Columns

Filichia on Friday: Catching Up: ‘Is the Third Time the Charm – or Strikeout – for ANNIE on Film?’; ‘Into The Woods’ Goes into the Nation’s Cinemas;’December’s Leftovers and January’s Brainteaser’ and ‘An Evening with Dame Diana Rigg’ by Peter Filichia

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. Time to catch up: December 19, 2014: Is the Third Time the...

Filichia on Friday: Take the ‘2015 Broadway University Mid-Term Exam’-Answers Due in by February 3rd!

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. ______ Take The 2015 Broadway University Mid-Term...

‘In The Moment’: The Surprising Findings in Three New NEA Reports on the Arts

Well, this was an attention grabbing, eye-catching headline; “Surprising Findings in Three New NEA Reports on the Arts.” I found it on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) home page along with...

Magic Time! ‘Choirboy’ at The Studio Theatre

There comes a scene in Choir Boy at The Studio Theatre when five young black men stand naked in dimly lit separate shower stalls singing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” in glorious harmony....

Magic Time!: ‘The T Party’ at Forum Theatre

Natsu Onoda Power’s delightfully devised theater piece The T Party could not have a more perfect home than Michael Dove’s quintessentially inclusive Forum Theatre. At Forum every walk-up ticket is Pay...

A Chat with Pippin’s Leading Player-Sasha Allen

Two nights before we chatted, Sasha Allen was burning up The National Theatre Stage and doing some fancy moves on a high-hanging trapeze while wowing the crowd as the Leading Player in the Tony...

“Moving On’: An Interview with Theater J’s Managing Director Rebecca Ende and Acting Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky

Managing Director Rebecca Ende and Acting Artistic Director Shirley Serotsky and their team are ‘moving on’ and preparing for an exciting 2015 season at Theater J. Joel: How do you see your new roles...

‘The Imperative to Reconcile’: A Conversation with Ari Roth by John Stoltenberg

In the week following Ari Roth’s firing as Artistic Director of Theater J, I talked with him about his vision of theater. It was a topic that mattered to me personally, because I had come to a deep...

Nibbles and Sips: ‘Christmas Thrills And Chills For Every Theatregoer’

One of the best ways I know of to get excited about the Christmas season is to get thyself (and thy family) to the theatre where you can watch dancers soar in Septime Webre’s The Nutcracker performed...

Magic Time! ‘Terminus’ at The Studio Theatre

Graphic language can slam us and disturb us in a way that is unique to live theater. Visceral and muscular diction in performance can burn images into our mind’s eye as no cinema can.The power of...

‘Filichia on Friday’ ‘The New Recording of Roberta’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: The New Recording of ROBERTA Peter Filichia is the...

Spine: ‘Famous Puppet Death Scenes’

Gordon Craig, one of the early giants of modern theatre, provocatively wrote: “There is only one actor – nay one man – who has the soul of the dramatic poet, and who has ever served as the true and...

Filichia on Friday: “November’s Leftovers and December’s Brainteaser’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: November’s Leftovers and December’s Brainteaser...

Nibbles And Sips Around Town: Meet the 2014 StarChefs Washington DC Area Rising Stars And 12/16 Gala at Union Market

Mark your calendars now for one of DC’s best dining events. On December 16, 2014 the 2014 StarChefs Washington DC area Rising Stars Gala will be at Dock 5 at Union Market. There’s even a special VIP...

The Remarkable Backstory of WSC Avant Bard’s ‘A Klingon Christmas Carol’ at Theater J on December 15th at 8 PM by Marc Okrand

WSC Avant Bard will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a one-night-only staged concert reading of A Klingon Christmas Carol—Charles Dickens’s classic tale of ghosts and redemption retold in...

In the Moment: Parents Chime In On Their Kids Appearing in NextStop Theatre Company’s ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

Wonder what parents think of their children taking on a role in a theater production; one that is not school-based? With that in mind, I went to NextStop Theatre Company which is producing A Charlie...

Nibbles and Sips: ‘National Geographic’s Executive Chef Matthew Crudder Talks About His Plans For The Upcoming Farm-To-Table Dinner And Why He Likes To Source Locally’

Presiding over National Geographic’s Washington, DC kitchens for over two years, Executive Chef Matthew Crudder draws on his considerable experience. A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute,...

In The Moment: An Interview with VA Museum of Fine Arts’ Jeffrey Allison on Photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue

The photo just jumped out at me. It had a joyful, playful performing arts feeling. But it was a photograph from a century ago by an artist I did not know. And I wanted to know more. So with a bit of...

Judyisms: ‘You Must Keep Your Dream in Your Focus’

I’ve all but stopped reviewing the facts of my childhood and spend my time enjoying my NOW, since NOW is all we really have anyway. The only thing I will maintain is that when I was six I made a very...

Filichia on Friday: ‘Ten Thousand, Ten Thousand and One, Ten Thousand and Two …’ (And a Look at ‘Little Dancer’)

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. And Mazel Tov to Peter on seeing his 10,000th show…and...

Nibbles and Sips Around Town: Peach Brandy Debuts At George Washington’s Mount Vernon Distillery

Eight hundred eagerly-anticipated bottles of George Washington’s limited edition Peach Brandy Eau de Vie (translation: “water of life”) went onto the shelves of the Mount Vernon Estate gift shop just...

A Chat With Rebecca Luker About ‘Little Dancer’ at The Kennedy Center

It’s always a pleasure and honor to speak with Rebecca Luker, and as Little Dancer ends its run at The Kennedy Center this Sunday, November 30th, I asked Rebecca about the new Stephen Flaherty and...

Spine: Feeling Blue? Escape to ‘Five Guys Named Moe’

A man staggers onto the stage at Arena’s Kreeger Theater. Nomax, played with deep loss by Kevin McAllister, has offended his girl with yet another drunken night. He sings “Early in the Morning,” an...

‘Barbarellesque’ is Back This Saturday! Interview with 4 Barbarellas

If you missed Compound 50/50 Productions Barbarellesque last year at the Wind Up Space or this summer at the State Theatre you still have two chances to catch the super fun, super sexy send up of Jane...

Catching Up With ‘Filichia on Friday’: ‘Penelope Daulton: In Comes Company Manager’;’A Busy Time for Musicals’;’October’s Leftovers & November’s Brainteasers’;and ‘It’s Time for ‘A Time for Singing”

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. Time to catch up : November 14, 2014: *Penelope Daulton: In...

Magic Time! Heard About the Rainbow Theatre Project? A Q&A With Artistic Director H. Lee Gable

The Rainbow Theatre Project, Metro DC’s very own LGBTQ theatre company, has just begun its second season. If that sounds intriguing but you’ve never heard of it, small wonder. As H. Lee Gable,...

Spine: What Happens when Porno, Isabella Rossellini, and Bio-Diversity Collide? Who Can Say “STEAM”? Who Can Say Green Porno Live?

To be sure, some of Lisner’s audience came for the sex–explicit, diverse, and environmentally conscious. Some came for the celebrity–a noted model and film actress (Blue Velvet) with a legendary...

In the Moment: Hub Theatre’s 2014-2015 Season Announced: Interviews with Helen Pafumi, Matt Bassett, & Kristen LePine

The Hub Theatre recently announced its full 2014-15 season. The season includes several mainstage productions and the annual Hub Playfest, along with developmental play readings. There will also be...

‘Green Porno Live on Stage’ With Isabella Rossellini at Lisner Auditorium

Green Porno. Now that’s a show title to bring interest. Add that it was adapted from a well-viewed Web series aired on the Sundance Channel and your reviewer wondered how it would be accomplished live...

Nibbles And Sips Around Town – November 5, 2014: Chef Cathal Armstrong’s Cookbook, ‘My Irish Table – Recipes From the Homeland and Restaurant Eve”

Local Chef Cathal Armstrong’s Cookbook, My Irish Table – Recipes From the Homeland and Restaurant Eve, Will Warm The Cockles of Your Heart My favorite cookbooks reveal the author’s personal connection...

The 2014 MetroCooking Show Promises To Have All The Right Ingredients by Cary Pollak

On Saturday and Sunday, November 8th and 9th the MetroCooking Show will make its ninth appearance in the nation’s capitol at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and each year it has outdone...

Spine: ‘Julius Caesar, “et tu Brute?” and You’

Shakespeare, the humanist; Shakespeare, the poet; Shakespeare, the political playwright; Shakespeare, the fatalist. Before he passed away, my 87-year-old father used to quiz members of the younger...

In the Moment: “Julius Caesar’ at Folger Theatre

Let’s be provocative in this column. Let’s imagine a world where the debates within Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are not between ambitious political people like Brutus, Mark Anthony, Cassius, and...

Nibbles and Sips Around Town: ‘A Fall Favorite At The Skyland Resort In The Shenandoah Mountains’

When G. Freeman Pollock founded Skyland in 1894, he had been in and out of bankruptcy so many times he couldn’t possibly have envisioned the immense popularity it would have subsequently gained....

Spine: ‘Whose War? Our War? Their War?’

The National Civil War Project presents the work of “a multi-city, multi-year collaboration between four universities and five performing arts organizations to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the...

The Reel Deal: Watch Kyle Osborne’s Movie Review Video of ‘Kill the Messenger’

Kill the Messenger website. Here are the Washington DC area showtimes for Kill the Messenger. LINKS Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of Gone Girl. Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of The Equalizer....

Spine: Ontologically Speaking (Perhaps) Absolutely!

In Luigi Pirandelo’s most famous play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, the frustrated theatrical director demands that the father of the wandering character-clan stop his endless theorizing and...

In the Moment: An Interview with Tom Teasley on His Live Score for ‘Nosferatu’ on October 25th at Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA

“I invite you to participate in a merging of sight, sound, drama and fantasy. For fifty minutes I will take your imagination on a fantasy journey and return you safely to your seats!” Now that is how...

Magic Time!: ‘Someone Is Going to Come’ (a workshop production) at Scena Theatre

This is what Jon Fosse’s words sound like. When he writes it sounds like this. His characters talk in short statements. They talk and they seem to say something ordinary. They seem to. One will say...

Filichia on Friday: A ‘Cabaret’ That Would Make Hal and Sam Blush

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. This Week: A CABARET That Would Make Hal and Sam Blush. Peter...

The Reel Deal: Watch Kyle Osborne’s Movie Review Video of ‘Gone Girl’

Gone Girl website Here are the Washington, DC area showtimes for Gone Girl. The Equalizer website. LINKS Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of The Equalizer. Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of The...

Catching up With ‘Filichia on Friday’: ‘Broadway University Entrance Exam Answers, ‘September’s Leftovers and October’s Brainteaser,’ and ‘Let’s Hear It for the Rainbow Tour’

It’s an honor to bring Peter Filichia’s column every week on Kritzerland called ‘Filichia on Friday’ to our readers on DCMetroTheaterArts. September 19, 2014 The 2014 Broadway University Entrance Exam...

Nibbles and Sips Around Town: ‘Human Rights Campaign’s “Chefs For Equality” Evening Scores Big With DC Chefs And Their Fans’

Human Rights Campaign’s “Chefs For Equality” Evening Scores Big With DC Chefs And Their Fans When Washington Post food writer David Hagedorn is doing the asking, big name chefs and restaurateurs...

The Playwright’s Playground: The Lonely and the Brave – An Interview with ‘Marie Antoinette’ Playwright David Adjmi

Writing is deeply personal. For David Adjmi, playwright of Marie Antoinette, writing is not only personal it is something that is stirring, deeply passionate, and all encompassing. In the process of...

Nibbles And Sips Around Town: A Green Wolf Resides on 14th Street, Tapping the Trees, A Visit to Maple Avenue Restaurant, Station 4 Goes to Valencia for Inspiration and Porchetta for a Crowd at Jackson 20

A Green Wolf Resides on 14th Street, Tapping the Trees, A Visit to Maple Avenue Restaurant, Station 4 Goes to Valencia for Inspiration and Porchetta for a Crowd at Jackson 20 One of the most frequent...

In the Moment: This Saturday 9/27/14: ‘ARTS by George!’ at George Mason University: An Interview with Co-Chair Mark Shugoll

ARTS by George, a signature event gala that supports scholarships and the Great Performance series at George Mason University, has raised more than $1 million. The co-chairs of this year’s gala are...

‘The Reel Deal’: Watch Kyle Osborne’s Movie Review Video of ‘The Maze Runner’ AND ‘This Is Where I Leave You’

Here are the Washington, DC area showtimes for The Maze Runner AND This Is Where I Leave You. The Maze Runner website. This Is Where I Leave You website. LINKS Kyle Osborne’s Video Movie Review of...

Magic Time: ‘Toast’ at dog & ponydc

I last partook of this tasty audience-integration treat from dog&pony dc last December when I saw Toast as a workshop production in the Kogod Cradle Series. The immersive experience was all about...

The Playwright’s Playground: Michele Shay Discusses the Influence of August Wilson, Her Artistic Journey, and Lessons Learned from a Life in the Theater

For Michele Shay, directing Seven Guitars is not simply directing another play; it’s personal and a vivid part of her story. “We are addicted to ‘story’ and we become inspired by each others lives,”...

A Chat with Patti LuPone on ‘Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda’ on September 27th, 2014 at ‘Arts by George’ at George Mason University

Two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone and I had a conversation about her upcoming performance of Coulda Woulda Shoulda coming up at George Mason University’s Arts by George on September 27th at The...