Deidra LaWan Starnes News

Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding centers around several steamy post-World War II Southern days as seen through the eyes of twelve-year-old Frankie Addams. Frankie, or F. Jasmine as she requests we call her, is on the cusp...of what she does not know.

In 1945 rural Georgia, the long, hot days of summer bring struggle, longing, and opportunity for 12-year-old Frankie Addams and her family's housekeeper Bernice Sadie Brown. Frankie longs to escape with her newlywed brother on adventures in the Alaskan wilderness. Bernice struggles to balance enduring the deeply entrenched racism of the rural South with her role as surrogate mother to Frankie and her 6-year-old cousin. Adapted from the beloved novel of the same name, this evocative, poetic coming of age drama explores the pains of youth and the meaning of family.

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award-winning professional theatre, announces the extension of their critically-acclaimed production of A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration until December 30.

1st Stage's A Civil War Christmas, directed by Deidra Lawan Starnes with musical direction by Markus Williams, is a riveting musical helmed by a strong diverse cast of twelve actors and beautifully done production design.

It's 1864 and Washington, D.C. is settling down to the coldest Christmas Eve in years. "History lessons and holiday warmth sit cozily alongside each other" (The New York Times) in this pageant of carols by Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Indecent. Stories of many intertwining lives- spanning from the battlegrounds of Northern Virginia to the halls of the White House- demonstrate that the gladness of one's heart is the best gift of all. This "rich and moving play with music" (Variety) is a treat the whole family will enjoy.

It's 1864 and Washington, D.C. is settling down to the coldest Christmas Eve in years. "History lessons and holiday warmth sit cozily alongside each other" (The New York Times) in this pageant of carols by Paula Vogel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Indecent. Stories of many intertwining lives- spanning from the battlegrounds of Northern Virginia to the halls of the White House- demonstrate that the gladness of one's heart is the best gift of all. This "rich and moving play with music" (Variety) is a treat the whole family will enjoy.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will co-present the 12th annual MFA Playwright's Workshop (MFAPW) in association with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays.

Important content and several exceptional performances outweigh 1st Stage's flawed production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. 

From the extraordinary mind of Pultizer, Tony, and Academy Award recognized playwright August Wilson comes one of America's most renowned stories of race and music. Inspired by the real life of legendary blues singer, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a powerful installment in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning Century Cycle- 10 illustrious plays that explore the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century.

The Dramathon, DC's one-of-a-kind theatrical event presented by The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts, returns for its seventh year in June. Some of the most recognizable names in DC theatre come together for a great cause on June 12 at 7:30 pm at Washington Stage Guild. Actors and playwrights donate their time along along with volunteer fundraisers for world premiere staged readings of short plays written just for that night. All proceeds generated by the event benefit The Theatre Lab's scholarship fund.

From the extraordinary mind of Pultizer, Tony, and Academy Award recognized playwright, August Wilson comes one of America's most renowned stories of race and music. Inspired by the real life of legendary blues singer, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a powerful installment in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning Century Cycle- 10 illustrious plays that explore the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century.

"This play is not about my mother and me," begins the character, Lisa. But, of course, it is about her mother, and her mother's extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. Lisa Kron's "theatrical exploration of a universal experience" spans from her childhood in an integrating neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan to her stay at an allergy unit in Chicago when she was 19; exploring the interaction between those two stories of healing. This compelling exploration spins out of control into riotously funny and unexpected territory as Lisa takes the audience on a journey to discover why some people are sick and some people are well and the lengths to which we will go to understand each other. 

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award-winning professional theater, announces the extension of their critically-acclaimed production of Trevor by Nick Jones, directed by 1st Stage Artistic Director, Alex Levy until March 5.  

How would you feel if the person closest to you, someone with whom you interact daily, whom you care for and who cares for you, didn't understand a word you were saying and vice versa? This communication challenge is the point on which balances the story of 200-pound chimpanzee, Trevor and his owner, Sandra. As a one-time commercial and television star alongside the likes of Morgan Fairchild, Trevor is desperate to prove his relevance in a world that has moved on now that he is no longer the adorable baby monkey of his youth. His owner Sandra swears he is still harmless and childlike, protecting herself from the realities of Trevor's dangers and the deep wounds of her own losses. Based on a true story, Trevor is a tale about how relationships, flaws, and excuses can tip-toe a delicate line between side-splitting humor and dangerous misunderstandings. Trevor and Sandra's relationship spins comically and dangerously out of control in this theatrical story by "Orange is the New Black" writer, Nick Jones. The Chicago Sun-Times hailed Trevor as a "hugely entertaining tragicomedy."

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the third and final installment of Neil Simon's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy finds Eugene Jerome and his older brother Stanley trying to break into the world of show business. While coping with their parents' crumbling marriage, the boys pursue their dream of becoming famous comedy writers by drawing from their surroundings to create a sketch about family antics. When their material is broadcast on the radio for the first time, their family is upset to hear a thinly-veiled portrait of themselves played for laughs...and they are not alone. This warm, gently humorous play is a welcome treat for the Holidays.

Hot on the heels of the record-breaking, critically hailed Satchmo at the Waldorf, Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Season Two continues with Kirsten Greenidge's riotous, Obie Award-winning MILK LIKE SUGAR (November 2 - 27, 2016), under the direction of Mosaic Theater's Jennifer L. Nelson (The Gospel of Lovingkindness). The play, Mosaic's second DC premiere this season, is a rousing story about young women coming of age in a time when issues of acceptance, mentorship, and materialism challenge the dreams and ambitious of so many teens. It is the first of three plays in Mosaic's 2016-17 season to highlight issues affecting young urban teens and millennials, to be followed by the DC premiere of Philip Dawkins' intergenerational LGBTQ comedy Charm, and the world premiere of Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies.

Hot on the heels of the record-breaking, critically hailed Satchmo at the Waldorf, Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Season Two continues with Kirsten Greenidge's riotous, Obie Award-winning MILK LIKE SUGAR (November 2 - 27, 2016), under the direction of Mosaic Theater's Jennifer L. Nelson (The Gospel of Lovingkindness). The play, Mosaic's second DC premiere this season, is a rousing story about young women coming of age in a time when issues of acceptance, mentorship, and materialism challenge the dreams and ambitious of so many teens. It is the first of three plays in Mosaic's 2016-17 season to highlight issues affecting young urban teens and millennials, to be followed by the DC premiere of Philip Dawkins' intergenerational LGBTQ comedy Charm, and the world premiere of Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies.

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the third and final installment of Neil Simon's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy finds Eugene Jerome and his older brother Stanley trying to break into the world of show business.

Hot on the heels of the record-breaking, critically hailed Satchmo at the Waldorf, Mosaic Theater Company of DC's Season Two continues with Kirsten Greenidge's riotous, Obie Award-winning MILK LIKE SUGAR (November 2 - 27, 2016), under the direction of Mosaic Theater's Jennifer L. Nelson (The Gospel of Lovingkindness). The play, Mosaic's second DC premiere this season, is a rousing story about young women coming of age in a time when issues of acceptance, mentorship, and materialism challenge the dreams and ambitious of so many teens. It is the first of three plays in Mosaic's 2016-17 season to highlight issues affecting young urban teens and millennials, to be followed by the DC premiere of Philip Dawkins' intergenerational LGBTQ comedy Charm, and the world premiere of Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm's Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies.