Yvonne French

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Wash Over You’

Get ready for a distinctly American piece of multi-media artistry told in choreography, text and video projections by Artistic Director Jane Franklin of Jane Franklin Dance in Arlington, Va. With...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival ‘Destiny of Desire’ at Arena Stage

DC playwright Karen Zacarías’ world-premiere musical comedy Destiny of Desire is a delightfully soapy mix of magic realism and situation comedy – so sit back in this bubble bath of great storytelling...

‘RENT’ at Metropolitan Youth Theatre

Metropolitan Youth Theatre’s production of RENT is a 100% student-run show from the director to the 17 actors who are making this flashback to the turn-of-the-century HIV/AIDS epidemic a moving...

‘Hairspray’ at City of Fairfax Theatre Company

A huge, multi-generational cast tells the story of integrating a 1962 Baltimore TV dance show in a musical directed by Tara Taylor that is all heart—and soul. With book by Mark O’Donnel and Thomas...

Little Butterfly Theatre Company Presents Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ on July 23-26th at 1st Stage

Just off her success for McLean High School with Big Fish, which rose to local and national prominence, Director Amy E. Poe is leading a cast of young adults in American Idiot. The rock musical...

‘Leto Legend’ at Hub Theatre

Valerie Fenton leads an all-woman cast as a super mom, super employee, and superhero in Leto Legend by Kristen LePine. Depicting the dual character of Charlie/Leto, Fenton, a founding member of the...

‘Barefoot in the Park’ at McLean Community Players

The McLean Community Players are performing an enjoyable production of Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon’s play about a mismatched couple, directed by Jerry Bonnes. One of the longest-running...

‘The Laramie Project’ at McLean High School

A well-cast and convincing docudrama directed by Amy Poe is giving audiences a lot to talk about, opening a few minds, and lending high school students with fluid gender identities a degree of...

‘Gone Country’ at Signature Theatre

Three accomplished performers are singing their hearts out in a real crowd-pleaser at Signature Theatre’s Gone Country cabaret, a short engagement conceived and directed by Walter Ware II. Maria...

‘Cinderella’ at The Russian National Ballet Theatre at Hylton Performing Arts Center

I attended the Russian National Ballet Theatre’s enchanting Cinderella on Friday night at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Cinderella moves to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on April...

‘Cinderella’ at American Ballet Theatre at The Kennedy Center

Just as the cherry blossoms come out, pure romance is in the air with Cinderella at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is performing this three-act ballet...

Reporting From the United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT) Conference & Stage Expo-Part 4: You Used What? Plastic Sheeting as Inflatable Set Elements

Two-or three-mil plastic tube sheeting cut into a single thickness can be taped together with clear packing tape or two-sided carpet tape to make huge, bubble-like structures, some 200 set designers...

Reporting From the United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT) Conference & Stage Expo-Part 3: Free Software for Theaters on a Budget

There is a lot of free software available to theaters to design everything from sets to lighting, sound, and projections. If you have the processing speed and RAM on your computer, you can even make a...

Reporting From the United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT) Conference & Stage Expo-Part 2: Immersive Production: Audience and Performance Blending

Have you wanted to break the fourth wall but don’t know how to immerse your audience into a performance? About 200 members of the United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT) Conference &...

Reporting From the United States Institute of Theater Technology (USITT) Conference & Stage Expo-Part 1: How to Set up a Rental Program for Costumes, Props, and Lighting Equipment

Does your theater company have an untapped wealth of supplies that you could loan out in order to make money on your inventory of costumes, props or lighting? Perhaps you just want to loan out a few...

‘The Jungle Book’ at Creative Cauldron

Olivia Laurine’s fantastic performance as Mowgli, plus original music and artful masks, make for an absolutely mesmerizing rendition of The Jungle Book at Creative Cauldron in Falls Church, VA. The...

Meet the Cast of ‘Nunsense’ at Wolf Pack Theatre Company: Part 3: Linda Whiting

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Nunsense at Wolf Pack Theatre Company, meet Linda Whiting. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell us where local theatregoers may have seen you...

Yvonne French To Report From U.S. Institute of Theater Technology’s 55th Annual Conference & Stage Expo

Stay tuned next Wednesday, March 18, 2015, as DCMetroTheaterArts technology reporter Yvonne French travels to Cincinnati to cover the U.S. Institute of Theater Technology’s 55th Annual Conference &...

‘Love, Loss, and What I Wore’ at NextStop Theatre Company

This confection of a girl’s-night-out show deserves seven stars, one for each of the six actresses, who depict 29 characters in 28 vignettes about fashion, plus one for Director Lorraine Magee. The...

‘Crime and Punishment in America’ at The American Century Theater

Billed as Crime and Punishment in America at The American Century Theater, this pairing of one-act plays (Cops and Hello Out There) are must-sees for several reasons. First, they are well-written,...

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ at NextStop Theatre Company

Director Jennifer Lambert has coached two casts of 13 talented youngsters—plus a baby who plays Woodstock–to their natural best and the simplicity of A Charlie Brown Christmas’ lets their true spirits...

‘The Great One-Man Commedia Epic’ at Faction of Fools

The Great One-Man Commedia Epic is a one-man show that is so endearing that I felt like my Dad had just told me a bed-time story. Like my Dad, Matthew R. Wilson pretended to have an argument with the...

‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ at 1st Stage

1st Stage, One Man, Two Guvnors, Five Stars. Uproariously directed by Matthew R. Wilson, the madcap British farce, One Man, Two Guvnors, by Richard Bean, with songs by Grant Olding, is about a man who...

‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ at Act Two @ Levine

Alex Stone and Rachel Lawhead showed so much chemistry that you would have thought that their roles were written for them. in Act Two @ Levine’s stunning production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber...

‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’ at Reston Community Players

Reston Community Players’ You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown is a sweet and serious show that will warm the cockles of your heart. This delightful 1967 musical comedy has music and lyrics by Clark...

‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The Little Theatre of Alexandria has a smash it on its hands with The Monty Python’s Spamalot. The opening night audience bellowed and clapped and roared at the puns and gave a standing ovation at the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Interrogation’

(Best of the Fringe!) In his play Interrogation, John Feffer, a foreign policy analyst who writes widely on privacy issues, pokes gentle fun at U.S. intelligence agencies as if to say, “I love my...

Contemporary Ballet With an Edge . . . and Live Music by Chamber Dance Project at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater

This contemporary ballet with the string quartet performing onstage fuses sound and movement in four contemporary dances featuring two world premieres, including the tango-inspired “Sur” by guest...

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron is presenting an artful rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with everyone in the huge cast under the age of 20 except for the king and queen of the faeries. The queen, Titania is...

‘The Wonderful World of Dissocia’ at Theater Alliance

If you like great acting and want to know what it must be like to be mentally ill and to suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder, go see The Wonderful World of Dissocia, directed by Colin Hovde and...

‘The Secret Garden’ at McLean High School Choral Society

The McLean High Choral Society is putting on a magical performance of The Secret Garden even as it weathers budget cuts that did away with a formal class for a 50-year-old Renaissance-style singing...

‘Underneath the Lintel’ at MetroStage

I know a lot of librarians who would love Underneath the Lintel (and non-librarians too like those in the audience last night who were having a great time). First, it includes variety of media: books,...

The Second City’s ‘Happily Ever Laughter’ at The Barns at Wolf Trap

A group of smart, funny and nice-seeming comedians from the famous Second City improv group of Chicago entertained about 600 appreciative people at the Barns at Wolf Trap last night. Since its...

World Stages: International Theater Festival: Nalaga’at Theater Deaf-Blind Acting Ensemble: ‘Not by Bread Alone’

The delicious aroma of bread fills the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center World Stage Festival as a talented ensemble of deaf-blind actors from Israel bakes bread and dishes up ten short sketches....

Synesthesia: Braille and Large-Print Opera Libretti Match the Met’s Broadcasts by Yvonne French

Opera lovers who are blind or have low vision and want to get materials to complement live radio broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera can do so with the National Library Service for the Blind and...

‘Hamlet…the rest is silence’ at Synetic Theater

“The rest is silence” are Hamlet’s last words before he dies, but you won’t hear them in this production because the whole play is conveyed in movement. Not a word is spoken. Synetic Theater first...

‘Absurdities: An Evening of Ionesco’ at The George Washington University by Yvonne French

A pair of quintessential absurdist plays–The Bald Soprano and The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco–will lift you from the humdrum and deposit you in a place where language takes on a refreshing new meaning ....

Synesthesia: Audio-Described Performances in February 2014 by Yvonne French

Synesthesia: Audio-Described Performances in February 2014 ______ Tuesday, February 4, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 15, at 2 p.m. Audio Describer: Richard Collins; Program Notes: Sylvia Rosenthal...

‘GOLD’ by Cas Public of Canada at The Kennedy Center Family Theater by Yvonne French

I knew this was going to be a good performance when I saw the on the Web that it was choreographed by Hélène Blackburn and Pierre Lecours, “with the invaluable collaboration of dancers.” Blackburn and...

‘Blame it on Beckett’ at Montgomery Playhouse at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn by Yvonne French

Ever wonder what goes on–not behind the scenes–but beneath the surface of the performing arts? Such as what might have led to a Bolshoi Ballet star dancer’s conviction for throwing acid on the...

Synesthesia: More Sign-Interpreted and Captioned Performances in January and February 2014 by Yvonne French

The Angelica Film Center & Cafe at the Mosaic in Virginia’s mod new Merrifield development has audio captioning devices that fit into the drink holders. 2911 District Ave @ Lee Hwy & Gallows Rd...

Synesthesia: Deaf Actor James “Joey” Caverly Portrays Deaf Character in ‘Tribes’ at The Studio Theatre” by Yvonne French

Tribes features a deaf protagonist, Billy, whose hearing family forces him to read lips. Billy has been deaf since birth. His sister, brother and parents are smart, cultured and love to argue, but...

‘A Christmas Carol’ at Christian Life Center by Yvonne French

The Christian Life Center was filled with The Christmas Spirit as a group of actors from all walks of life performed A Christmas Carol to benefit homeless shelters in Prince George’s County. This...

‘A Commedia Christmas Carol’ at Faction of Fools Theatre Company by Yvonne French

In anticipation that A Commedia Christmas Carol is here to stay, I am giving it the most Washington of all things: an acronym (ACCC). ACCC is based on the Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol, and...

Synesthesia: Accessible Shows Galore This Winter-November 2013 Through February 2014 by Yvonne French

NOVEMBER 2013 ASL Interpreted: Friday, November 29, 2013 at 8:00 pm; Saturday December 7 at 8:00 pm; Sunday December 8 at 2:00 pm; and Saturday December 21 at 2:00 pm Open Captioning available all...

‘Bondage’ by Pinky Swear Productions at Anacostia Playhouse by Yvonne French

Is it possible to engage in S&M and appear heartwarming at the same time? The answer is ‘yes’ if you are in the cast of Bondage by Pinky Swear Productions. What an excellent contrivance! People might...

L.A. Theatre Works: ‘The Graduate’ at George Mason University Center for the Arts by Yvonne French

“The Graduate was published 50 years ago and it’s still shockingly relevant today,” said actor Darren Richardson. “People graduate from college and they’re lucky to get a job at Starbucks or Borders.”...

Synesthesia: Accessible Theater and Art in DC in November 2013 by Yvonne French

DC is now considered the second biggest theater town in the United States, after New York. It also has one of the biggest deaf communities, which means there is a lot of culture: deaf culture! What...

‘Broken Spokes’ at Gallaudet University Theatre by Yvonne French

Broken Spokes is a complex production with excellent acting that packs an emotional wallop while lending insights about Deaf culture. Says Writer-Director Willy Conley, “My intention was to write a...

‘Marry Me a Little’ at Creative Cauldron by Yvonne French

Dani Stoller and Lou Steele should go down in regional theater history as “Stoller and Steele” for Marry Me a Little. It is one of the top shows I have seen in 25 years. Brilliantly directed by Matt...