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 […]
Lee Mikeska Gardner named Artistic Director of Nora Theatre Company
It’s true. Lee Mikeska Gardner, area arts administrator, director and actor – you may remember that Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal compared her memorable performance as “Crazy Terry”, alcoholic wife of jazz musician Gene in Side Man at 1st Stage to Edie Falco’s on Broadway – will become the artistic head of the […]
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 Pitmen Painters
Usually when theatre tackles the subject of art is does so through the eyes of artists (Red, Sunday in the Park with George), or at least looks at art through the lense of educated men (Art). Yet the brilliance of Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters comes from its fresh approach of showing the impact of […]
Blithe Spirit at 1st Stage
Blithe Spirit has been around for ages, and now is as good a time as any to be reminded why. It’s got a fun premise – imagining love’s reach beyond the afterlife – and with the right performers and the right touch, it’s comforting and provokingly tender. Without giving too much away, the two wives […]
Never the Sinner
Theatre gives us, among other things, the power to find great stories in surprising places. And it’s hard to find a better example this month than over at 1st Stage, where audiences will enter a Tysons Corner strip mall only to find one of the most momentous trials of the twentieth century playing out inside.
Italian American Reconciliation
Looking for a unique Valentine’s Day experience? Try Italian American Reconciliation, John Patrick Shanley’s darkly comic yet heartfelt romance now playing at 1st Stage.
Altar Boyz
Altar Boyz is a silly, raucous romp of a show with good intentions and even better execution. If great direction, flash dancing and pelvic thrusting urban choreography would get us through the Pearly Gates, then the Altar Boyz would high step their way in with bumps and grinds to spare.
Suite Surrender
As the weather turns to the cooler days of autumn, 1st Stage invites you to take a trip to the warm weather of Palm Beach in Michael McKeever’s frothy farce Suite Surrender. Your vacation involves more than just a trip to sunny Florida; you also enjoy a trip back in time to the 1940s, an […]
1st Stage honors DCTS’ Gary Maker Audience Award with free tickets
1st Stage, the surprisingly comfortable and well appointed theatre which belies its strip mall location in Tysons Corner, has been defying the odds since a director and his actors decided to build their own theatre, then opened it in September, 2011, just as the financial crisis hit, with a Russian comedy titled Suicide.
Recipients of the 2012 Gary Lee Maker Audience Award announced
On Friday, September 14th, minutes before two Hollywood divas and one pampered lap dog enter the luxurious Palm Beach Royale Hotel heading for the same suite in 1st Stage’s farce Suite Surrender, a brief curtain presentation will take place. Audiences won’t learn about the company’s new season, but will instead honor two of their own, […]
Favorite contemporary plays from the 2011-2012 season
It’s time once again for my annual tribute to new plays and playwrights . These are the relatively recent original plays which made their area debut in the DC area during the 2011-2012 theatre season. Each of these plays brought me joy as an audience member and envy as an occasional writer.