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 […]
Simon Godwin’s next thing: Directing National Theatre’s film Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s peripatetic Artistic Director Simon Godwin, having instituted a six-production 2020-2021 season for STC notwithstanding the pandemic, has decided to use his spare time to helm a film of Romeo and Juliet for the National Theatre – in London. Godwin, who previously directed filmed stage productions of Antony & Cleopatra and Twelfth Night […]
Actors and politicians in STC’s Will on the Hill. Can The Bard guide us in these tempestuous times?
If you are inclined to self-righteousness – and, really, who isn’t? – you might be prepared to look down your nose at the various Senators, House Members and other political high rollers who gathered together to produce 2020’s Will on the Hill – or Won’t They? After all, what are they doing pretending to be […]
Review: ACA Radio Reps takes on the challenges of Hamlet
Since art, like life itself, constantly renews itself, new generations of artists arrive on stages, and in studios and publishing houses, whether we are ready for them or not. They are not deterred by inhospitable times, such as depressions (viz Paul Robeson, Orson Wells) or World Wars (viz. Ernest Hemmingway, Norman Mailer). We have not had […]
Review: Romeo and Juliet and Man and Superman, ACA Radio Reps’ theatre for the ears
Adjusting to the changed circumstances brought on by COVID 19, Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy for Classical Acting has moved its 2020 graduating class performances to online audio/radio. In this situation, telling the story primarily by vocal production and sound effects becomes the main thing. Classical theater received only aurally takes some getting used to. It’s not […]
Denied a stage, Academy of Classical Acting 2020 grads perform Shakespeare and Shaw as live radio plays
Due to the coronavirus, the intensive one-year MFA in Acting, Academy for Classical Acting, a joint venture between Shakespeare Theatre Company and George Washington University, was unable to hold final live performances for its students, but that doesn’t mean the class won’t perform. Under the guidance of ACA Program Director Alec Wild, the school’s 20th […]
Should the show have gone on? Shakespeare Theatre’s Mock Trial litigates Midsummer Night’s Dream
Order in the living room! There is no bottom to Washington’s taste for litigation, but Shakespeare Theatre’s Mock Trial went beyond itself last night, charging Nick Bottom and the rest of the Rude Mechanicals with a contractual violation which they, ah, didn’t actually commit. The Supreme Court of Athens met via Zoom last night – […]
Theatre patron and 2013 Gary Maker Award recipient Linda Elyce Bryce has died
Linda Elyse Bryce, a teacher, lover of Shakespeare, broad-spectrum theater supporter and winner of the 2013 Gary Maker Award, given to the audience member who best exemplifies Maker’s enthusiastic, grass-roots support of Washington theater, died yesterday morning. Bryce was a resident of Venice, Florida at the time of her death. The Faction of Fools, Washington’s […]
Brush up your Shakespeare. It’s (almost) his birthday. Invites from 3 companies to celebrate
So Bill Shakespeare would have been 456 on Thursday, April 23, and under normal circumstances, I know, you would have been enjoying a fat goose and a few tankards of mead with a dozen or so of your besties. But: coronavirus. So now what? Do not despair. Three nearby Bard-centric theatre companies have your covered. […]
How I got hooked on theatre: Simon Godwin
It began with sawdust, clowns, and the high wire. It began with walking excitedly across muddy English fields to a gaudy big top. It began with spectacle and a world elsewhere. Then, on my ninth birthday, sawdust met the stage when my mum took me to see the ultimate circus musical, Barnum, starring Michael Crawford […]
Shakespeare Theatre mock trial gives a speedy – and witty – hearing to The Trial of Peter Pan
Peter Pan, having swept the Darling children up into the sky with fairy dust, brought them to Neverland, a venue full of pirates and mermaids. There, along with the lost boys, they did battle with the worst of them. The children returned that very night with memories of fantastic adventures and resolved to live lives […]
Review: Timon of Athens. Simon Godwin’s vivification rescues one of Shakespeare’s minor plays
Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Simon Godwin’s choice of directorial debut wasn’t a stretch. Godwin’s newly minted tenure at STC begins with a vivid and zesty restaging of his recently produced Timon of Athens, a cluttered morality play in original form which he’s cleverly smoothed over and corseted up into a fetchingly absurdist cri de […]
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