The greatest sign of stability in a culture is, paradoxically, its ability to absorb change. There was a collective holding of breath when Joy Zinoman announced her retirement in 2009; could Studio stand the absence of its only Artistic Director? We needn’t have worried. Studio’s fine, and so are we.
The Last Night of Ballyhoo at Theater J (review)
“Jewish Christmas trees don’t have stars!” Or at least they don’t according to Boo Levy, one of the matriarchs of the affluent southern Jewish Freitag-Levy household where the family has barely heard of Passover, but the aforementioned tree is proudly displayed (sans star, of course) in the front parlor.
Review: Nilo Cruz’s Sotto Voce
In 1939, the S.S. St. Louis set sail from Hamburg for Cuba with 937 passenger, most of them German Jews hoping to begin new lives away from the Nazis. Their hopes were based on a Cuban law which permitted people on a tourist visa to enter the country and stay indefinitely.
Considering Talkbacks: the art of after-show talk and its takeaways
Everyone is doing them, doing them, doing them. Well, actually no. Some artists say they hate them, notably David Mamet who recently threatened to fine theaters the hefty sum of $25,000 if they held any after his plays. In an article July 30th in the New York Times, Alexis Soloski sent out the intentional incendiary […]
The Kinsey Sicks in Things You Shouldn’t Say (review)
I’ve just spent a most unexpectedly engaging evening at the theatre, seeing the “dragapella beautyshop quartet” known as The Kinsey Sicks in their return to Theater J, whereat they’ve been in residence previously, as they perform their latest show, titled Things You Shouldn’t Say.
Being Jewish in America: Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass (review)
Screens shaped like shards of broken glass splay the Theater J stage. Upon them the company, in collaboration with the Holocaust Museum, has projected photographs and home movies taken in Germany, in 1938. Some of them feature der Führer. Some of them feature the military might of Nazi Germany. Some of them feature children. They […]
Her life in theatre: casting director Naomi Robin reflects back as she ends her career at Theater J
“Thirteen wonderful years.” As this theatre season comes to its end, an era will come to an end as Naomi Robin leaves her job at Theater J as its long-time Casting Director.
Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs at Theater J (review)
You think you’ve got problems? Try being a too-smart-for-his-own-good Jewish kid in Brooklyn in 1937. Neil Simon’s largely autobiographical comedy follows his alter ego Eugene (Cole Sitilides) as he navigates puberty, his family and the faraway events of the world, which turn out to be not so very far away after all.
Theater J’s next season takes a deep look at love in the time of hate
Against a backdrop of rising tribalism in the Western World, Theater J has selected a 2017-2018 season which explores the consequences of ascendant hate, particularly during the period of its greatest triumph in Nazi Germany.
The How and the Why at Theater J (review)
Science is real—and really dramatic—at the Edlavitch DCJCC, the home to Theater J’s latest production, The How and the Why. Written by acclaimed writer and producer Sarah Treem, whose credits include the hit TV shows The Affair and House of Cards, the play deals with everything from evolution and academia to feminism and family. If […]
Copenhagen at Theater J (review)
Tell me if this sounds familiar: Two people locked in a pivotal contest of ideas and ideologies, steeped in international espionage, with the fate of millions hanging in the balance. If you guessed “European physicists discussing electrons in 1941”, you’re a better student of history than I.
Most memorable moments on DC area stages in 2016
As this year closes, perhaps you, like we, are thinking back over your own year spent watching the various riches spread before us by Washington area theatres. I asked our staff for their most vivid memories. We hope you will share your own as comments for us all to savor.