Teresa Castracane News

You'd hardly identify E.M. Lewis' world premiere, NOW COMES THE NIGHT, opening the season at First Stage in Tysons as a part of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival.

Absurdist comedy and sparking physical comedy collide in Taffety Punk's Inheritance Canyone

Under the direction of Joel David Santner (who will shortly be moving to California for film school, a great loss to the DC area) the company has proven yet again that when viewed with fresh eyes, the early First Quarto version of 'Hamlet' is a limitless source of inspiration for artists and audiences alike.  Although the company pulls its aesthetic punches by inviting a few guys to join the cast (including Marcus Kyd in the title role), the performance is of a dependable, high quality that makes this a rare, intimate view of the Bard's work.

Sadness and joy is a recurring motif in music. In Jan Marans' provocative play, Old Wicked Songs, it is a motif that is played out both figuratively and musically. In Marans' play Viennese music professor Josef Mashkan points out that only those who have suffered can truly emote beautiful music. Countries that have seen centuries of war and oppression can express music more passionately than those that haven't (which, he claims is why there are no true great British, American, or Japanese composers).

John Patrick Shanley's thought-provoking drama DOUBT, A PARABLE certainly has earned its share of accolades since it premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2004. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, Shanley's screenplay for the film adaptation was also nominated for an Academy Award. The single act play has been brought back in a meticulously detailed production by 1st Stage in Tysons. The playwright's work is reason enough to head to the intimate space 1st Stage calls its home near Tysons Galleria. Shanley's tense, four-person rumination on scandal, gender roles, Catholic church politics, and the power of doubt to bind us or tear us apart is worth a look any time it finds its way to a stage. I just wish the 1st Stage production had more of a spark to ignite the passionate debate and ambiguous mystery Shanley has written.

Taffety Punk's current production of The Tempest demonstrates how Shakespeare's work is infinitely elastic in terms of creativity and casting. Riot Grrrls, a faction of Taffety Punk Theatre Company dedicated to all-female productions of the Bard's works, has come up with a low-tech, low-cost, intimate staging that is as finely tuned as anything you'd pay big bucks for uptown.

Get ready for an annual Baltimore tradition.

The Welders-Washington's only playwrights' collective devoted exclusively to developing and producing new work-has named Bob Bartlett as their new artistic director. Bartlett will lead the company through mid-2015. He succeeds Caleen Sinnette Jennings, who served as the company's artistic director during the development and production of her own critically acclaimed play Not Enuf Lifetimes. Allyson Currin, author of the critical and box-office hit The Carolina Layaway Grail, was The Welders' inaugural artistic director.

Words are indeed the star of this production as much as the Devil himself in Marcus Kyd's ambitious The Devil in His Own Words stitched together from more than 30 literary works ranging from the Quran to the Book of Revelations, from Twain to Bulgakov to C.S. Lewis. Like a patchwork, the pieces contrast vividly in tone, pace and intensity, highlighting Kyd's artistic range and strength.

Abominable delves deeply into what is hidden on the inside versus what is visible on the outside. What is needed? What is safe? What is seen? What is missed? What is not to be missed is Abominable, a masterful world premiere at The Hub Theater; a poignant tale of fear, connection and humanity told with humor and compassion.

It is the stuff of great drama when people with incredible charm and talent behave like monsters: idealists with a clear vision of the future, leaving human wreckage in their wake. For fans of English literature who are fascinated by Shelley, Byron and the women who devoted themselves to their careers, 'Bloody Poetry' should be a pure delight.

Pallas Theatre Collective is delighted to present She Stoops to Conquer at the Anacostia Arts Center from today, May 14th to ­June 1st, 2014.

Pallas Theatre Collective is delighted to present She Stoops to Conquer at the Anacostia Arts Center from May 14th to ­June 1st, 2014.

This show is worth a look for the adventurous DC theatregoer. One has to admire Taffety Punk's ambition.

The sordid tale of Leopold and Loeb is the subject of NEVER THE SINNER now receiving a strong production at 1st Stage in Tysons. Directed by Jeremy Skidmore, the play is carefully crafted and is a winning blend of theatrical bravura, sexual tension, calculating criminals, and period flair. Stephen Russell Murray and Alex Mandell also give tour-de-force performances.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents The Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Other Barn in Columbia, MD. Running tonight, February 22 through March 17, William Shakespeare's offbeat comedy receives a modern twist as Director Patrick Kilpatrick transports the setting to the bodacious early 1990's.

Taffety Punk Theatre Company presents Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, adapted and directed by Michelle Shupe and choreographed by company member Erin Mitchell, featuring company members Tonya Beckman, Daniel Crane, Daniel Flint, Kimberly Gilbert, and Esther Williamson. The production plays Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th Street SE, Washington, DC, now through February 23, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

In a town where there seems to be a Shakespeare play going on nearly every month, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. Taffety dares to be different and it pays off.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents The Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Other Barn in Columbia, MD. Running February 22 through March 17, William Shakespeare's offbeat comedy receives a modern twist as Director Patrick Kilpatrick transports the setting to the bodacious early 1990's.

In a play in which morally acceptable and unacceptable stances are hopelessly intertwined and might turn an audience off, there are two things that will draw us to the play anyway: Portia and Shylock. If they are right, the play will succeed, despite all its difficulties. They are right as can be in this staging.