Teresa Castracane News

There are certain musical theatre pieces that audiences see on Broadway and believe the version they saw is the only way the material can be interpreted.  Beauty and the Beast definitely falls into that category for the sole reason of that once you’ve seen how Disney produced it originally, it’s impossible to see it done in a less spectacular way.

Theater J’s 'Tuesdays with Morrie' is a touching, emotional exploration of human connection. It’s an intimate portrait of a beautiful relationship between a man and his mentor in the face of tragic circumstances, but it’s also a greater insight into how we all relate to each other and ourselves.

Resuming its tradition of big, family musicals for the holidays, Olney Theatre Center is presenting Disney's Beauty and the Beast (November 5, 2021 - January 2, 2022).

Is it possible that Richard III, had he been beloved by those around him notwithstanding his hunchback, would have abandoned ambition and treachery and instead become a loving and gentle mentor and guardian to Edward V?  Would he have gracefully stepped aside when the young King reached his majority, thus ushering in thirty generations of peaceful Yorkish rule?

It may have been unrealistic to open a new play amid the coronavirus pandemic, but 'The Realistic Joneses' did just that on Saturday at Spooky Action Theatre, a group whose name inspires no further confidence (it's named after Einstein's term for quantum entanglement - the ability of separate objects to share a condition at a distance).

The inaugural season of Everyman Theatre's NEW VOICES FESTIVAL presents QUEENS GIRL: BLACK IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS.

Theater J, located in Washington, DC's Jewish Community Center focuses its work on celebrating and bringing light to the Jewish culture and its people. Anna Ziegler's The Wanderers is no exception to this mission. This is the fourth Ziegler play that Theater J has produced and its one that is sure to spark conversation, make the audience think deeply about the characters, and even toys with one's own emotions and thoughts on their own lives.

We never can seem to catch a break from the president, and a night out at Woolly Mammoth's American premiere of Anne Washburn's SHIPWRECK is no exception. A history play about 2017, SHIPWRECK follows a group of liberals who gather at a remodeled farmhouse, a young man adopted from Kenya reckoning with his connection to his family and his country, and the fallout from Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey. 

Playwright Marco Ramirez's The Royale at 1st Stage is a rare and thought-provoking theatre experience.

Everyman Theatre continues its 2019/2020 season with Deborah Zoe Laufer's intricately calibrated production Be Here Now. Laufer also directs the production, which runs January 21 through February 16, 2020.

There are some topics in which you hope plays conquer correctly. Topics that include dark parts of history such as the holocaust sit at the top of that list. Luckily, Alix Sobler's remarkable script and Theater J's impressive production of Sheltered, honors the topic, the people, and the story.

The Second City's 'She the People' is back at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. The jokes and social commentary have been updated to address current events, as well as keep some evergreen topics fresh and remind us how upsetting it is that some things are considered evergreen. But, above all, 'She the People' is a call to action. It's a reminder that women's experiences matter, and women's voices matter.

I​t's never the wrong time to do the right thing. ThisOctober,​EverymanTheatre's​next show is R​adio Golf, ​the final play in renowned playwright August Wilson's 10-play opus, THE AMERICAN CENTURY CYCLE. Radio Golf​​ highlights the challenges faced by modern-day African-Americans straddling the line between monetary success and cultural assimilation.

This production of Shakespeare's Othello has revelations galore, performed by an ensemble of actors whose comfort with the language and emotional power keep you riveted. Even if you've seen any number of Othello's beforea?'especially if you've seen a fewa?'the Riot Grrrls interpretation, as staged in the spartan Capitol Hill Arts Workshop space, gives vivid life to characters and speeches that usually get lost in the cavernous main stages across town.

In TRYING, Judge Biddle and Sarah do battle with the prejudices that stem from their 56-year age gap.

Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, Fairview, currently playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, is a show that desperately calls for conversation. It's no wonder, then, that each performance is immediately followed by community discussions led by Build With, a DC-based anti-racist training, facilitation, and consulting practice focused on people, power, and partnership. While I wasn't able to stay for this event following Saturday night's performance, it is an important step in ensuring this work's complicated themes are digested in a clear way. Fairview is one of the most conceptual shows in recent memory. Not every idea can be fully explored in this production, which has a tight 100-minute run time that director Stevie Walker-Webb keeps clipping at a good pace. Nevertheless, Fairview is a necessary piece for anyone looking to dive deeper into discussions of race and identity in America.

The Pulitzer Prize winning play, Fairview, recently opened at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Find out what critics had to say!

In Theater J's fall opening, we are asked to consider: what really happens when love makes you sick? And yet, despite a strong cast and well-executed technical elements, 'Love Sick' suffers from a slight disconnect.

The central performance in Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy, now playing at Spooky Action Theater through June 30, belongs to the ensemble as a whole. The title character, a reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist lama, is brought to life not by a single actor, but by the seven actors that create his world. Some are more directly responsible than others - the puppeteers, for example, move him from one place to another, help him to look where he needs to, help him to hold things - but all are crucial to helping us believe in him. When his mother looks into his eyes, we think we can catch him breathing. It's a leap of faith on our part, one that yields some of the richest results any show will bring this summer.