internationally for 34 years; garage/dances extends this path of creative exploration.
From Sublime to Divine
From Sublime to Divine is the journey of two women – Lisa Santhanam and Nazanin (Nazy) Baygani – as they learn Odissi, one of the classical dance forms of India. It’s an autobiographical tale that begins with the sparks that ignited their passions: for Nazy it was a picture of another classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, […]
The Sleeping Beauty – A Puppet Ballet
There are those Fringe shows that contain racy material or crude language or both, but this is not one of them. The Sleeping Beauty – A Puppet Ballet by Pointless Theatre Co. is a clever and creative adaptation of the story by Charles Perrault