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 […]
Charlene V. Smith is making history with Brave Spirits’ 8 play cycle of Shakespeare’s histories. Here’s how she’s doing it.
Charlene V. Smith is not shying away from a theatrical marathon. As the artistic director for Brave Spirits Theatre (BST), Smith and the company’s productions have often focused on learning contemporary lessons from historical, usually action-packed, plays. The company’s tagline: Verse and Violence, acknowledges the nature of what you can expect from them, an appreciation […]
Review: Richard the Second kicks off Brave Spirits’ History Project with panache
Brave Spirits – oh brave indeed! – have kicked off their ambitious plan to perform the entirety of Shakespeare’s double-tetralogy of history plays covering one of the most tumultuous periods of English history. This season is devoted to Richard the Second, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V (collectively titled The King’s Shadow), with each play opening over the […]
2020 Visions. Theatre leaders tell us what lies ahead.
We asked area theatre companies to tell us what they were most looking forward to in 2020. Their answers surprised us! Contributors: 4615 Theatre Company . American Ensemble Theater . American Shakespeare Theatre Company . Arena Stage . Avant Bard Theatre . Brave Spirits Theatre . Capital Fringe . CulturalDC . Folger Theatre . Happenstance […]
Review: The Duchess of Malfi, an old school (17th century) slasher story
The Duchess of Malfi is a morality play with no morals, a revenge play in which no one’s revenged, except accidentally; a tragedy in which so many people get killed that there’s almost no one to clean up afterward; Titus Andronicus without the corpus delicious. It is four hundred and five years old, and thus […]
Coriolanus from Brave Spirits (review)
One of the joys of theatre is seeing a classic play presented in a surprising manner that gives new life to the story. Brave Spirits Theatre’s lively production of Coriolanus once again illustrates the adaptability and greatness of Shakespearean tragedy.
Today’s war on women reflected in The Trojan Women Project (review)
Playing like variations on the theme of the ancient Greek play The Trojan Woman, Brave Spirits’ The Trojan Women Project faces head-on a number of issues ripped from the headlines and lifelines of today. Instead of the aftermath from the ancient war over Troy, the new battle in question is identified as the War on Women […]
Brave Spirits contemporizes Euripides’ Trojan Women with today’s diverse spectrum of women.
The future is female. The future is non-binary. The future is genderqueer. The future is trans. The future is queer. But before we reach the future, and while we strive in the present, it is imperative that we reflect upon the history that has guided and pushed us to where we are.
Review: Brave Spirits’ Doctor Faustus
A political rival once said of the famed French foreign minister, Talleyrand, that he “would sell his soul for money and he would be right, for he would be exchanging dung for gold.” And it is this observation which is at the bottom of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and also of all the deliberate evil […]
Brave Spirits gives A King and No King its debut after 400 years (review)
It took over 400 years for A King and No King to receive a DC area premiere. Yet were authors Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher still alive, they would certainly be pleased with the Brave Spirits Theatre’s fine production of their tragicomedy about a king’s attraction to his sister.
‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore by Brave Spirits (review)
The human heart: such a powerful muscle, and such a delicate instrument at the same time. The frailties of the human heart, especially when twisted with desire, can make for dangerous congress.
Shakespeare’s not the only Bard: Charlene V Smith, talking about Brave Spirits’ Incest Rep
“A King and No King has never been professionally staged in the DC metropolitan area before, and it’s our fifth play from the early modern era that we can say that about, in just six years of production. Five of the plays we’ve done are four hundred years old and have never been done in […]
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