This week marks a very important event for DC area arts education. On June thirteenth, The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts (TTL) held its very first class and co-founders Deb Gottesman, Buzz Mauro and Michael Rodgers never looked back.
The organization has changed locations a few times over the years but the quality of the work that Theatre Lab’s instructors and administration have given to hundreds and hundreds of students has always remained at the top of its game.
Mary Seacole (1805-1881) had more skills than José Andres; in addition to establishing catering in war zones (Seacole set up a rest stop for British soldiers near the front lines during the Crimean War.), she also provided health care services during Jamaica's 1850 cholera epidemic and Panama's the following year.
'Compulsion or the House Behind' is a good show, with a strong creative team and an immensely talented cast, but it’s also a flawed one. With pacing issues and a shyness about fully facing the questions it raises, it’s often a frustrating production. But it’s a thought-provoking one for that same reason.
'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' at Bethesda's Round House Theatre, tells the story of Christopher, a 15-year-old boy with Aspergers syndrome, whose neighbor's dog is murdered with a pitchfork. Christopher goes on a mission to investigate who killed the dog and he ends up uncovering other people's secrets, as well as his own. He goes on an unintentional mission of self-discovery through London and Swindon
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.
Folger Theatre's Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Vivienne Benesch, compliments the uniqueness of this comedy through a delightfully funny cast and production set during the 1930's.
Mind vs. Matter. Game on. Folger Theatre concludes its 2018/19 season of characters that "shake the world" with Love's Labor's Lost, Shakespeare's quick-witted comedy filled with oaths, trickery, and confessions of love. Vivienne Benesch, the 2017 winner of the annual Zelda Fichandler Award, makes her Folger directorial debut.
If the cultural and historical relevance weren't enough incentive, Theater J's production of 'The Jewish Queen Lear' will make you glad for the current revitalization of Yiddish theater. The play is an emotional journey, with insights into family, power, pride, and love. 'Mirele Efros' is a surprisingly modern play, and 'The Jewish Queen Lear' honors both the past and present in its performance. It's a touching story, a wonderful cast of characters (in both senses of the phrase), and a beautiful production.
Oooh la la, the good folks at Imagination Stage have a Parisian musical spectacular in store for you with the non- cheesy story about a couple of mice out to save the cheeses of Paris. Anatole: Mouse Magnifique features a dynamic and fun score by James Valcq (Music), book and lyrics by John MacLay and Lee Becker, and a terrific no-holes-like-a-piece of-Swiss-cheese-staging from Tom Story.
Theater J completes its four-show 2018-2019 season Around Town with the English language premiere of the Yiddish theater classic The Jewish Queen Lear, a translation of Jacob Gordin's Mirele Efros. The Jewish Queen Lear runs at Georgetown University's Davis Performing Arts Center in the Gonda Theatre March 13 - April 7. The press is invited to Opening Night of The Jewish Queen Lear on Monday, March 18 at 7:30 PM.
How far would you go to be with the one that you love? Sonya Kelly's autobiographical How to Keep an Alien, now being presented by Solas Nua, explores this question with warmth, humor, and a tour-de-force performance from DC acting goddess Tonya Beckman. This production marks the first time Kelly has not performed in the show herself.
In an age when we are tearing down digital walls and erecting physical ones, Solas Nua brings us Sonya Kelly's brilliant and autobiographical How to Keep an Alien, which tells the story of two people "falling in love and proving it to the government".
Few and far between are the times that we reviewers have a perfect night in the theater. Generally, we can find something to complain about in any given production. It could be we love the performances, but not the script or vice versa.
Taffety Punk Theatre Company's Bootleg Shakespeare production HENRY VI, PART 3 is performance without a net - exciting, dangerous, riveting, and raw. Bootleg Shakespeare isn't designed to be polished or perfect, it's designed to be fresh and immediate. And it delivered. What's more amazing? The actors arrived at 10:00 am Monday with roles assigned and lines memorized. That's it. Working together under the direction of Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd, over the next few hours the 32 actors DIY'ed the production and were on stage in front of an audience at 7:30 pm. There were minimal props, lights, and costumes-but the red and white paper lapel flowers told us exactly what we needed to know when every epic battle scene and every word of Shakespeare's text was performed.
The company that makes great theater for everyone is at it again. Taffety Punk Theatre Company's mission is, and always will be, to put out a good product while making it affordable for everyone. Tickets are $15 and there are also “pay what you can” performances. The current production, well worth the ticket price and then some, is a knockout version of Moliere's tale of the great lover Don Juan. It stars the superb DC actress Tonya Beckman in what, so far, is the role of her career.
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.
This magical retelling of the Nativity story combines beautiful music and a moving story for the holiday season. Revived by Folger Consort from its 2007 production, which the Washington Post called "a lovely seasonal surprise," this engaging medieval mystery play and its festive English music of the period beautifully weaves together the stories of the shepherds, a sheep thief and his cunning wife, and the miracle in a humble manger in Bethlehem.
