Best of

DCMetroTheaterArts’ Best of 2014: Special Awards

The staff of DCMetroTheaterArts is honored to announce that their 2014 Special Awards have been awarded to: Since it opened in July 2013, The Anacostia Playhouse has become home for several of our...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Cabaret XXX: Everybody F*cking Dies’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Lets start off with a little history: Pinky Swear productions has had one of the best productions at the Fringe three years running, with their Cabaret XXX series. Their...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Porch’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) What a pleasure to happen upon this gem of a show. Featuring three exceptionally truthful and touching performances on a plain platform with next-to-no production values...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Breast in Show’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) At last. A show that has taken the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 theme to heart: Move Me. Breast in Show, conceived and produced by Eileen Mitchard, is arguably the best...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Ten Principles )'(‘

(Best of the Capital Fringe) “There are so much worse things to be greeted with than warm silliness.” TD Smith grins as he utters this mantra. In AWoL Productions’ 10 Principles )'(, TD recounts the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Isis and Vesco Investigate the Curious Death of Dr. Freud’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Longtime DC theater company Guillotine Theatre mounts a new play by Monique LaForce that is a crazy mash-up between Egyptian gods, the fathers of psychology, and the NYPD....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Oh, What Can’t A Woman Do?’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) This production is not to be missed! It is clearly one of the ‘Best of the Capital Fringe.’ Hilary Morrow’s solo performance is riveting.Morrow is both playwright and...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Miss Emma’s Matchmaking Agency for Literary Characters’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) A modern incarnation of Emma Woodhouse runs a matchmaking business for literary lonely heats. With a little harmless manipulation and some help from a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Ben & Lucille’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Classified as a contemporary comedy, this production of Ben & Lucille is hands down the absolute best 45 minutes you will spend at The Capital Fringe Festival in 2014....

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Report to An Academy’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Welcome to Franz Kafka’s bizarre and tortured world, in which the desperate fight for survival turns men into animals and animals into men, and in which, “human freedom is...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Girl in Space’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Status Report: Not a Robot Theatre Company’s Girl in Space is not your typical “boy meets girl, girl meets asteroid, girl loses asteroid, boy loses girl” story although it...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘We’ve Come to Play’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Who, indeed, has come to play? Five women in ten choreographic (no less compelling, for being non-cinematic) captures, their bodies conveying emotional captures that, as...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Giant Box of Porn’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Giant Box of Porn opened in the big Warehouse black box before a standing-room-only audience Saturday, and once the show got going I knew why: This humdinger is going to...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Letters To and From Me’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Letters To and From Me is an extraordinary hour of spoken word, story telling, singing, and dancing from the Wild Women Theatre company. The piece explores specifically...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Monster Songs’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Dr. Dour and Peach present a delightfully quirky and surprisingly physical performance in The Monster Songs, playing in the Gearbox on 7th St NW during this year’s Capital...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Point…Blank…Period’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Point…Blank…Period, created by Tramaine Brathwaite and written along with Ryiesha Simms, Kenya D. Morris, and and Devynne Stevenson, is a hilarious, heartwarming, look...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Self Portrait’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Upon reading the short blurb attached to Sasha Sinclair’s new solo performance piece Self Portrait here, I must confess I found myself a bit curious. Armed with my...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Bitch: A Play About Antigone’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Though you travel the perilous river of the Fringe and are beset on all sides by ravening flyer bearers and incoherent plots. Though you are forced to cringe so forcefully...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Goddess Diaries’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) The Goddess Diaries, returning for its third year in Capital Fringe, started off with a bang! Written by Carol Lee Campbell and Directed by Rebecca Wahls, this simply...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Districtland’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Bucharest inside the Beltway had a very successful world premiere of Districtland to Capital Fringe! Providing a unique look on the world of the “rat race” that is...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Homeboy Thanksgiving’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Homeboy Thanksgiving, written by Jose Zarate and directed by Rhiannon Cooper is a story of the healing nature of family and friendship. Ernesto (Silas Gordon Brigham) is a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘#albatross’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet, a DC-based company founded in 2010, presents #albatross in this summer’s Capital Fringe Festival, with a program of three works. The decision...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Persephone’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Usually when someone tells you a Fringe show is different every night, it means “improv showcase” or “audience participation.” Sometimes it means “we didn’t really...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Blue Moon/Red River’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Jane Franklin Dance is a Virginia based company known for its innovative works and collaborations; Blue Moon/Red River is a prime example of both. Jane Franklin is the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss? is written and performed powerfully and hilariously by Ronna J Levy and directed by Kel Haney. Originally conceived in Matt Hoverman’s Go...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Tournament’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) What do you gather a team of actors who also happen to be some of the best fight choreographers in DC, and pair them with a writer that loves campy, silly jokes and 80’s...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Road to High Street’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Juggling fire, riding a unicycle, living in a beer tank and eating raw eggs—these are just a few of the stops on The Road to High Street. Andrew Potter’s solo performance...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Dream Within a Dream’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) While I was in London a couple months ago, I attended a Punchdrunk Theatre Company production, and the play was like nothing I had seen before. Punchdrunk’s most defining...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Song of Myself: The Whitman Project’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Robert Michael Oliver is a tour-de-force in his one-man show It’s got to be tough to do a solo show, opening night at 9 p.m. on a sultry summer night, but remarkable,...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Olizzia’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) First-time playwright John Bavoso’s inventive and appealing script for Olizzia would make a terrific indie rom-com caper that would be a hit on the lesbian-and-gay film...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Rock Bottom [A Rock Opus]’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) If one way to tell whether a rock musical is really good is that it makes you want to come back and see it again, The Landless Theatre Company’s Rock Bottom [A Rock Opus]...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Hello Girls: Unknown Heroines of WWI’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Ellouise Schoettler enlightens us in her one-woman show. US history provided little to inform us about the role of women in “The Great War.” However, Ellouise Schoettler...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Coosje’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Every now and then CapFringe makes a divine pairing of venue and production. Such is the case with No. 11 Productions’ Coosje at the Goethe Institut, where the art house...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘TAME.’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) When the DC Women’s Voices Theatre Festival rolls around in October, 2015, I sincerely hope Playwright Jonelle Walker will be among the voices represented. In TAME. (ably...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Dream Love’

(Best of the Capital Fringe) Ryan Tumulty’s devised movement piece Dream Love is a surreal combination of dance and theater, switching back and forth from scene to choreography to illustrate the story...

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...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Four Dogs and a Bone’

(Best of the Fringe!) Welcome to the savage world of moviemaking where success-hungry humans, snarl and growl at each other like dogs fighting for a bone. Welcome to Hollywood, as experienced...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Man in the Desert’

(Best of the Fringe!) Stephen Mead is no stranger to Fringe—or to one-man shows: his “Dark. Powerful. Mysterious. Magnetic. Suspenseful” performance in Murder on the Bare Stage, as lauded last year by...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: “C-“

(Best of the Fringe!) C-, a SPNP Tech production is a one-man play featuring writer and director Eric Jaffe. The performance, based on Jaffe’s interviews of his former hard-partying fraternity...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Program Assistant’

(Best of the Fringe!) Fringe favorite John Krizel is at it again with his new show The Program Assistant, which he wrote, directed, and produced. It is a polished, fast-paced, painfully funny comedy...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Old Man Never Let It Go’

(Best of the Fringe!) If Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea strikes you as an interesting choice of subject for a movement theatre piece, you are where I was prior to seeing The Old Man Never...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Chesapeake’ by Bill Goodman

In Tale that Starts Realistic, Turns Fantastic, Dog Triggers Profound Changes Kerr (played by Dexter Hamlett) is a bizarre performance artist with an act that includes nudity. He’s condemned by...

BEST OF 2013: Favorite Performances and Productions at Theatre/Music Training Programs in 2013 by the Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

The staff of DCMetroTheaterArts honor the schools, conservatories, and programs that train young actors, singers, and musicians (and some adults who always wanted to be on the stage). Congrats to all...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Children’s, High School, and University Productions and Performances of 2013′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the choices of The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts for our Favorite productions and performances in Children’s Theatre and High School and University productions that we saw in 2013. Congrats to...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Designers of 2013′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the choices of The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts for for our Favorite Designers in a Musical and Play in 2013. Congrats to all the honorees and to every designer who worked on our local stages...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Ensembles in a Musical and Play’ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the choices for our Favorite Ensembles in a Musical and Play in 2013. Congrats to our honorees and to every ensemble who worked on our local stages in 2013. Please leave your list of...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Musical Direction and Choreography′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the choices for our Favorite Music Direction and Choreography of 2013 by the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts. Congrats to our honorees and to every Musical Director and Choreographer who worked...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Directors of a Musical and Play′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

Here are the choices for Best Director in a Musical and Play by the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts. Congrats to our honorees and to every director who worked on our local stages in 2013. Please leave...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Supporting Actor and Actress in a Play′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

It’s that time of the year when everyone makes their list of favorites, and the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts, have selected their favorites of 2013. For the next week, we will be posting a new category...

THE BEST OF 2013: ‘Favorite Supporting Actor and Actress in a Musical′ by The Staff of DCMetroTheaterArts

It’s that time of the year when everyone makes their list of favorites, and the staff of DCMetroTheaterArts, have selected their favorites of 2013. For the next week, we will be posting a new category...