Andrew White - Page 7

WSC Avant-Bard's magical production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream offers is an absolute delight. It doesn't matter if you are the most hardened grown-up or the most precocious, spoiled brat the world has ever seen. You will be entranced by this production's creativity for much of the show's 2+ hours' traffic on the Gunston Arts Center stage.

It's fitting that Shakespeare Theater's Artistic Director Michael Kahn has created an evening that bookends the pathetic theater critics of the 18th century with criticism in our own day.  His cracker-jack, double casting results in a fun evening with star turns-and slapstick routines-galore.

The American Shakespeare Center's current 'Dangerous Dreams' tour-featuring Julius Caesar, The Life of King Henry the Fifth and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest-is an absolute blast from start to finish. Packed with some seasoned talent and boundless energy, you'll be swept up in the drama, the warmth and good humor in spite of yourself.

With their searing new drama, Marcus Gardley's The Gospel of Lovingkindness, Mosaic Theater confirms that their vision is solid, their commitment to the community steadfast.  And the talent assembled under the sensitive, energetic direction of Jennifer L. Nelson is everything one could ask for.  It almost goes without saying that the timeliness of this play-about the loss of young men to the streets, and often for the most shocking of reasons-cannot be overstated.

A comic bouquet of theatrical fluff that Shakespeare tossed off, as its title suggests, solely to please his audience, Synetic takes the story and gives it the contemporary edge that we've come to know and love. But given its gritty, urban setting and new characters, I strongly advise you re-acquaint yourself with the original plot and then peruse the 'revised' plot offered in the program here.

Featuring a host of home-grown talent from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University, Black Nativity drinks deeply of the Christmas season's true spirit, the sorrow as well as the joy, and can fill your heart in ways that few holiday offerings can.  This isn't just a feel-good show, this is also a show for those who feel the pain of loss keenly this time of year, and it offers a balm for what ails us.

The Kennedy Center has opened its holiday season with the Joffrey Ballet's brilliant, fascinating production of 'The Nutcracker.' With a stellar company, stunning set and lights, not to mention choreography to please mature and young audiences alike, it is a truly joyful event.

When the lights come down, we're treated at first to the sort of amiable, snarky chit-chat one associates with Comedy Channel. The two performers, James Long and Marcus Youssef, skim the surface of American culture and even ask the audience for suggestions. But after luring us with the sort of 'Canadian Nice' that we expect from our neighbors up north, the pair's conversation lurches into darker territory; and then it goes into overdrive.

Sarma, an Irish-Indian playwright, gives us a glimpse of the despair of a Celtic Tiger weighed down by debt and economic depression. A country that once had so much optimism is still struggling to get back on its feet, after the financial crisis wiped out many of the gains it had made. Sarma writes with sympathy but also with remove; none of the people in her universe are completely innocent, nor completely evil either. Their humanity is contrasted with the trap that society has set for them, with almost inevitable results.

Romance must be in the air—maybe it's the invigorating chill of fall weather and the crunch of leaves underfoot, but whatever the reason it's time for Quotidean to offer a heart-warmer of a play as its season opener.  Quotidean's offering, as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, is a premiere of Audrey Cefaly's two-hander, Maytag Virgin.  This tried-and-true plot of opposites attract is brought vividly two life by two stellar performers, and Cefaly's sturdy direction.

For a perfect evening's entertainment, let's begin with a big city and a cozy circle of single girls on the lookout for the Man of Their Dreams-or a reasonable, one-night facsimile.  Stir in the plot elements of true love thwarted, women stealing men behind each other's backs; sprinkle liberally with sweet revenge on the worst frenemy ever, and you've got the recipe for a great romantic comedy.

Today, Sedaris' work isn't just published in the New Yorker, not just in book form, he is now in huge demand as a reader. Who could have imagined that a snarky, off-beat short story writer could generate such a huge following? And with such a sarcastic, nasal baritone? And yet here he stood at Wolf Trap Farm Park's main stage the other night, surrounded by adoring fans, his old-tech file folder and sheafs of paper in hand. We loved it.

The American Century Theater's tenure as the DC area's advocate for neglected 20th century American drama comes to a close with a revival of one of their signature productions, the authorized stage version of Reginald Rose's classic Twelve Angry Men. Jack Marshall, TACT's Artistic Director directs a solid cast in this legal drama, which plays out in taut, edge-of-your seat real time.

Wolf Trap recently hosted the innovative Native Pride Dancers for a demonstration of Native American dance, a fascinating hour featuring young, dedicated performers.   There is enough variety and information to ensure that the young people in attendance would learn a tremendous amount about the cultures populated North America long before Europeans arrived-and get on-stage to join in the dance themselves!

'Flying V Fights: Heroes & Monsters' marks a return to truly exciting form, performed by this year's Aniello Award-winning emerging theatre, a thrilling evening devoted to stage combat.  If you are a big fan of action on the screen, on your hand-held, wherever, this is just the dream spectacle  you need to get your summer off to a roaring start.

Ambassador Theater, with their production of Polish poet Tadeusz Rózewicz's masterpiece The Trap, introduces Washington audiences to a theatrical genius of Samuel Beckett's stature. The Trap traces key elements in Franz Kafka's life, and Rózewicz's masterstroke is to weave the much darker future-the rise of Nazism, the death of Kafka's sisters' in the Holocaust, and the long Soviet occupation-with the troubled 'present' of Kafka's time.

For over one hundred years Alfred Jarry has set the gold standard for profanity, riotous provocation and just plain weirdness. Putting on a play about him is daunting but Richard Heinrich of Spooky Action Theater has taken on this heady task. 'Jarry Inside Out' offers us an evening that is likely to leave some exhilarated, others exhausted, but everyone intrigued.

Aura Curiatlas, and its current program 'Dream Logic' is dedicated to the idea that with a simple stage, simpler costumes and a sound cue or two, you can create magic.  Their evening of 10 dance vignettes is fascinating exploration of dance, physics, romance, with a healthy dose of cheap slapstick.  The daring physicality and creativity of the company is a reminder for those techno-geeks out there that the stage, still, truly belongs to the performing artist.

Under the direction of Joel David Santner (who will shortly be moving to California for film school, a great loss to the DC area) the company has proven yet again that when viewed with fresh eyes, the early First Quarto version of 'Hamlet' is a limitless source of inspiration for artists and audiences alike.  Although the company pulls its aesthetic punches by inviting a few guys to join the cast (including Marcus Kyd in the title role), the performance is of a dependable, high quality that makes this a rare, intimate view of the Bard's work.

Well, well, well - Lady Mary, meet Frederick Lonsdale, whose classic comedy of marriage and manners, 'On Approval,' is receiving a spirited revival at the Washington Stage Guild. It seems that the Roaring 20's was indeed a time for women to take a more active role in the selection of their mates ...