Guest Author

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Abortion Road Trip’

Abortion Road Trip tells the story of three women in a cab headed to New Mexico from Texas for an abortion. In this reviewer’s experience, shows covering the oh-so-taboo topic tend to be heavy handed,...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Blind’

Against a backdrop of trendy dramedies and raunchy musicals, the Wheel Theatre Company’s The Blind leads its audience to a cold, dark forest a century old. Your experience depends on how far you are...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Blue Over You’

It’s winter in Evanston, Illinois, and a woman has gone missing. Her name is Mitzi, and beyond that we know just a scant few details: she works as an Administrator, is unafraid of bumble bees,...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘I’m Margaret Thatcher, I Is!’

This show is Art with a capital “A”. It is awe-inspiring. It is life-changing. As the actors inform us in the prologue, it may, in fact, be “the most important piece of theatre you will ever...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’

Nevertheless, She Persisted takes the pulse of the American landscape before and after the November 2016 election, offering a moving compendium of raw emotion, personal drama, and flickering hope....

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Mixed Blessings’

There are certain topics that one avoids on first dates. Like race, politics, religion, Moby Dick, your ex. Mixed Blessings is the story of how these topics can make a first date go spectacularly...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘HOWL: In the Time of Trump’

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix. But enough about how my closest...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘J-Swizzle’s (and D-Man’s) Epic Awesome Swaggy Broventure for Sweet Rhymes’ by Emma Choi

Between Hebrew classes and surviving middle school, best friends Jared “J-Swizzle” and Daniel “D-Man” dream of becoming the biggest rap stars in the universe. It will take a magical quest that...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘I’m Margaret Thatcher, I Is!’ at AnyStage Theater

AnyStage Theater presents I’m Margaret Thatcher, I Is! After premiering their sci-fi comedy Amelia Earhart In Space at last year’s Capital Fringe Festival, AnyStage is thrilled to bring their latest...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘ClickB@it’ at Naked Theatre Company by Rachael Murray

NTC goes viral. What happens next will Blow. Your. Mind. We’re baa-aack! Naked Theatre Company returns to the Capital Fringe Festival with a world premiere production, ClickB@it. Inspired by The...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Lancer & Lace’ by James F. Bruns

First of all, I don’t remember where I was on November 22, 1963 at 12:40 pm, CST when CBS News interrupted, As the World Turns to announce “In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘The Kind of Thing That Would Happen’ by Agora Dance

Choreographed by Olivia Sabee with original sound design by DeLesslin George-Warren. Performed by Hannah Joo, Melissa Lineburg, Catherine Roth, Robert Rubama, and Meredith Stapleton. In a post-truth...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘ECHOES’ by N. Richard Nash by Manoel Amado

A young man and woman build a low-keyed paradise of happiness within an asylum, only to have it shattered by the intrusion of the outside world. The two characters search, at times agonizingly, to...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Paper’ by John Feffer

A teacher and a student argue over a remark in class. Or was it a remark about class? Or was it really about race? Or gender? My new play Paper brings the explosive confrontations on campus around...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Lazarus’ by Evan Crump

“I sell life, secondhand”: Unstrung Harpist Productions’ Lazarus at the 2017 Capital Fringe Festival What does immortality mean to you? Is it the hope that modern medicine will discover cures for the...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Mr. Taken’ by Ward Kay

Mr. Taken — it’s a sex comedy with an emotional heart. The sex comedies of late 20th century – such as Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw or Foote and Marriott’s No Sex Please, We’re British had basic...

Capital Finge Preview: ‘WIT & WRATH: The Life & Times of Dorothy Parker’ by Claudia Baumgarten

Listen, I can’t even get my dog to stay down. Do I look to you like someone who could overthrow the government?—During an FBI interrogation at her apartment in 1952. Claudia Baumgarten’s one-woman...

Capital Fringe Preview: A Guided Tour of ‘Last Ditch Playlist’ by Brad Baron

Last Ditch Playlist is about two men, Aaron and Wes. They’re probably just broken up. So we flash backwards and forwards in a whirlwind of Aaron’s memories to figure out exactly where he stands. While...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Caveat’ by Ben Lockshin

Unless you’re an heiress or robber baron, a room of one’s own in DC is hard to come by. Enter the group house scene – where the young, cash-strapped, and slightly desperate commit to living with...

Theater Alliance Announces Its 2017-2018 Theater Season, Including Return of ‘Word Becomes Flesh’

Theater Alliance announces its 15th Season with an impressive lineup, including the return of its Helen Hayes Award–winning production Word Becomes Flesh, presented with two regional premieres by...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Boobs, Balloons, Babies, & Buffoons’: The Origin Story of ‘Tiresias’ Tits’ By Rebecca Rose Vassy, aka Diva Darling

The night I went to see the opera Les Mamelles de Tiresias, I was not expecting to hear a duet about bacon. I’d gone to the dress rehearsal of the Wolf Trap Opera Company’s production knowing nothing...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘The Blind’ by The Wheel Theatre Company

Imagine you are lost and alone in the forest. You have never been here before and you cannot see to find your way out. You don’t know if anyone knows you are missing or if they will be able to find...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Exit Carolyn’ by Jennie Eng by Nu Sass Productions

Exit Carolyn “Best Friends Forever?” Written by Jennie Eng Directed by Bridget Grace Sheaff Featuring Alison Donnelly, Hilary Kelly, Jasmine Jones, and Torin Lusebrink. About Exit Carolyn After the...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘8 Bit Circus S*it’ by Peculiarity Productions

Have you ever wanted to be inside a video game? Now is your chance. 8 Bit Circus S*it will bring video games to life through two games of fire and circus art. In Game I, our cast will use a unique...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘In The Company of de Sade’ by Timothy R. King

It was 2012 when King’s Players was born. For our first show, we tackled an original piece called In the Company of de Sade. The premise was simple: a director attempts to stage the Marquis de Sade’s...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘It’s What We Do: A Play about the Occupation’ by Pamela Nice

What is it like for a young Israeli soldier to have to enforce the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza? What is life like for Palestinians living under that occupation, subject to martial law, for 50...

An Interview with the National Orchestral Institute and Festival (NOI+F) Director Richard Scerbo: Thirty Years After It Began, NOI+F is Breaking Ground and Stronger Than Ever by Robert Lintott

When the National Orchestral Institute and Festival (NOI+F) began in 1987, its first director appealed to student musicians across the country by telling them that “participants will have the...

Baltimore Center Stage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah Announces Departure at End of 2017/18 Season

The Board of Directors of Baltimore Center Stage and Kwame Kwei-Armah have jointly announced that Kwei-Armah will leave his position as artistic director at the end of his contract on June 30, 2018....

Preview: Thunderous Productions’ ‘Murder on the Nile’ Opens on Friday, June 23rd at the Greenbelt Arts Center by Aref Dajani and Emily Canavan

Thunderous Productions’ Murder on the Nile is not your parents’ or grandparents’ version of Agatha Christie. Opening Friday, June 23, 2017, at the Greenbelt Arts Center – with a cast that screams...

Single Carrot Theatre Announces Additional Performances of Sold-Out ‘Promenade: Baltimore’

In response to continued demand for tickets, Single Carrot Theatre will be extending the sold-out Promenade: Baltimore for three performances. The production, which is already the highest-grossing...

DC Theatre Scene and DCMetroTheaterArts Announce Agreement to Share Review Coverage of Capital Fringe Festival 2017

The two media companies combine writing strength to review 70 openings in 6 days Washington, DC, June 9, 2017—The editors and publishers of DC’s two major theater websites—DC Theatre Scene and...

‘Doubt: A Parable’ has Press Night Tonight at SeeNoSun OnStage at the Anacostia Arts Center

SeeNoSun OnStage will open a four-week run of Doubt: A Parable, John Patrick Shanley’s controversial Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama. The play examines the Catholic Church abuse scandal...

Review: ‘The Jungle Book’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

Man’s desire to know the ways of the jungle and its creatures has been captured in Encore Stage & Studio’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The story of Mowgli’s (Ryely Rogers)...

HCC’s Arts Collective Presents ‘INHERITORS: The Nature of Keys’ June 8 – 18, 2017

HCC’s Arts Collective Presents “INHERITORS: The Nature of Keys” June 8 – 18, 2017, An Original Play Devised by The Company. Howard Community College’s Arts Collective concludes its 22nd season with...

Review: ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ at the Kellar Theater at the Center for the Arts by Leslie Ann Ross

Delightful and charming. Those are the words I would use to describe Rooftop Production’s current offering You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown which comes to life at the Kellar Theater at the Center for...

Review: ‘Hairspray JR.’ at the Bowie Community Theatre Youth Theatre Program by Sharon Preator

Tracy Turnblad reminds us that “You gotta think big to be big” as Bowie Community Theatre (“BCT”) delivered a big success with Hairspray JR. for their Youth Theatre Program’s first production. This...

Review: ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at Opera Philadelphia by Corey Cohen

Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) is such a perfect amalgam of comedy and pathos that audiences will cheer even a flawed performance of it. It’s hard to get everything right, with...

Review: ‘Columbinus’ at Metropolitan Youth Theatre by Matt Stevenson

Massacre. Bloodbath. Horror. These are just a few of the terms used to describe the absolute tragedy that took place on April 20, 1999 in Jefferson County, Colorado. The terrible events that took...

Review: ‘Taking Sides’ at Port City Playhouse by Wesley Cobaugh

Taking Sides by Ronald Harwood is a stark look at post-war process and what is really meant by getting at the truth of what happened, why, who knew and when. Director Mary Ayala-Bush has crafted a...

The Kennedy Center Announces Its 2017-2018 Theater Season: ‘Hamilton,’ ‘The Humans,’ ‘The Color Purple,’ ‘In the Heights,’ ‘An American in Paris,’ ‘On Your Feet,’ ‘The Book of Mormon,’ and More

From The Kennedy Center: 2017–2018 Theater Season: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced programming for its 2017–2018 theater season in an event on the famed Opera House...

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Publisher and Editor Joel Markowitz To Receive The Gary Maker Award From DCTheatreScene At A Benefit Cabaret at MetroStage TONIGHT Monday, May 1st at 7 PM

DCMetroTheatreArts’ Pubisher and Editor Joel Markowitz has received the Gary Maker Award from DCTheatreScene. In her announcement Publisher and Editor of DCTheatreScene Lorraine Treanor wrote: Joel...

Review: ‘The Wiz’ at Spotlighters Theatre by Sherri Chandler

Originally opening in October 1974 at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, MD, The Wiz, with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, is a reimaging of Frank L. Baum’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at Encore Stage & Studio by Emma Kiely

The message of Easter came early this year as Encore Stage & Studio’s (Encore) Musical Theatre Intensive presented John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell. Performed in the sparsely set...

Interview: A Q & A with Arts Collective@HCC’s ‘IMPROVAGANZA’ Participants: Part One

Howard Community College’s Arts Collective’s What Improv Group?! is presenting Improvaganza, HCC’s (and Howard County’s, too) FIRST Improv Festival with Master Classes, on March 30, 31 and April 1,...

IMPROVAGANZA: Improv Festival and Improv Master Classes at Arts Collective @HCC

Howard Community College’s Arts Collective’s What Improv Group?! presents… IMPROVAGANZA! A Three-Night Improv Festival Mar 30, 31 & Apr 1, 2017, at 8pm in HCC’s Studio Theatre at the Horowitz Center....

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Opens Tonight: ‘Inside The Numbers’: Part Two

Bethesda Little Theatre’s New Musical Revue “Let’s Not Talk About Love” Covers All the Bases, by Christina Ling “Let’s not talk about love,” Cole Porter once implored, and who would disagree with the...

Meet the Cast of Providence Players’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Part 2: Mihara India, playing Calpurnia – by Julie Janson

The Providence Players of Fairfax will soon premiere the third production of its 19th season, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Christopher Sergel, directed by Beth Gilles-Whitehead. Tickets for this...

Review: ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’ at Prince William Little Theatre by Tamela J. Ritter

It’s probably helpful to be well versed in Chekhov and Greek tragedies to understand many of the in-jokes and allusions in Christopher Durang’s 2012 Tony Award-winning play Vanya and Sonia and Masha...

Riverside Center For The Performing Arts’ ‘Saturday Night Fever’ Plays Through May 7th

The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia is excited to present the disco musical, Saturday Night Fever starring Michael Notardonato as Tony Manero. Located at 95...

Meet the Cast of Providence Players’ ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Part 1: Sophia Manicone, playing Scout – by Julie Janson

The Providence Players of Fairfax will soon premiere the third production of its 19th season, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Christopher Sergel, directed by Beth Gilles-Whitehead. Tickets for this...