David Siegel

In the Moment: ‘The 100th Meridian Project’ at George Mason University

Climate change is a sharp pointed object in the current 2016 political season. The language strewn about is often hot and more often than not, ad hominem to say the least But climatic issues are not...

In the Moment: ‘Sense and Sensibility’ at Folger Theatre

Folger Theatre’s take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is just gonna charm you with its ingenious high-velocity agility, while depicting the tastefully hide-bound, tart world of gossip and...

Review: ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ at Brave Spirits Theatre

Love is a battlefield in the vivid, high heat of Brave Spirits Theatre’s striking, fencing-match take on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Once again Brave Spirits (BST) is true to its mission;...

In the Moment: An Interview with BalletNova’s Artistic Director Laveen Naidu

Area non-profit arts organizations continually develop fresh ideas to reach children who may not regularly have access to the wonders of the performing arts. One new such effort is by Northern...

Review: ‘A Dream Within A Dream: Madness’ at Through The 4th Wall

Hats off to the totally nifty, quite intense, immersive production of A Dream Within A Dream: Madness at Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Arts Center. Created by Through the 4th Wall Dreams is abundantly...

In the Moment: Jessica Robinson on Better Said Than Done at ‘Fall for the Book’ on September 5th-30th

What can be more exhilarating and authentic than standing up in front of an audience to tell a true story about yourself? Maybe unnerving at first; to open up to possible ridicule from people who...

In the Moment: ‘Satchmo at the Waldorf’ at Mosaic Theater Company of DC

Satchmo at the Waldorf, at Mosaic Theater Company of DC, is not timid. Nor should it be. With a script by Wall Street Journal arts critic Terry Teachout, the strong hand of Eleanor Holdridge guiding...

In the Moment: An Interview With Rick Davis on ‘Arts By George!’ on Saturday, September 24, 2016 at George Mason University’s Center for The Arts

These are times of increasing emphasis on STEM as the seemingly set future direction for American students; when there is serious discussion that college bound students and their parents be presented...

In the Moment: ‘A Dream Within A Dream: Madness’ Playing 9/7-10/31 at The Torpedo Factory

Many know Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Arts Center (TFAC) as a re-purposed war-time munitions plant now a prominent and beloved non-profit home for artists to create works in a publicly accessible...

In the Moment: Theatre Communications Group Reaches Out to Veterans

Reaching out to new or underserved audience for audience development is likely a major, on-going activity for any local theater troupe. Given the large number of military families and veterans in the...

In the Moment: ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’ at Signature Theatre

What a way to blast open the new theater season. So take your seat at Signature’s bold, daring, muscular production of a tale about race and music, Jelly’s Last Jam. The 1992 musical is a journey into...

In the Moment: A Chat With Fight Choreographer Casey Kaleba

How often do we theater-goers find ourselves totally in disbelief when we witness stage violence or physicality? Do you, as I do, find yourself in complete awe of the unnerving movements and actions...

‘Review: Love’s Labours Lost’ at 4615 Theatre Company

With the savvy direction of Anne Donnelly and the industrious labors of 4615 Theatre Company, the 400 year-old Shakespearean comedy, Love’s Labours Lost has taken a fruitful leap into the 21st...

Review: The Hypocrites’ Production of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Olney Theatre Center

You can’t go wrong. Just go with a light heart and desire to have fun as you easily unleash your connections to current world realities. What is it? Well, the “what” is a wonderfully brash,...

In the Moment: ‘Kitchen Sink Fest’ at Dance Place: Part 2: 7 Dancers on Their 1 Minute Pieces

Hungry for inventive choreography? Up for a summer’s night adventure with performance that is unconventional and live? Hungry for inventive dance and movement? Desire a way to escape the summer’s heat...

Review: ‘Hand to God’ at The Studio Theatre

Hand to God at Studio is truly outlandish; a joyfully “blasphemous” production just as The Studio Theatre marketing material shouts out in a bold headline. With immersion staging in its intimate...

In the Moment: ‘Kitchen Sink Fest’ at Dance Place Part 1: An Interview with Ben Levine

This summer’s Kitchen Sink Fest at Dance Place is showcasing a curated, meant-to-provoke on-lookers, dance and theater technical design elements collaboration. From Kitchen Sink Fest producer Ben...

Review: ‘Redder Blood’ at The Hub Theatre

Brimming with the naturalness of a contemporary family trying to withstand many a stressor, Redder Blood at The Hub Theatre, is an exceptionally rare tale to witness. Written by local playwright Helen...

Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ With the National Symphony Orchestra with Pianist Yuja Wang, Conducted by Lionel Bringuier at Wolf Trap

It was a stifling hot, totally sticky humid July evening in the DC area. Cooling breezes under the glowing wooden open structure that is Wolf Trap’s Filene Center at first were few and far between...

In the Moment: Wolf Trap and the NSO Celebrate 100th Anniversary of National Parks Service on Friday, 7/1

American epic grandeur will be visible and heard at Wolf Trap when the National Symphony Orchestra presents America the Beautiful in a grand pre-July 4th event. There will be breath-taking large-scale...

In the Moment: Part 2: An Interview with Workhouse Arts Center’s Ava Spece

Rare words indeed to take in and ponder from the preface to the The Brookings Institution’s Creative Communities, Art Works in Economic Development: “Without good data and analysis—much of it grounded...

Review: ‘The Good Devil (In Spite of Himself)’ at WSC Avant Bard

The Good Devil (In Spite of Himself) is a good and plenty retelling of the classic Faust tale and how art can imitate life. Well, let’s really say it is an entertaining satiric retelling that uses...

In the Moment: Scenic Designer Tony Cisek on his Scenic Design for Folger’s ‘District Merchants’

Over the past nearly two decades, I have always anticipated what multi-Helen Hayes Award Scenic Designer Tony Cisek will bring forth on the Folger Theatre’s intimate stage space with its two iconic,...

Review: Source Festival 2016: ‘Crossroads’: Artistic Blind Date

Plunk yourself down upstairs at the Source Theatre to take in a state of mind; one of dreams and dissonance. Let yourself be open to three creative artists who bring forth dream states at the cusp of...

In the Moment: An Interview with Workhouse Arts Center’s Ava Spece

The Workhouse Arts Center is a 55-acre cultural arts center located in southern Fairfax County. For the history minded, It was 100 years ago that Suffragettes who had protested the lack of voting...

In the Moment: ‘La Cage aux Folles’ at Signature Theatre: New Meaning in the Midst of the Orlando Massacre and a Spoiled Son

Signature Theatre’s production of La Cage aux Folles under the sure hands of Director/Choreographer Matthew Gardiner is a fabulously fun-rendering. There is simply no way to leave the production...

In the Moment: ‘Technical Theater Boot Camp’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center.

This summer Hylton Performing Art Center is offering a unique opportunity for “hands-on” learning about what happens backstage during a live theater performance. The Hylton is offering a...

Review: Source Festival 2016: ‘Buried Cities’

This year’s edition of the DC Source Festival continues with its central mission to present works fresh to the DC area. The new theater works at Source receive their first full production at one of...

In the Moment: Providence Players of Fairfax Honor Their Student Scholarship Awardees: Miryam Mendelson and Blake Phillips

Giving back to the community is an important goal for the Providence Players of Fairfax. The Providence Players (PPF) is known for its work to serve its diverse community, especially with its Theater...

Review: ‘The Miser’ at Faction of Fools

Faction of Fools is delightfully back with a well-concocted, refreshing, street-fair fare of Moliere’s The Miser. This happy show is one with a pointed, underscored, right-on-the-surface message about...

In the Moment: ‘The Who & the What’ at Round House Theatre

So here we are in a world class city with ever changing demographics that represent all the world. Those include refugees, immigrants and people who may practice a different faith. Thanks to Arena...

In the Moment: Synetic Theater’s ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’

Synetic Theater’s The Man in the Iron Mask is a good yarn, well told. With the production Synetic continues to expand beyond its original Shakespeare roots and singular “silent” physical theater...

Review: ‘Titanic The Musical’ at The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

Theatre Lab’s production of the multiple Tony Award-winning musical Titanic The Musical will easily win you over. Under the direction of Deb Gottesman and musical direction by Joshua Coyne, Theatre...

In the Moment: Better Said Than Done’s 5th Anniversary Celebration and Story-telling Contest

Story telling has been part of human history for–well–forever. In recent days story-telling has had a resurgence with digital media, pod casting and, of course, radio. Think This American Life, The...

Review: ‘Collected Stories’ at Peter’s Alley Theatre Productions

“You can’t censor your creative impulses because of the danger of hurting someone’s feeling. Write don’t speak it.” This early line of dialogue resonates throughout the emotionally rich,...

Review: ‘Coming Home’ at Port City Playhouse

With Eleanore Tapscott’s gentle, affecting, eloquent direction, the Port City Playhouse production of Athol Fugard’s Coming Home (2009) is an exemplary work about love, loss and resilience. The...

In the Moment: PEN/Faulkner’s Tribute to Robert Stone at the Folger Shakespeare Library

He wrote books that fueled many of his generation. He was a literary provocateur with a writing style like few others penning works about the Vietnam War’s aftermath, political intrigue, class and...

In the Moment: ‘William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged)’ at Folger Theatre

The boys from the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC) have been a mainstay in the DC area for decades. They never wear out their welcome whether performing at the Folger, The Kennedy Center or Reston’s...

Review: Theater Triebewerk’s ‘Moby Dick’ at The Kennedy Center

A big theatrical story created on a small space is no easy matter. For the too-short stay of Moby Dick at the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, it was accurate what the Kennedy Center staff...

In the Moment: George Mason’s Center for the Arts Announces its Upcoming 2016-2017 Season

Next season’s Great Performances series at the Center for the Arts was recently announced to hearty applause at a lovely evening event on the George Mason University campus in Fairfax, Virginia....

In the Moment: A Look at ‘The Mystery of Love & Sex’: Jonny I Hardly Know Ye

Revelations are many in the admirable production of Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex currently at Signature Theatre. Directed by Stella Powell Jones, The Mystery of Love & Sex has its share...

In the Moment: ‘The Nether’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

The seeds of Jennifer Haley’s award-winning The Nether now at DC’s Woolly Mammoth and Philly’s InterAct were planted long, long ago. Twenty years ago in fact, The War of Desire and Technology at the...

In the Moment: American Theatre Critics Association Stops in Philly

In the past 25 years or so the theater scene in nearby Philadelphia, the nation’s 5th largest city, has blossomed into 50-plus stage companies that pay their actors, designers, and creative teams....

In the Moment: Creative Cauldron Awarded Grants for its Technical Theater Training Project

Theater has a great deal to offer well beyond acting before an enthralled audience. Not only is theater a source of inspiration and entertainment, but it can be a wonderful opportunity to learn and...

In the Moment: ‘Voices From the High School’ at NextStop Theatre Company-Cast Members Chime In

“Dark Nights” You remember that theatre term for when a venue has no shows playing to an audience. Well, NextStop Theatre, located in Herndon is having its April Theatre for Young Audiences production...

In the Moment: Hylton Performing Arts Center Announces Their 2016-2017 Schedule

Dance, Music, & Theater Comes to Manassas, VA The Hylton Performing Arts Center announces its 2016-2017 season, a fantastic line-up of music, dance, theater and performing arts. Now entering its...

In the Moment: ‘Falling Out of Time’ at Theatre J

Writing a column about Theater J’s world premiere of Falling Out of Time is difficult. Based upon the book by David Grossman, about a man’s 20 year-old soldier son who was killed during military...

In the Moment: ‘The Flick’ at Signature Theatre

Several years ago I read Annie Baker’s The Flick. For the life of me, I wondered how such a beautifully written, gutsy play about working-class heroes in their own ways could be turned into a living...

In the Moment: ‘1984’: A Loud Flash-Bang Grenade of a Theater Experience

Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has a loud flash-bang grenade of a theater experience for audiences. It comes with a chilling take on gloomy lives lived in a world of law and order under total...

In the Moment: The Costumes of Synetic Theater’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’

Ah, the importance of the costumes actors wear to set the scene for any stage production: the shapes, colors, textures. How the fabric flows, drapes, curves or hugs fast to an actor’s frame. Does the...