Mosaic Theater Company of DC launches its 5th season this month with the DC premiere of Lynn Nottage's Fabulation, Or The Re-Education of Undine, previewing August 21 (see our August 1 Fabulation press release for opening night information, and our March 29 a?oe#Wokeseason5a?? release for full season line-up), exactly one month after the close of the most successful show in Mosaic's history, the co-production of Kelvin Roston Jr.'s Twisted Melodies, which sold out its last week of performances, playing to record crowds and box office, providing the capstone to a season of transformative artistic and fundraising achievements.
A child injures another in a playground confrontation. The parents of each meet to discuss. It's a parenting moment so universal that the familiar premise in Yasmina Reza's 'God of Carnage' was originally written in French and first presented in London. It was a Tony-winner on Broadway a decade ago in a production with James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden.
A friendship between prominent historical figures is a fascinating subject, and reimagining their discussions about their shared experiences as well as their own areas of expertise can be grounds for great theatre. Unfortunately, while the concept is wonderful, the Hub Theatre's execution comes up short.
The first five minutes of Theater Alliance's new production of Flood City are some of the most gripping that have graced a D.C. stage in the past year. As two women wrestle the torrential disaster which laid waste to Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1889, the ensemble creates an immensely satisfying flood across the stage at the Anacostia Playhouse. Just when the dramatic storm is reaching a natural conclusion, the action is cut short by an announcement for the audience to turn off their phones. It's admittedly a humorous turn to the scene but it sets up a dangerous precedent for the remainder of the production: almost every scene is cut short just as it starts to settle into a groove. The result is two hours of wading through a black comedy that can't settle on a pace, tonality, or even a central theme.
THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at Constellation Theatre is a thought-provoking, skillfully-rendered reminder that chaos and uncertainty are not unique to our time or to any single time. In the sure directorial hands of Mary Hall Surface, Thornton Wilder's masterpiece is a wild time-traveling, allegorical tragicomedy, without the Pepperidge Farm and Hallmark overtones we've now come to associate with the OUR TOWN playwright.
"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. The 1st Stage production of Well by Lisa Kron features Laura Artesi, Audrey Bertaux, Edward Christian, Marquis D. Gibson, Lolita Marie, and Elizabeth Pierotti. Michael Bloom directs the production at 1st Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Why are some people well and others unwell? Playwright Lisa Kron's Well, asks the hard questions. In this s-called 'multi-character theatrical exploration,' Kron (Adurey Bertaux) is the star in her play-within-a-play chronicling her real-life experiences growing up in Lansing, Michigan in the 1960s.
"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.
'He was not.' A grieving grandmother repeatedly belts that powerful phrase across the audience from the opening scene of 'Brownsville Song (b-side for tray)'-an emphatic repudiation of the 10 second newsflash that has gutted the soul out of her dead grandson, Tray (Sideeq Heard). Another young, black life cut short on the jagged streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood--same old story that flashes across TV screens and dots the local section of newspapers every day. But he, she insists, was not. Was not what? The phrase is never fully finished, but as 'Brownsville Song' plays on, you find yourself wondering less about what Tray wasn't, and reveling more in what he was.
Constellation Theatre's adult puppet musical Avenue Q swept the 32nd annual Helen Hayes Awards honoring professional theater in Washington, D.C., on Monday with seven awards including outstanding musical.
Tonight, before a gathering of theatre artists and patrons, theatreWashington announced the winners of the 2016 Helen Hayes Awards, drawn from 202 eligible productions presented in the 2015 calendar year. Scroll down for the full list of nominees and winners!
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!
Leto is the mother goddess of Lucia. She protects the people of Lucia by confronting the many monsters summoned by Hera, Queen of the Gods. Charlie, a comic book artist for XX Comics, doesn't have to fight off monsters, but she struggles to find balance between being a mother to her daughter, Diana, meeting the demands of her boss, Meredith, and finding time to work on a new issue of her comic about the mythical Leto.
The Hub Theatre ends Season 7 with the world premier production of company member Kristen LePine's play, LETO LEGEND, directed by Artistic Director, Helen Pafumi. Charlie (Valerie Fenton) is a full time mom, writer, and superhero. How does she do it all? And more importantly, is there a way for her to stop? The mythical and modern collide in the comedy about today's superwoman. Fenton is joined by Lolita Marie, Katie Nigsch, Katie Jeffries, Audrey Bertaux and Carolyn Kashner.
John Patrick Shanley's thought-provoking drama DOUBT, A PARABLE certainly has earned its share of accolades since it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2004. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, Shanley's screenplay for the film adaptation was also nominated for an Academy Award. The single act play has been brought back in a meticulously detailed production by 1st Stage in Tysons. The playwright's work is reason enough to head to the intimate space 1st Stage calls its home near Tysons Galleria. Shanley's tense, four-person rumination on scandal, gender roles, Catholic church politics, and the power of doubt to bind us or tear us apart is worth a look any time it finds its way to a stage. I just wish the 1st Stage production had more of a spark to ignite the passionate debate and ambiguous mystery Shanley has written.
Under the taut and subtle direction of Shirley Serotsky and graced with a tremendously talented class, Theater J's The Hampton Years is nothing short of a triumph. Local playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton has given us a vital part of our history back-the humble but compelling beginnings of two towering figures in African-American art, John Biggers and Samella Lewis, who studied under Austrian refugee Viktor Lowenfeld at Virginia's Hampton Institute.
