Michael Avolio News

BACK TO METHUSELAH: AS FAR AS THOUGHT CAN REACH leads you through a philosophical discussion through some familiar characters.

The Washington Stage Guild will celebrate the end of its 30th Anniversary Season with Back To Methuselah: As Far As Thought Can Reach, the final episode in its multi-year presentation of George Bernard Shaw's visionary cycle of plays about humanity's destiny.

Washington Stage Guild's production prudently balances the science fiction nature of Shaw's work with the greater philosophical discussions his plays' raise regarding the consistent need for humanity to keep developing.

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Love and/or Marriage with the next installment of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that culminates in the company's 30th anniversary, tonight, February 19 -March 15, 2015.

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Love and/or Marriage with the next installment of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that culminates in the company's 30th anniversary, February 19 -March 15, 2015.

At Quotidian Theatre Company in Bethesda, director and adapter Michael Avolio plucks Ibsen's drama from 1890's Oslo and drops it into 1963 Georgetown. Often moving, if occasionally unclear, the concept creates powerful connections between two distinctive settings and adds new layers to a classic play.

Following a season that included a best-selling production of 'The Iceman Cometh', the critically acclaimed three-person storytelling drama 'Faith Healer', and the highly successful US premiere of internationally renowned playwright Conor McPherson's 'The Veil', Quotidian Theatre Company opens its 17th season with a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler', updating the action of the play to the socially relevant climate of 1963 Georgetown. Quotidian's production runs October 24 - November 23 at The Writer's Center in downtown Bethesda.

Quotidian Theatre Company announces its 17th season, which includes a fresh take on an international classic, a modern comedy from a Tony award-winning playwright, and an early work from the company's favorite dramatist.

Nearly three years after its London opening, Washington's own Quotidian Theatre Company offers us the American premiere of a play that should soon find itself in regular rotation nationwide. Quotidian, with its reputation for understated yet compelling shows, has gone all-out with this production and done Mr. McPherson proud. With a solid, seasoned cast and brilliant period touches in set and costumes, 'The Veil' should be at the top of your list!

Given its long history of producing the plays of George Bernard Shaw, it was inevitable that the Washington Stage Guild would someday attempt to mount Shaw's monumental, impossible play cycle, Back to Methuselah. Methuselah tilts at the usual ideological windmills, with a fanciful dash of futurism thrown in for good measure. Perhaps because of its reach, the script shows occasional signs of strain; but the Stage Guild does an admirable job bringing our dear Irish curmudgeon's epic to life.

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Dreams with the start of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that will culminate in the company's 30th anniversary! BACK TO METHUSELAH, a cycle of plays by George Bernard Shawthat takes us from Adam and Eve meeting the Serpent in the Garden of Eden to a world 30,000 years in the future, is subtitled 'a Metabiological Pentateuch.' Check out a first look below!

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Dreams with the start of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that will culminate in the company's 30th anniversary! BACK TO METHUSELAH, a cycle of plays by George Bernard Shaw that takes us from Adam and Eve meeting the Serpent in the Garden of Eden to a world 30,000 years in the future, is subtitled 'a Metabiological Pentateuch.'

The Washington Stage Guild continues its Season of Dreams with the start of a three-year dramatic extravaganza that will culminate in the company's 30th anniversary! BACK TO METHUSELAH, a cycle of plays by George Bernard Shaw that takes us from Adam and Eve meeting the Serpent in the Garden of Eden to a world 30,000 years in the future, is subtitled 'a Metabiological Pentateuch.'

Following a season that included the best-selling ensemble musicalJames Joyce's The Dead, the critically-acclaimed two-man drama A Walk in the Woods, and the highly-successful area premiere of Conor McPherson's adaptation The Birds, Quotidian Theatre Company opens its 16th season with The Iceman Cometh, a rarely-performed masterpiece by Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene O'Neill that The New York Times calls a 'tough, loquacious, magnificent play'. Quotidian's production runs October 25 - November 24 at The Writer's Center in downtown Bethesda.

In producing T.S. Eliot's THE ELDER STATESMAN-plus with their spring 2013 reading of Eliot's THE ROCK--Washington Stage Guild becomes the only theatre company in the world (as far as they can determine) to have produced all seven of Eliot's plays. And as Artistic Director Bill Largess jokingly remarked opening night, Washington Stage Guild is probably the only theatre that would produce all of T.S. Eliot's dramatic works.

The Washington Stage Guild completes the T.S. Eliot canon with the area premiere of The Elder Statesman.

The Washington Stage Guild completes the T.S. Eliot canon with the area premiere of The Elder Statesman.

Quotidian Theatre Company will continue its ongoing celebration of the works of playwrights Anton Chekhov and Brian Friel with a free reading of Friel's The Yalta Game, based on Chekhov's short story The Lady with the Lap Dog. The reading will be presented at Flashpoint's Mead Theatre Lab in Northwest DC on Monday, July 23 at 7:30pm.

Following this spring's successful run of Brian Friel's Irish drama Dancing at Lughnasa, The Quotidian Theatre Company pays tribute this July and August to one of its signature playwrights, Anton Chekhov, with a pair of one-act plays inspired by the Russian master, including a world-premiere adaptation.

November has over 60 more openings in the professional, community, universities, and children's theaters in the DC/MD/VA area. A week has already passed in November and over 20 new productions have opened. To read reviews of these shows, go to Maryland Theatre Guide, where I am the Editor and a columnist. A recent back surgery kept me from posting this earlier, so we have some catching up to do.