In the Moment

In Audrey Cefaly’s wistful ‘Story of Walter,’ a lonely dad and his daughter

Social media once again proves invaluable to connect theatergoers with performance. This instance is courtesy of Signature Theatre’s SigWorks: Monday Night Play Readings. Not only was there a reading...

George Mason University to center Black voices in artist-activist conversations

As the DC-area theater community reckons with and takes steps to combat racism through open, heartfelt conversations and real-world actions to bring forth equity, diversity, and inclusion, we at DCMTA...

Tom Teasley, Shu-Chen Cuff, Chao Tian to perform an inspired virtual concert

The headlines tell us to stay put. To not travel so we protect ourselves, our loved ones, our communities and the Nation as a whole—advice that DC-area residents seem to be heeding this Thanksgiving....

Grammy-winning percussionists to rap on entrepreneurship and racial justice

As we in the performing arts continue to struggle with finances and other resources in the aftershock of COVID-19, with no end in sight, how can we inform taxpayers and policymakers of the value of...

Spooky Action Theater’s ‘To the Earth’ literally zooms into space

As the pandemic continues to take its toll on live theater, smaller-budget theaters are staying nimble and daring, thanks to generous support from donors. One of these deft companies is Spooky Action...

Arena Stage docudrama makes case for making DC ‘The 51st State’

In our current political and cultural stressful times, how can theater make a difference, not just to those who are in-person patrons but to a wider community in the DMV and into American hinterlands?...

Theater J revives a 1910 hit comedy-melodrama

Sit back to indulge in a comedy-melodrama. A streaming Zoom reading of a rediscovered play first produced in 1910. It is a love letter, with sharp edges, to a bygone time. A time of tintype slides and...

Get out the vote. Share this vid.

Elections have consequences. Some elections more than others. With voting participation trending downward over the years, what can be done to awaken folk to the critical importance of voting? What can...

A course at Theater J for theater lovers looks ahead to post-COVID change

Change is coming. As the DMV theater community is reeling and reckoning with the effects of the coming post-COVID-19 world and as artists of color are speaking their minds freely, what awaits? What...

A heart-piercing tribute to frontline COVID responders in ‘The Line’ from The Public Theater

With the country hitting new daily highs as COVID-19 surges well beyond hot spots such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecituct, the Public Theater has produced a love letter to the medical community...

Rehearsals in PPE and other big changes to expect when theaters reopen in DC

We will open again. The COVID-19 virus will neither darken nor silence us even with the many scary unknowns before us. We know reopening for DMV theater will happen. The date may be uncertain, but...

Washington Performing Arts does pandemic planning with patron feedback

Better days may be coming. Some restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic may be easing. But there is not yet a definitive date when DMV performing arts venues might reopen across three different...

Love reigns in ‘Love in Hate Nation’ Two River Theater premiere

Love in Hate Nation is the new musical from Be More Chill’s composer/lyricist, Joe Iconis. Animated with a driving wheel of rock and funk rock tunes, it grapples with the pressing cultural issues of...

UrbanArias delivers fun, deeply human evening of music and voices taking on the modern condition

How prescient of the innovative UrbanArias. To be ahead of a major Washington Post Sunday Business section about a modern-day retail apocalypse: the dying of America’s suburban retail malls. Yes, you...

‘Blue Camp,’ an affecting play about men surviving enlistment in the Vietnam War

Dispatch from the front. “Greetings: You are hereby ordered for induction in the Armed Forces of the United States.” For those in the audience of the Boomer generation, Rainbow Theatre’s Blue Camp...

In the Moment: Peter’s Alley Theatre moves to The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and opens with ‘The Gulf’

Peter’s Alley Theatre has moved its base of performances to The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Founded in 2012 by Aly B. Ettman, Peter’s Alley is a non-profit professional theatre company dedicated to...

In The Moment: Kimberly Gilbert Is King In ‘Bootleg Shakespeare, Richard III’

Once again, Taffety Punk Theatre Company has succeeded at challenging the theatrical status quo. This time, it was with a mesmerizing Bootleg Shakespeare Richard III. Under the open-eyed, “the...

In the Moment: ‘The Happiest Place on Earth’ at 1st  Stage

With a return visit to The Happiest Place on Earth, new gemstones are uncovered, adding complexity and currency to its bittersweet tale about dreams that a heart makes. In its current incarnation as...

Chamber Dance Project Brings ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ From Page to Stage

‘‘Do I dare/Disturb the universe?” asked T.S. Eliot’s protagonist in the confessional modernist masterwork “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Through a world-premier devised performance,...

In the Moment: ‘Last Out’ by The Heroes Journey

Last Out is a raw emotional journey with no illusions as its core value. It is an intense confessional about military service and the effects on family, told from multiple perspectives. It is no...

In the Moment: ‘Richard iii’ at Synetic Theater

Synetic Theater’s Richard iii is a potent conspiratorial theatrical experience for an anxious age such as ours. It is the ultimate in theatrical paranoia, set in a time out of joint. It’s as if...

In the Moment: ‘Among the Dead’ at Spooky Action Theatre

Spooky Action Theatre continues to beguile with its distinctive play selections. Under Artistic Director Richard Henrich’s open mind, Spooky Action regularly produces the usually unexplored: women’s...

In the Moment: Reflections on ‘Nell Gwynn’ at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre

Beyond cracker-jack, comic allure, the Folger production of Jessica Swale’s Nell Gwynn is a class act. The Robert Richmond-directed production is built upon Swale’s clever, fresh script. Nell Gwynn is...

In the Moment: Impressions on STC’s ‘Richard the Third’

Complex villains are irresistible on stage and screen. They can be so magnetic. Their restlessness and shadings of evil keep my brain’s neurons firing. I have always thought of the fictional King...

In the Moment: ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ at the Keegan Theatre

How any of us deal with the death of a loved one is so very personal. With the passing of her beloved brother Carl, playwright Paula Vogel found her own sui generis way to let the world know how much...

In The Moment: ‘Image China: Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage’ Makes U.S. Premiere at The Kennedy Center

A far-reaching cultural exchange production from China by the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) is making its United States premiere at The Kennedy Center. It is Image China: Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage,...

‘Miss Saigon’: Time To Say Goodbye?

A blunt assessment: It’s time to move on. It is time to retire Miss Saigon as the seductive, out-of-touch, museum piece that it is. Miss Saigon has little to say about the sorrows of the Vietnam War....

In the Moment: ‘Indecent’ at Arena Stage

“Why must every Jew on stage be a paragon?” A key question asked without bombast by one of the fictional characters created by playwright Paula Vogel for Indecent, her daring stage play composed of...

In the Moment: Looking Forward to ‘A Night of Suffrage Theater’ at Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument

It has been 100 years since suffrage pickets began in front of the White House for women to have the legal ability to vote in the United States. Over 70 of the suffrage picketers were arrested and...

In the Moment: Sound Design Enriches ‘King John’ at The Folger Theatre

Folger’s rendering of the seldom-produced King John is more than impressive Shakespearean rhetoric and the checking off on a bucket list of plays to produce. With a deft touch, director Aaron Posner...

In the Moment: ‘How I Learned to Drive’ at Round House Theatre

The latest data from the Child Welfare League of America indicate that in Maryland in 2015, there were over 51,000 referrals for child abuse and neglect. Of those, nearly 21,000 reports were referred...

In the Moment: ‘Sleepy Hollow’ at Synetic Theater

As if inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness or even Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Synetic’s highly original production of Sleepy Hollow, performed without dialogue, is an adult...

In the Moment: ‘Heisenberg’ at Signature Theatre

With notes at the top of his work Heisenberg, playwright Simon Stephens gives undecorated, clear direction to theater companies for his expectations when producing the play: The present day. The stage...

In the Moment: ‘Lincolnesque’ at the Keegan Theatre

Separating a theater company’s production from the playwright’s script is crucial when evaluating a performance. After all, an engaging full production can do the old razzle-dazzle to cover a script’s...

In the Moment: ‘Passion’ at Signature Theatre

Leaving Stephen Sondheim’s Passion, directed by Matthew Gardiner, I found one word to describe my reaction: Believable. Yes, believable. This Signature Theatre production of Passion took me inside its...

In the Moment: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Keegan Theatre

Iowa can seem such a mythical place. That crossed my mind as I took in the Keegan Theatre’s top-notch production of the bittersweet, mystical romance of The Bridges of Madison County. Sure, Bridges is...

In The Moment: Building New Homes for the Arts in Fairfax County

Throughout my years covering the arts in the DC area, I have often heard that Fairfax County is a wasteland, a desert, no place for the creative theater artist. A locale with few outlets for...

With Community Theatre Project, GALA Theatre Brings Immigrant Voices ‘Out of the Shadows’

They are likely the unseen in our midst; that is until a particular, probably short-term job needs the informal employment market as the source of a worker. They have their own personal stories to...

With ‘A New Nation,’ Convergence Theatre’s Elena Velasco Aims To Make Theater Visceral

Art and activism are long-time partners. What better place than the DC area to meld the two in an effort to stimulate social justice and discover humanity from a progressive perspective. Or should I...

Kennedy Center to Honor World Refugee Day with Free Performance by Melat

In a special Kennedy Center Millennium Stage performance commemorating World Refugee Day on June 20, 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and The Kennedy Center will present...

In the Moment: Another look at Round House’s ‘The Legend of Georgia McBride’

Round House is the current Promised Land for anyone wanting to get happy. With its divine, illusion rich production of The Legend of Georgia McBride helmed by Tom Story, Round House is a divine, sunny...

In the Moment: Chamber Dance Project Brings ‘Chant’ to the Lansburgh Theater

The summer season of DC’s very own Chamber Dance Project will be in residence this month at the acoustically rich, 450-seat Lansburgh Theater in downtown DC. The contemporary ballet troupe will be...

In the Moment: Another Look at Theater J’s ‘Trayf’

I looked forward to taking in the premiere stage production of Lindsay Joelle’s Trayf at Theater J. The title Trayf alone brought me smiles then and now. After all, trayf is the Yiddish word for food...

In The Moment: ‘An Iliad’ Brings Homer to Millennial Audiences at the Atlas (Interviews)

It has been a muscular classic read for centuries. It has withstood the test of time, at least up to now. But in these contemporary days, does Homer’s Iliad resonate, or has it lost its timeless...

In the Moment: Bloomberg Philanthropies investing in DC’s non-profit cultural institutions

When we think of non-profit arts and cultural institutions, do we only think of the creative side of the organization, the parts we see and interact with or immerse ourselves in? What about the often...

In the Moment: ‘Girlfriend’ at Signature Theatre

Girlfriend is a sensitively constructed and gracefully performed coming of age musical about two late teen boys having an unexpected first crush that turns into love between them. Girlfriend’s arc is...

In the Moment: Report on The Kennedy Center’s 2018 Arts Summit

The time is most certainly right for the arts to be disruptive; to assert and insert itself in national discussions about social justice and inclusion. Turbulent times call out for the arts–not merely...

In the Moment: Nicole Burton, Pipeline Playwright discusses upcoming MetroStage reading

Pipeline Playwrights, the Northern Virginia-based collective of accomplished women playwrights who support productions that explore the variety of women’s experiences, continues its new series of play...

In the Moment: Interview with Grace Gonglewski, Folger’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’

For this writer, Grace Gonglewski as Paulina in the Folger Theatre production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale is one rock solid, indispensable presence. As the bravest truth-teller in The Bard’s...

In the Moment: Interview with Andrew Baughman, Landless Theatre’ ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood [Symphonic Metal Version]’

Moving into its 18th year of producing exciting and accessible alternative theater to cultivate new and diverse audiences, the Landless Theatre will present the world premiere of The Mystery of Edwin...