Vato Tsikurishvili News

The feuding fairies and merry mechanicals at Synetic Theater have been invited by Instituto Chihuahuense de La Cultura, headed by Fermin Gutierrez Galindo, to perform at the 10th edition of Festival Internacional. The company's award-winning wordless Shakespeare production will be performed at Teatro De Los Heros in Chihuahua on August 13 at 8 pm and at Teatro Victor Hugo Rascon Banda in Juarez on August 15 at 7 pm.

Just when you were about to pack it in because of the miserable weather Synetic Theater has come up with a joyous, raucous celebration of love-and jazz-in its latest Shakespeare adaptation. Twelfth Night, perhaps the Bard's most beloved comedy, is realized here as a manic and slapstick-ridden romp through the Roaring Twenties. Featuring classic tunes from the early jazz era, director Paata Tsikurishvili has set the action in a silent-era Hollywood sound stage. His wife, Irina, heads a stellar cast that channels the best of 1920's screen comedians, to brilliant effect.

Synetic Theater kicks off its 2013-2014 season with a new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, directed by Synetic Founder and Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili. Synetic's reinvention of this classic tale features dynamic movement and multimedia, and promises to be a unique fusion of visual and verbal poetry that will explore the internal and external dimensions of Wilde's only novel, which many consider his most personal work-a timelessly supernatural story of man's endless conflict with the nature of mortality.

Synetic Theater kicks off its 2013-2014 season with a new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, directed by Synetic Founder and Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili. Synetic's reinvention of this classic tale features dynamic movement and multimedia, and promises to be a unique fusion of visual and verbal poetry that will explore the internal and external dimensions of Wilde's only novel, which many consider his most personal work-a timelessly supernatural story of man's endless conflict with the nature of mortality.

While the adaptation of the classic tale is not particularly inspiring, this show is one to see for the creative staging and design work as well as a talented group of actors led by the extraordinary Alex Mills.

Synetic continues its 2012/13 season with a brand-new adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Three Musketeers. Opening tonight, May 9 at Synetic Theater in Crystal City.

Synetic continues its 2012/13 season with a brand-new adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Three Musketeers. Opening on Thursday, May 9 at Synetic Theater in Crystal City.

Synetic 2012 comedy hit is back! The Synetic Teen Ensemble will remount Synetic's 'Silent Shakespeare' hit - The Taming of the Shrew. The production is directed by award-winning Synetic choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili and Senior Company Member Alex Mills (most recently seen as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). The stellar artistic team also includes Synetic Company Members Scott Brown, Ben Cunis, Irinka Kavsadze, Ryan Sellers, and Vato Tsikurishvili. Twenty two Synetic teens will perform 'Silent Shakespeare' classic with the inventiveness and flare audiences have come to expect from Synetic.

Synetic 2012 comedy hit is back! The Synetic Teen Ensemble will remount Synetic's 'Silent Shakespeare' hit - The Taming of the Shrew. The production is directed by award-winning Synetic choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili and Senior Company Member Alex Mills (most recently seen as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). The stellar artistic team also includes Synetic Company Members Scott Brown, Ben Cunis, Irinka Kavsadze, Ryan Sellers, and Vato Tsikurishvili. Twenty two Synetic teens will perform 'Silent Shakespeare' classic with the inventiveness and flare audiences have come to expect from Synetic.

This production is immensely entertaining and mesmerizing.

November has over 60 more openings in the professional, community, universities, and children's theaters in the DC/MD/VA area. A week has already passed in November and over 20 new productions have opened. To read reviews of these shows, go to Maryland Theatre Guide, where I am the Editor and a columnist. A recent back surgery kept me from posting this earlier, so we have some catching up to do.

The new DC area theatre season begins in September. Over 50 shows are opening in our professional and community theatres. But before we move on to the new season and what's opening in September, let's look back at my personal favorite musicals, plays, and performances in both musicals and plays in the DC area - from August 2010 to August 2011.

The humidity is starting to climb and it's what we call around here -- 'corn weather'. But in the air-conditioned theatres in the Nation's Capital there is a harvest of new shows opening. So if you're here visiting the monuments and the Smithsonian museums, get out of the heat and come see a play or a musical.

As we welcome in a new year of great theatre in the nation's capital, I thought it would be fun to do one of those “Best of 2010' lists as well as preview what's opening in January on DC area stages. So let's raise our glasses and offer a toast to all those theatre companies who gave us great productions in 2010, and to the upcoming 2011 theatre season!

A signature event with three days of free theater - mark your calendars for Sept. 3-5, 2011

As we celebrate Christmas and await the New Year, here's a new audio interpretation of 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry, written and recorded by local DC actors and designers who make up The Audible Group. It is Christmas Eve, 1935. In a small apartment in the H Street NE neighborhood of Washington, DC where James and Della Young, a young couple who, though rich in love, but down to their last pennies, still manage to give each other the perfect gift. It will fill you - from head to mistletoe - with the holiday spirit. Listen here