Sara Barker News

Avant Bard has collaborated with A Simple Herstory to bring an award-winning theatrical podcast series to the stage during the FREE Theatre Week Kickoff Fest at Arena Stage on Saturday, September 23rd.

Suddenly Last Summer a terrible memory was embedded in the mind of a woman, and she must now face an assault on her brain. Her cousin, the fastidious poet Sebastian, was spending a summer to write what was to be his last poem------but I am getting ahead of myself!

Recriminations, reprisals and heart wrenching ruminations ensue as a group of five women face a time of purges and fear in the harrowing play Pankrác ’45.  Set in the infamous Pankrác Prison of Czechoslovakia during the end of the Nazi occupation in the year 1945, this trenchant and absorbing play by Czech Playwright Martina Kinská is an interesting melding of an historical context set against five very interesting character studies.

Expats Theatre will present its third production Pankrác 45 written by Czech playwright Martina Kinska and translated by Barbara Day.

Avant Bard Theatre today announced its next season, which marks a grateful return to live theatre after more than a year of remote performances and programming. This season also marks the first under Avant Bard’s five producing partners: artistic leaders Megan Behm, DeMone Seraphin, Alyssa Sanders, Dina Soltan, and Sara Barker.

Tennessee Williams, in his lifetime, wrote more than 70 one-act plays - some just sketches, many that went unpublished until after his death in 1983 at 71.

Avant Bard Theatre has announced the full cast for the launch of their 30th Anniversary Mainstage Season, the Avant Bard Spring Repertory. The Rep features Avant Bard's long-awaited return to Tennessee Williams with Suddenly Last Summer, directed by Artistic Director Emeritus Christopher Henley.

I have to hand it to Scena Theatre- they consistently elevate interesting, international work. Director Robert McNamara brings Jon Fosse's SEA to DC for its US debut performance at the intimate DC Arts Center, and the performance will surely leave you thinking. Norwegian playwright Fosse, one of Europe's most performed dramatists, has been translated into over 40 languages and, in 2010, won the biggest prize in global theatre- the Ibsen award. There were moments on opening night when all the stars aligned: persuasive acting, poignant dialogue, precise movements, and inspired casting. There were also moments when pacing, language, and the play's inherent incomprehensibility made engaging with Fosse's work difficult.

Director Megan Behm has embraced the world of old French farce, and crafted a contemporary satire that is as frenetic and slap-stick as it is wickedly witty. Minnicino's rhyming couplets constantly leave you gasping for breath with laughter, and every single member of the cast has honed their characters to their sharpest comic edge. There isn't a moment, a word, or a gesture wasted, and the way the actors literally throw themselves into their roles is a pure joy to watch.

Avant Bard presents A Misanthrope, a world premiere adaptation of Moliere's The Misanthrope by Manhattan-based playwright Matt Minnicino, directed by Megan Behm in her Avant Bard debut.

WSC Avant Bard's Script in Play Festival, started in 2016, has been an opportunity to test out shows for full production treatment through the guise of a series of staged readings and post-play discussions. Written and performed by rising professional talent, these readings have led to some memorable productions, including new versions of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and Twelfth Night and Lauren Gunderson's hit Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight. In 2017, a reading of playwright Matt Minnicino's 'distillation' - not 'adaptation,' as we get into below - of Moliere's The Misanthrope was performed. Written entirely in rhyming couplets, it follows a professional cynic who falls in love with an ingenue, and finds his devotion to insincerity tested. Now, it's the capper of Avant Bard's 29th season. I spoke to Minnicino about his career thus far, the adaptation process, and why audiences should be excited for this show.

Avant Bard Theatre announces the full cast and creative team for its season finale, A MISANTHROPE, a world premiere adaptation of Moliere's The Misanthrope by Manhattan-based playwright Matt Minnicino, directed by Megan Behm in her Avant Bard debut.

Rainbow Theatre Project continues their sixth season with Tennessee Williams' Clothes for a Summer Hotel. Performances will begin April 4, 2019 and run through April 28, 2019 at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

If you go expecting, as it were, wild Wilde, you won't be disappointed.

Now playing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center is an all-female, 1930s Tinseltown take on Oscar Wilde's WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, directed by Robert McNamara. It's an undeniably creative angle to approach Wilde, in the vein of Scena's previous gender-bending production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, and it has its share of funny and dramatic moments. However, its busy design and occasionally manic delivery miss the mark at times.

WSC Avant Bard will present a reading of Natural Shocks, a new play by Lauren Gunderson, on Monday, April 23, 2018, at 7:30 pm at 1st Stage, as part of a nationwide weekend of theater activism against gun violence.

The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (FSO) salutes the next generation of classical musicians with a special performance by string virtuoso, In Mo Yang and the premiere of the 2018 Fairfax County All-Stars Youth Orchestra, featuring outstanding student musicians from across Fairfax County.

Avant Bard announces a one-week extension of Emilie: La Marquise Du Ch telet Defends Her Life Tonight. The comic drama about 18th-century scientific genius Emilie Du Ch telet--written by Lauren Gunderson, today the most-produced playwright in America--continues through November 19, 2017, at Gunston Arts Center Theatre Two in Arlington, VA. 'When we began the run, few folks knew much at all about Emilie Du Ch telet,' said Tom Prewitt, Artistic and Executive Director. 'And no wonder. One of the most brilliant mathematicians who ever lived, Emilie had become a 'hidden figure' in history, a woman remembered if at all as the lover of a great man, Voltaire. Happily that has changed for audiences who have seen Gunderson's whip-smart play and are blown away by the passionate genius they get to know.

As effervescent and fun as it is filled with the world of ideas (and equations), 'Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight' is a heady evening, bringing a great women back to brilliant life both onstage and in our collective memory.