Tonight, before a gathering of theatre artists and patrons, theatreWashington announced the nominees for the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, drawn from 202 eligible productions presented in the 2015 calendar year. Scroll down for the full list of nominees!
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.
Happenstance Theater's IMPOSSIBLE! is impossibly inventive, whimsical, and tender. The tribute to classic Depression-era circus life uses period music, a clever costume choice or the arch of an eyebrow to convey far more than mere words are able. IMPOSSIBLE! is a family-friendly production that hits just the right tone - funny not ridiculous, kindhearted not cloying, smart not pretentious. The original piece of physical theater was devised by the Happenstance ensemble. We venture both under the big top and behind the scenes to witness the camaraderie, loneliness, frustrations and foibles of the band of performers.
Grab some children - or kids at heart - and make your way to Adventure Theatre MTC for their new version of Baum's popular tale, here called THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ. In a whirlwind of a production, aimed at young audiences, this WIZARD weaves a spell that cannot be broken by the wickedest of witches.
Cabaret Macabre is a fun-filled romp of happy little horrors: merry morbid vignettes and musical numbers abound in this production by Happenstance Theater's ensemble of very capable physical comedians.
This season, Imagination Stage will introduce their latest offering, Blue. In its East Coast premiere, Blue is a play about colors, tolerance, and understanding. Join Inky and Blue in this play filled with humor, whimsy, and all the colors of the rainbow. Completing the 2014-15 Early Childhood season are fan favorites, Wake Up, Brother Bear, Inside Out, and Aquarium.
Imagination Stage, in Bethesda, has scored yet another home run with its production of THE BFG, adapted by David Wood, OBE, from Roald Dahl's children's novel, and directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer and Eric J. Van Wyck. Parents will find themselves laughing along with their kids at Dahl's and Wood's irreverent humor, including an extended riff on the biologically impolite results of reversing the direction of the bubbles in soda pop. The more mature members of the audience will chuckle at the modern cultural references. This production is a must-see.
Imagination Stage is the new home of Giant Country in The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), a play based on the book by Roald Dahl and adapted by David Wood. Co-directed by Imagination Stage's Associate Artistic Director Kathryn Chase Bryer and Eric J. Van Wyk of Viterbo University, The BFG integrates puppetry, rich visuals, and imaginative storytelling as Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant go on a magical journey to save the children of England. Scroll down for a first look at the cast onstage!
The production is definitely high-energy fun for the youngest of theatregoers.
Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell have established Happenstance as one of the most inventive, genuinely spontaneous companies in town. Their sources of inspiration are diverse, likewise the shows that develop (literally) before our eyes. Based on the principle of physical improvisation, their brand of Devised Theater (quite distinct from that bane of critics, the "work in progress") can give you the delight of witnessing artists in the process of discovery, development and revision. The results are often confusing and challenge us to abandon our innate desire to make sense of things, inviting us simply to let the ensemble go about their wonderful work.
As we wait for the first snowflakes to transform our nation's capital into a winter wonderland, the DC area theatres are giving families so many holiday-themed shows to choose from. Here are some productions which will make the holidays very jolly indeed!
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