Steven Carpenter News

A ghostly mystery begins a season of DC-area premiere productions by the Washington Stage Guild (WSG). Summerland by Arlitia Jones tells the mysterious tale of William H. Mumler, a "spirit photographer" with a talent for capturing haunting images from the world beyond the veil. The Civil War has ended, and a grieving nation sees many turning to spiritualism to contact the dead. Mumler sees his business boom as mourners, including a very famous one, flock to his studio. A New York City police official makes it his mission to prove it's a fraud, but finds that harder than he hoped. Based on a true story, this area premiere opens Thursday, Sept. 27 and runs through Sunday, October 21.

A ghostly mystery, a witty comedy-drama, a poignant romance, and a sassy revisiting of a world classic: The Washington Stage Guild's 2018-2019 season offers four new productions never before seen in the DC area.

Washington Stage Guild's production of Alabama Story is a timely story as it hints at issues of race and censorship, but it is slow moving and doesn't explore the issues presented as deeply as it could have.

A true story of censorship and civil rights leaps from the pages of history and into its Washington, DC premiere in Washington Stage Guild's production of Kenneth Jones's new play,  Alabama Story, March 22-April 15 at the Undercroft Theatre at  Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.  

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.

DC's little jewel, known as the Washington Stage Guild (WSG), has always presented pieces that you can't see elsewhere in the area. With its current offering Widowers' Houses, WSG gives area theatregoers a chance to see a lesser known work by esteemed playwright George Bernard Shaw. While this script is not a center piece of Shaw's canon (a la Pygmalion or Heartbreak House) WSG, true to form, delivers a high-end production of it featuring a top-notch group of performers.

The Washington Stage Guild will begin its 32nd season with Widowers' Houses, the first play written by George Bernard Shaw as he set out to shake up the British theatre. Published in 1893, the comedy is still amazingly topical in 2017, and especially in a gentrifying city like Washington.

Dubbed "Essential Ringwald", the 10th season will highlight the kind of shows The Ringwald has come to be known for in its 10 year history. The third show of the season is the Michigan premiere of The Legend of Georgia McBride by Matthew Lopez.

Dubbed "Essential Ringwald", the 10th season will highlight the kind of shows The Ringwald has come to be known for in its 10 year history. The third show of the season is the Michigan premiere of The Legend of Georgia McBride by Matthew Lopez.

The Washington Stage Guild starts its 'Pearl Anniversary' season with a remount of one of America's favorite holiday stories in It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. It's Christmas Eve, 1946, and we are the studio audience for a local radio station as its cast of voice actors and one very busy sound effects man broadcast the beloved tale of George Bailey and his encounter with Clarence, his guardian angel. This 'radio play-within-a-play' re-imagines the familiar movie as it would have been heard in homes all over America in the late 40s, when just such a broadcast took place. Playwright

The Washington Stage Guild starts its 'Pearl Anniversary' season with a remount of one of America's favorite holiday stories in It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. It's Christmas Eve, 1946, and we are the studio audience for a local radio station as its cast of voice actors and one very busy sound effects man broadcast the beloved tale of George Bailey and his encounter with Clarence, his guardian angel. This 'radio play-within-a-play' re-imagines the familiar movie as it would have been heard in homes all over America in the late 40s, when just such a broadcast took place. Playwright

One of the funnier political bits of the season was one Bill Maher did last fall on 'The King Trump Bible,' reinterpreting the text using the pithy phrases of crude frontrunner.

It's Christmas Eve 1946 in Washington, DC and you've ventured out into the cold with your family to the local radio station to see a live performance of Frank Capra's yet-to-be-classic, It's a Wonderful Life. Taking the stage among dozens of sound effects tools are some of your favorite local radio actors, ready to immerse you in the idealized world of Bedford Falls and the life of the town's hero, George Bailey. As the five actors and one foley artist take you through the sentimental story, they portray dozens of characters and create dozens more sounds as your imagination is left to paint the full picture.

Well, well, well - Lady Mary, meet Frederick Lonsdale, whose classic comedy of marriage and manners, 'On Approval,' is receiving a spirited revival at the Washington Stage Guild. It seems that the Roaring 20's was indeed a time for women to take a more active role in the selection of their mates ...

Washington Stage Guild's 'In Praise of Love' offers an engaging and comedic performance.

The Washington Stage Guild continues its 29th season with IN PRAISE OF LOVE by Terence Rattigan The Washington Stage Guild continues its 2014-15 Season of Love and/or Marriage with a long-overdue revival of Terence Rattigan's witty and moving IN PRAISE OF LOVE.

Fans of the television shows Pawn Stars and Downton Abbey will find a lot to enjoy in Washington Stage Guild's production of The Old Masters. Simon Gray's play incorporates elements of art authentication and the survival of an aristocratic family into its plot. However, theatergoers who favor a well constructed play will not find The Old Masters as enjoyable. For a play about the identity crisis of a painting's artist, The Old Masters lacks a focal point and never quite settles on what it wants to be.

Inventing Van Gogh opened on Oct. 31, 2013, and will be running at the Undercroft Theater in the Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church through November 24, 2013.

The Washington Stage Guild begins its 28th Season of our distinctive repertory, an array of eloquent plays of idea and argument, passion and wit-smArt Theatre for a smart town. The Washington Stage Guild's 2013-2014 season will focus on the fundamental basis of all art - the imagination, and kicking it off is the Washington area premiere of Steven Dietz' Inventing Van Gogh, a clever and time-twisting look at Van Gogh and his legacies, both real and imagined, as a contemporary young painter is commissioned to forge a lost painting, but then must justify his decisions to Vincent himself. This is the first work by prolific American playwright Dietz, whose Rancho Mirage was recently seen at Olney Theatre, to be produced by the Stage Guild, and its complex look at art, inspiration, and integrity make it a perfect start for a season-long exploration of the power of imagination in our lives.