Roger Catlin, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is a Washington D.C.-based arts writer whose work appears regularly in SmithsonianMagazine.com. and AARP the Magazine. He has also written for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and Salon and was a staff writer for The Hartford Courant in Connecticut for 25 years.
It was on a May evening 105 years ago when the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet 'The Rite of Spring' caused booing, catcalls and near riots in Paris.
Curator Damian Woetzel chooses dancers and choreographers presenting excerpts of new pieces, works in progress, or in the case of the event in conjunction with the inaugural Direct Current series, a world premiere.
The Kennedy Center kicked off its multidisciplinary contemporary cultural assault Tuesday with something thought to embody the approach, Taylor Macs 'A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (1776-2016).
What if gospel music was taken out of church? What if its structure, soul and power were applied to some other ancient stories, such as, for example, Sophocles, where actors talk about gods plural?
While every theatrical performance these days is prefaced by a request to turn off cell phones (which somebody invariably ignores), few plays have really delved into how the devices have so rapidly changed everyday life.
It must be galling for many ballet companies that their very operation is dependent on extended holiday performances of 'The Nutcracker' year after year.
Of the two dozen stages participating in the Women's Voices Theater Festival this year, the one for the 4615 Theatre Company in Silver Spring must be the smallest.