After death, two professionals spring into action. The undertaker applies makeup, and puts formaldehyde in the veins, so that the forgetting may begin after a celebration. If the undertaker is successful, the deceased will float into the corner of your brain which holds Uncle Gus, who died when you were eight and who you didn’t […]
About Tim Treanor
Close reading of the $15 Billion for Save our Stages shows relief for area theatres
Congress has included a $15 billion grant package for performance and related arts, including theaters, in the $900 billion coronavirus relief package it passed on Monday. The program, called “Grants for Shuttered Venue Operators” in the new bill, will provide up to $10 million in grant money to beleaguered cultural institutions. Under the provisions of […]
Review: I Hate It Here: Stories from the End of the Old World
Do you remember the old Firesign Theatre? On their records (do you remember records?), an absurd scene would dissolve into another absurd scene, until you dissolved in laughter. To put a period on our annus horribilis, Ike Holter’s I Hate It Here uses the Firesign Theatre motif. Absurd scenes dissolve into other absurd scenes. But […]
Review: A very merry Christmas Carol from American Shakespeare Center
Scrooge was right, you know; it is humbug to fall like jackals upon each other for eleven months of the year, but on the twelfth to feign good will and generosity of spirit. He was a skinflint and a tightwad, but he was no hypocrite. When he asked the do-gooders, seeking donations for the poor, […]
DC Theatre Scene to cease publication Dec 31
After fifteen and a half years and more than ten thousand articles, DC Theatre Scene will cease publishing on December 31, 2020. After December 31, there will be no more reviews, no more articles, no more theater news. “We know this decision will affect many people, and I wish we could have continued to serve,” […]
Review: Independent Claus from Best Medicine. Not one of its best
You’re never quite sure which Claus is independent in Jackob G. Hofmann’s meandering, pointless 70-minute video comedy until the very end, and by that point it doesn’t matter. In Best Medicine Rep’s An Independent Claus, Kris Kringle (Terence Heffernan) is a Bad Santa – a crude, womanizing misogynist whose constant traveling companion is a half-consummated […]
With GALA’s cancellations, all DC-area theatres are now closed to in-person performances
Shakespeare Theatre Company announced yesterday that it will cancel its limited in-person production of Blindness in light of an increase in the number of DC coronavirus cases. The increase had caused DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to announce further restrictions on her revised Phase Two ReOpen DC plan which goes into effect November 25. “The health […]
Can theatres survive the pandemic? For Brave Spirits, the answer is no.
The economic havoc caused by the coronavirus has claimed another local victim – Brave Spirits Theatre. The nine-year-old company was in the midst of an ambitious project to produce Shakespeare’s histories from Richard II to Richard III when Covid-19 began to shut down theaters – and most other enterprises – in and near DC. The […]
Review: The Marriage Proposal, a Chekhovian comic soufflé
Brothers and sisters, think back to the day you asked your Heart of Hearts to join you in eternal matrimony, if there was such a day. Did you do it in the traditional way, at a restaurant, kneeling aside the starched linens, with musicians playing sweetly in the background? Perhaps, in a comfortable relationship of […]
Ari Roth resigns from Mosaic Theater of DC
An embittered Ari Roth today announced that he has resigned as Artistic Director of Mosaic Theater Company, the company he founded six years ago after parting with Theater J. Board of Directors Bill Tompkins announced that the Board unanimously accepted his resignation. Roth revealed that unidentified staff had leveled charges of “white supremacist culture and […]
Tom Prewitt, Avant Bard’s leader, memorial service announced
Update: A memorial service for Tom Prewitt will be held Sunday, Nov 29, 2020 at 1 pm ET. Tom’s family invites you to join them in remembering Tom’s life and celebrating his memory. For a link to the Zoom event, email [email protected] (subject: RSVP) by Wednesday, November 25. Tom Prewitt, Avant Bard Theatre’s Artistic Director, […]
Keegan’s about to go live (stream) with Trans Am and Gumbo to Mumbo
Live theater is a dangerous place. We know it as a place where audacious ideas and forms – The Seagull, Death of a Salesman, Angels in America, A Strange Loop – saunter their risky walks across the stage. But it’s also a high-wire act, where a catastrophic misstep by an actor or by technical support […]