Teresa Castracane News

Nilaja Sun sits in the chair, absorbed in herself as the audience at Woolly Mammoth takes its seats for her electrifying one-woman 'Pike St.'

"This play is not about my mother and me," begins the character, Lisa. But, of course, it is about her mother, and her mother's extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. The 1st Stage production of Well by Lisa Kron features Laura Artesi, Audrey Bertaux, Edward Christian, Marquis D. Gibson, Lolita Marie, and Elizabeth Pierotti. Michael Bloom directs the production at 1st Stage. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Why are some people well and others unwell? Playwright Lisa Kron's Well, asks the hard questions. In this s-called 'multi-character theatrical exploration,' Kron (Adurey Bertaux) is the star in her play-within-a-play chronicling her real-life experiences growing up in Lansing, Michigan in the 1960s.

Riot Grrls, the all-women arm of Taffety Punk Theatre Company, made the brilliant decision to take on THE TROJAN WOMEN, a play written by Euripides and translated into English by Edith Hamilton. Although the play itself is practically as old as time, the story remains jarringly relevant in today's time. It is directed by Kelsey Mesa. 

This version of Richard III has been stranded in a World War I setting where it does not fit very well, and gives us an exceedingly tight focus on Richard himself, to the exclusion of a plethora of characters and relationships. The spareness of the resulting work is disorienting. Who are all these people and why are we supposed to care about them, again? Maybe we'll figure it out and maybe we won't. Richard remains a fascinating character: a moral and physical cripple who takes the audience into his confidence and challenges us to dislike him as he schemes, murders, seduces, and marries his way onto the throne.

Living in Connecticut eight years ago when a chimp being kept as a pet ripped the face off a neighbor, I found it tough to see anything but stark horror in the attack.

How would you feel if the person closest to you, someone with whom you interact daily, whom you care for and who cares for you, didn't understand a word you were saying and vice versa? This communication challenge is the point on which balances the story of 200-pound chimpanzee, Trevor and his owner, Sandra. As a one-time commercial and television star alongside the likes of Morgan Fairchild, Trevor is desperate to prove his relevance in a world that has moved on now that he is no longer the adorable baby monkey of his youth. His owner Sandra swears he is still harmless and childlike, protecting herself from the realities of Trevor's dangers and the deep wounds of her own losses. Based on a true story, Trevor is a tale about how relationships, flaws, and excuses can tip-toe a delicate line between side-splitting humor and dangerous misunderstandings. Trevor and Sandra's relationship spins comically and dangerously out of control in this theatrical story by "Orange is the New Black" writer, Nick Jones. The Chicago Sun-Times hailed Trevor as a "hugely entertaining tragicomedy."

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.

In 1st Stage's production of Broadway Bound, the cast breathes life into the Jerome family, so much so, that one feels as if they are watching their own family bicker on stage.

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the third and final installment of Neil Simon's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy finds Eugene Jerome and his older brother Stanley trying to break into the world of show business. While coping with their parents' crumbling marriage, the boys pursue their dream of becoming famous comedy writers by drawing from their surroundings to create a sketch about family antics. When their material is broadcast on the radio for the first time, their family is upset to hear a thinly-veiled portrait of themselves played for laughs...and they are not alone. This warm, gently humorous play is a welcome treat for the Holidays.

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the third and final installment of Neil Simon's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy finds Eugene Jerome and his older brother Stanley trying to break into the world of show business.

Anne, like Henry, is engaged in more than just affairs of the heart. She too ends up playing (and winning, on the best terms available to her) the game of thrones. Just before her arrest, she is offered a choice, which she recognizes lies between survival and legacy. Her choice of the latter is immediate, and has long-lasting positive effects, dwarfing those made by her ostensibly more powerful husband.

By now the world is used to inhumane aberrations like ten-year wars. But back when Homer wrote his epic poem, it was still something to rage about, as he did about the siege of Troy by the Greeks in the Trojan War.

I can nearly always count on the small, but mighty Forum Theatre to conjure up selections each season that are a little out-of-the-box, and present them with an abundance of creativity. Season 13 is no exception, and it starts off with the area premiere of Jonas Hassen Khemiri's I CALL MY BROTHERS (translated from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles). In the intimate Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, Director Michael Dove and his strong cast of four deal well with the challenges and potential inherent in Khemiri's script, and give the audience a relevant night of theatre that ends - appropriately - with more questions than answers.

1st Stage Theatre's production of Lobby Hero features a solid, talented small cast who does their best with the out-dated script written by Kenneth Lonerga

New York's UCB Theatre, which grew out of a small group of comics you know in the Upright Citizens Brigade, now contains hundreds of performers you don't know putting on scores of different comedies, sketch shows, online shows and all manner of improv shows at what are now a handful of stages.

The 1st Stage production of be Floyd Collins by Tina Landau, Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel, Additional Lyrics by Tina Landau features Hasani Allen, Frank Britton, Evan Casey, Maggie Donnelly, Ben Lurye, Edward C. Nagel, Jennifer Lyons Pagnard, Scott Sedar, Russell Silber, Joshua Simon, Harrison Smith, John Sygar, and Carl Williams. Nick Olcott directs the production.

1st Stage's production is - for me, at least - a very, very welcome addition to the 2015-2016 theatre season. While Guettel's intricate and original score is, quite simply, extraordinary - and reason enough to make the trek to the McLean/Tysons Corner area to hear it sung live - Director Nick Olcott and his talented and committed cast and design team offer other reasons to pay this little gem of a production a visit.