Interviews and Features

Mud and Blood: Guest Posts from The Welders Document Process in Upcoming Shows

Over the next few months, DC Theater Arts will invite guest writers from two Welders projects-in-process to share their creative process with our readers. The Welders, DC’s only dedicated playwrights’...

Jets and Sharks: Is the BSO Missing an Opportunity?

Much of my career has been spent as a health sciences writer. This training helps keep in check my music critic’s right brained instinct to find metaphors in a story. It’s a good restraint to have,...

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,...

A ‘Life-Affirming’ Journey: Playwright Samuel A. Simon and Actor Chuk Obasi Discuss ‘The Actual Dance’

“It is what I am supposed to do in my life,” The Actual Dance playwright Samuel A. Simon told me in a phone interview. He was speaking about the play he developed and has performed that began when he...

Director Coral Cohen Discusses ‘Between the Threads (Jewish Women Project)’

There are so many intersections in life–so much for creative artists to put before audiences as a way to initiate larger conversations about issues that can divide or bring together. In a devised...

Legendary Puppeteer Bill Diamond Helps Bring ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ to Life at Workhouse Arts Center

The Workhouse Arts Center has someone special working closely with its upcoming production of that fan favorite, Little Shop of Horrors–Emmy Award-winning puppet fabricator and performer Bill Diamond....

Interview: David Dimitri ‘L’homme Cirque, The One-Man Circus’ at Strathmore

By Marilyn Millstone When we think of a circus tightrope performer, most of us think of risk. Fear. Danger. But David Dimitri—whose one-man show L’homme Cirque helps celebrate the Music Center’s new...

Ethan McSweeny Named New Artistic Director of American Shakespeare Center

In historic, hip Staunton Virginia, just a two-hour drive from the Washington, DC area, one of America’s premiere Shakespeare companies has seen a change of leadership. The American Shakespeare Center...

Bassist Carlos Henriquez and His All-Star Octet Pay Tribute to Dizzy Gillespie June 1 at Sixth and I

Last week, DCMTA caught up with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) bassist Carlos Henriquez via telephone on a rainy day in Chicago to chat about his Washington, DC tribute performance to...

Saxophonist Trey Sorrells, Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore

I had the pleasure to speak with saxophonist Trey Sorrells about his participation in the residency program at the Mansion at Strathmore and about his unique blend of jazz, gospel, and R&B. Sorrell is...

Interview: Sean-Maurice Lynch of ‘Jubilee’ at Arena Stage

The reviews are in: Jubilee is being praised for honoring and preserving the impact of the Negro Spiritual upon the American Songbook. In the Arena Stage production, Director Tazewell Thompson gives...

Staging an Epic: A Four-Part Documentary Series from Shakespeare Theatre Company

After 33 years as Artistic Director, Michael Kahn has directed nearly all the world’s greatest classical plays, worked with some of the biggest actors in the world and built the Shakespeare Theatre...

Take Ten With The Creator of the ‘Take Ten’: theatreWashington’s Michael Kyrioglou

We’ve all read his columns, now get to know the person behind them! In the midst of last week’s Helen Hayes Awards-fever, I asked theatreWashington’s Michael Kyrioglou to answer some questions...

Helen Hayes Videos: Get To Know Your Hosts!

The 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards are just around the corner and we couldn’t be more excited! All of DC theater in one room together, wearing fancy duds and celebrating another year of hard work and...

The Lab at Georgetown Brings Together Global Artists for ‘The Gathering’

The Lab program at Georgetown University occupies an interesting space in the DC performing arts world, existing at the intersection between art and international affairs. Georgetown’s Laboratory for...

Helen Hayes Tribute Recognizes Jennifer L. Nelson as a DC Theater Trailblazer

Actors, by definition, play all sorts of roles. But for Jennifer L. Nelson—a theater veteran who’s been working on stage and off ever since she landed in DC at the age of 22—the multi-tasking involves...

Ally Theatre Company Earns the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company (Interview)

Ally Theatre Company will receive the 2019 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at the 35th Annual Helen Hayes Awards. At its core mission, Ally Theatre Company is committed to...

Interview: It’s Been a ‘Monumental’ Year for This DC Theater Company

In 2018 Monumental Theatre Company was the recipient of the prestigious theatreWashington John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. The Aniello Award aims to give public recognition...

‘The Oresteia’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company: Not Your Typical Chorus Line (Interview)

The Oresteia, freely adapted by Ellen McLaughlin from Aeschylus (c. 525 BCE-c. 456 BCE) promises to be a fitting conclusion to Michael Kahn’s last season as Artistic Director of the Shakespeare...

Improvised Excellence: Matthew Morrison Brings His Signature Style to Strathmore This Weekend

Broadway fans are in for a treat as Matthew Morrison (Glee, The Light in the Piazza) and Shoshana Bean (Wicked, Waitress) will be headlining Strathmore’s Spring Gala Concert this weekend. Morrison and...

Interview: BodyWise Dance Director Margot Greenlee on ‘Rookies’ First Feast’

Dance and theater performances can be much more than sitting in a seat and watching. BodyWise Dance and its cadre of dedicated, diverse artist educators have been touring throughout the DMV to respond...

Magic Time!: 10 Questions for the Brains Behind ‘The Tarot Reading’

Even in this theater town abounding in innovation, The Tarot Reading stands out as an original. I can’t think of anything it’s quite like. After I saw an iteration last year (The Tarot Reading IV), I...

‘Love’s Labor’s Lost’ Director Vivienne Benesch Finds Inspiration in Folger Reading Room

Actor, director, and administrator Vivienne Benesch has many credits to her name. She is the Producing Artistic Director of the PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For twelve...

#MeToo: BSU Student Artists Take Immersive Approach to the Movement

In response to the growing momentum behind the #MeToo Movement, Bowie State University Theatre has dedicated their season to the creation of a new, devised performance entitled #MeToo. Through...

Interview: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik at the Kennedy Center

Many artists cite their family as one of their main sources of inspiration, but violinist Yevgeny Kutik can make a stronger claim than most. Even some of the repertoire he performs stems directly from...

Behind the Scenes at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Props Warehouse

Staging an epic that involves a bloody chain of events in “a deluge of violence,” as the Shakespeare Theatre Company describes The Oresteia, requires not just the skills and talents of the actors on...

Magic Time!: Inside the DC Jail with Liza Jessie Peterson and ‘The Peculiar Patriot’

Actor and Playwright Liza Jessie Peterson is an extraordinary artist/activist. Tucked inside her uproarious one-woman show, The Peculiar Patriot—which she performs through April 20, 2019, at Woolly...

Tandavam Events’ Radhika Rao Discusses Indian Classical Dance and ‘Trilochana’

If you are not from the great sub-continent of India or do not have any Indian friends, you might be forgiven for not knowing that there is a healthy culture of Indian classical dance in the DMV, much...

Interview: JaBen Early in Arena Stage’s ‘Junk’

JaBen Early is a Washingtonian through and through. His father worked at the Smithsonian, and his mother was a teacher in DC. He went to Morehouse College and Sarah Lawrence University, and studied...

Director Laura Giannarelli Muses About ‘Ghost-Writer,’ Michael Hollinger’s Tale of Mystery and Love at Quotidian

Laura Giannarelli is a woman of many roles. A founder of Washington Stage Guild, she’s been a fixture of the DC stage for almost four decades. She’s been the mother-in-law from hell in Gulf View...

Michael Kahn & Friends Off the Record: The Folger Years: A Celebration in Pictures

“I think you have to define who you are–and that definition can change–but you have to be as uncompromising as you possibly can about who you think you are, and to fight for that, in bad times and...

‘Two Wings’ Celebrates the Music of Black America in Migration

“Pick a chord and I’ll be there,” Alicia Hall Moran told husband Jason Moran from the stage of a packed performance hall at Georgetown University. Moran, accompanying on piano, nodded in agreement....

Amanda Gookin’s Forward Music Project at Kennedy Center’s Direct Current Festival

Amanda Gookin is a cellist, a founding member of the acclaimed music group PUBLIQuartet, and, since 2015, the founder of the Forward Music Project, which commissions new multimedia works for solo...

Washington Bach Consort’s Noontime Cantata Series: A DC Tradition in the Making

For thirty years, the Washington Bach Consort has offered its Noontime Cantata Series to Washingtonians seeking a free musical escape in the middle of the workday, something District officials have...

Director and Playwright Psalmayene 24 Discusses ‘Native Son’ and ‘Les Deux Noirs’

DC Theater Arts caught up with Director and Playwright Psalmayene 24 to discuss Native Son and Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, which play in rep at the Mosaic Theater this month....

DCMTA Exclusive: Helen Hayes Award Winner Iyona Blake Announces Upcoming EP ‘Timeless’

On a recent warm Monday evening, Helen Hayes Award recipient Iyona Blake announced her next musical venture, an EP (extended play) of some of her favorite songs. The album will be called “Timeless.”...

Artistic Director Matt Bassett Discusses Hub Theatre’s DC Premiere of ‘The Burn’

In the Hub Theatre’s first full production under Artistic Director Matt Bassett, the company will be producing The Burn by playwright Philip Dawkins. The Burn will be the first Hub production in its...

Cynthia Erivo Brings ‘Legendary Women’s Voices’ to the Kennedy Center

Cynthia Erivo may as well call the Kennedy Center home. Having previously performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the intimacy between Erivo and the musicians is strong. For her upcoming...

Annapolis Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Sally Boyett Discusses ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ASC’s Current Season

Sally Boyett is the Artistic Director of Annapolis Shakespeare Company, which is making a name for itself with its clever productions of Shakespeare and the classics. She has directed many ASC shows,...

“The Puppets Help Tell the Story”: World Puppetry Day Interview with ‘Vanity Fair’ Creative Team

In honor of World Puppetry Day celebrated on March 21st, it was time to learn more about the puppetry used in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Vanity Fair, now...

Yiddish Translator Nahma Sandrow Talks About Bringing a 19th-Century Masterpiece to a Modern English-Speaking Audience

It took a little over 120 years. But—thanks to Theater J—Jacob Gordin’s wildly popular Yiddish drama, celebrated as The Jewish Queen Lear, has made it onto the English-language stage. The play, whose...

Christian Sands Brings ‘Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour’ to Strathmore March 21

The East Coast has the Newport and DC jazz festivals. The Midwest claims the world’s largest free jazz extravaganza, the Detroit Jazz Festival. The South showcases jazz and R&B talent at the New...

Renowned Organist Dr. Lonnie Smith To Bring His Signature Sound to Sixth & I

These days, it is rare to hear an organ in a jazz ensemble. The exception is Dr. Lonnie Smith who not only remains the master of the Hammond B-3 organ but also has had a career that spans more than...

BSO’s Marin Alsop Defines, Delivers “New Normal” in Classical Music

Marin Alsop thinks we’re ready for a “new normal” in classical music. That is why the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director has commissioned a work by a renowned composer who happens to be a...

Keegan Theatre To Offer Regional Premiere of ‘Hands on a Hardbody,’ In Which Only the Strong Survive.

The musical Hands on a Hardbody opens at the Keegan Theatre on March 9. Based on a contest held in small-town Texas in 1995, Hands on a Hardbody chronicles a group of people participating in a...

Director Michael Windsor on Monumental Theatre’s ‘Daddy Long Legs’

The musical Daddy Long Legs is coming to the DMV area, thanks to Monumental Theatre Company. Monumental Theatre Company “seeks to connect emerging artists, specifically those of the millennial...

Nancy Robinette, Winner of Last Year’s Top Theater Award, Triumphs as Aunt Lavinia in ‘The Heiress’ at Arena Stage

From the moment she enters—decked out in widow’s weeds and descending a carpeted stairway—Nancy Robinette commands attention. That’s not unusual, since this actor—awarded the 2018 Helen Hayes...

Laura Benanti on Motherhood and Performing with Her Mom

There is one role that Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti cherishes above all others: Mother. The My Fair Lady star gave birth to daughter Ella Rose in 2017. “Becoming a mom changed me in every possible...

Top 5 Ways ‘Dress Up Day’ is the Perfect Intro to Theater for Kids

by Beth Amann, Managing Director, Monumental Theatre Company Do you have a little one that you want to introduce to the magic of theater? We have the perfect show for you! Monumental Theatre Company...

Strathmore Artist in Residency Program Offers Artists Support and Growth

How does a young artist prepare for the rigors of a professional performing career? For the six talented recipients of Strathmore’s Artist in Residence program, that preparation includes a 10-month...