Shannon Dorsey News

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents From the Mouths of Monsters, a contemporary, highly theatrical world premiere commission that plunges audiences headfirst into the complex world of adolescence, where speaking out can have astounding consequences.

The 2017 Helen Hayes Award nominations were announced tonight. A line-up of leading theatre artists announced nominations in 47 categories of artistic excellence. Award recipients will be announced at the Helen Hayes Awards gala event to be held at the Lincoln Theatre on Monday, May 15 with an after-party hosted at Washington's legendary 9:30 Club.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its first production of Season 38, the remount of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Nataki Garrett. The show will reunite the entire cast and production teams from Woolly's 2016 production and will run from July 18 to August 6, 2017.

I wish you could see 'Kiss' at Woolly Mammoth Theatre the way I did: Without a lot of advance insight, no prior research and only the vague knowledge it was an adaptation of a foreign play.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces the second production of its 37th Season, the U.S. premiere of KISS by Guillermo Calderon, directed by Yury Urnov. KISS will run from October 10 - November 6, 2016.

"Out of every eight drops of my blood, seven are red, but one is black." In those words, spoken with despairing apology in An Octoroon by Zoe, the titular octoroon, the illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner, are revealed the most profound and internalized depths of racism. Like a root vegetable, where the substance of the plant is buried under the ground, it truly visible only when you yank it out to examine what has grown underneath. In this case, what's above ground is a brilliant adaptation by playwright, 2016 Pulitzer finalist (for Gloria), and DC-native Branden Jacobs-Jenkins of an 1859 play by Anglo-Irish Dion Boucicault; a play that caused controversy and sold-out houses in somewhat equal measure when it played at the Winter Garden Theatre in the looming shadow of the Civil War.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its final production of Season 36, the D.C. premiere of An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Nataki Garrett. An Octoroon will run from May 30 to June 26, 2016.

Tony-winning drama by Robert Schenkkan about LBJ is brought to life.

Robert Schenkkan's Tony Award-winning drama ALL THE WAY, about President Lyndon Baines Johnson's impassioned struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. ALL THE WAY runs now through May 8, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

Robert Schenkkan's Tony Award-winning drama All the Way, about President Lyndon Baines Johnson's impassioned struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Kyle Donnelly, who has directed more than 20 productions at Arena Stage, returns to helm this 'sure-fire, action packed hit' (Huffington Post) about a country still reeling from the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the man tasked with calming the storm. Hailed as a 'sensational night of theater' (NPR), All the Way runs April 1-May 8, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage. Go inside the production's first rehearsal below!

Robert Schenkkan's Tony Award-winning drama All the Way, about President Lyndon Baines Johnson's impassioned struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Kyle Donnelly, who has directed more than 20 productions at Arena Stage, returns to helm this "sure-fire, action packed hit" (Huffington Post) about a country still reeling from the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the man tasked with calming the storm. Hailed as a "sensational night of theater" (NPR), All the Way runs April 1-May 8, 2016 in the Fichandler Stage.

Even 21 years later, the horrific atrocities of the Rwandan genocide is hard to wrap one's head around. How could 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis be macheted to death in just over three months by the country's other ethnic group, the Hutus - including thousands cowering in a single church?

Mosaic Theater Company of DC announces its inaugural production, the epic world-premiere drama Unexplored Interior (This is Rwanda: The Beginning and End of the Earth) by longtime New York actor, first time playwright, Jay O. Sanders, to be staged by Helen Hayes Award-nominee Derek Goldman (Our Class, In Darfur) at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in the 260-seat Lang Theatre. This sweeping, assiduously researched play represents the scope and scale of Mosaic Theater Company's artistic and cultural ambitions as a space for bold art and big conversation around some of the most pressing social issues of our day.

Mosaic Theater Company of DC announces 36 actors so-far cast in the 2015-16 inaugural season: "The Case for Hope in a Polarized World." This far-reaching pool of locally and internationally acclaimed actors represents a commitment to telling the stories most pressing to our communities. These artists, over half of whom are actors of color, join Mosaic Theater Company in one of the most diversely cast seasons in Washington.

Nobody really says we get the theater we deserve (they do say that about government, though). But that's one way to approach The Shipment, the purposely provocative current show at Forum Theatre in Silver Spring.

SAFE HOUSE, Keith Josef Adkins' moving and surprising drama exploring a little-known chapter in our region's history, is the 71st world premiere production at the Playhouse. It will continue the Robert S. Marx Theatre season today, Oct. 18 through Nov. 15.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has a long, distinguished tradition of introducing new plays to Cincinnati.

Due to popular demand, August Wilson play extends to May 4, 2014

Lydia Diamond?s acclaimed play Stick Fly both entertains and fascinates audiences everywhere it plays. Everyman Theatre is producing the Baltimore premiere of this renowned theatrical work. Secrets unfold when the LeVay brothers bring their girlfriends to the family?s luxurious Martha?s Vineyard Summer home to meet their parents. When they see one of the girlfriends is white, long-hidden truths are revealed in this funny and poignant portrait of a dysfunctional African-American family. Under the microscope and unaccustomed to the LeVay?s affluent lifestyle, the women challenge the household dynamic. While issues around race and class are at the forefront of this play, it is ultimately about secrets, skeletons in the closet, and about dysfunctional family life.