University Shows

‘Trojan Barbie: A Car-Crash Encounter with Euripides’ Trojan Women’ at Georgetown University by Nicole Cusick

What could be a more intriguing way to begin a show that covering the house of a theatre with strands of dismembers Barbie dolls hanging across the isles? There is no lack of spectacle or talent in...

‘Cabaret’ at American University by Alexa Kelly

“Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!” the master of ceremonies begins, with an eerie grin. But you never really feel welcome, or at home. Nor would you want to. In American University’s production of the...

‘Miriam’ at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center by Jessica Vaughan

You don’t watch Miriam by writer, choreographer, and dancer Nora Chipaumire so much as you experience it. This one-hour performance piece that explores light and dark and black and white, breaks most...

‘Passagio’ at The Mason Players at George Mason University by Keith Tittermary

“Passaggio… used to describe the transition area between a series of notes, usually occurring between registers of the voice” – www.vocalist.org.uk The Mason Players and the Department of Theater at...

Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra: ‘The Gospel Truth’ Review by Audrey Thornton

In keeping with its blues-drenched hand-clapping theme, the Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra (MJO), delivered another festive evening of big band tunes at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 30, 2013, at the...

[title of show] at AU Players at American University by Colleen Sproull

How is it that we can dream and then get in our own way of achieving the very same dreams? A relevant question raised by the AU Players in their production of [title of show] at American University....

‘Emma’ at The George Washington University by Alexa Kelly

I have never lived in the eighteenth century, but, in my mind’s eye, I see a quiet era of classical music and gentle manners. In many ways, The George Washington University’s production of Jane...

‘Spooky Action at a Distance’ at The Catholic University of America by Justin Schneider

Is it possible for two people be irrevocably connected, regardless of action or distance? Can we ever really be certain about where our lives are headed? And can we ever grow as people without taking...

Jack Marshall Remembers How Georgetown University Law Center’s Theater Company Became an Institution!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the only graduate student-operated theater company in the U.S., once dubbed by Newsweek, “the only theater company with its own law school.” The Georgetown...

‘Roméo et Juliette’ at Catholic University by Terry Byrne

Budding love that is “star-crossed” with budding artistry is the magic potion that should move fine-arts lovers to flee their houses and partake in Catholic University’s School of Music’s succulent...

‘Les Illuminations’ at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at U of MD by Tiffany Draut

A concert program that consists of Benjamin Britten and Gustav Mahler could be considered just another classical concert in a town filled with classical music. Yet when that program includes a...

‘Into the Woods’ at Shenandoah Conservatory by Mark Dewey

Into the Woods Showcases Shenandoah Talent Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, must pose a tempting challenge for directors. The musical interweaves the plot lines of four familiar fairy tales,...

Arts Collective @ HCC Dancers Showcase Their Talent This Thursday Through Sunday by Carolyn Kelemen

College dance concerts are always a fun place for brushing up on modern currents in the art, but spring semester programs are often a pure delight. They represent the culmination of eight months’ work...

‘I Too Sing America: The Life and Poetry of Langston Hughes’ at Howard University by Veronique MacRae

In celebration of the prolific poet, novelist, social activist, playwright and columnist, James Mercer Langston Hughes, a proponent of racial consciousness and cultural nationalism devoid of...

‘Once on This Island’ at Montgomery College by Keith Tittermary

Once on This Island, with a score by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime) the Caribbean inspired retelling of The Little Mermaid, is a bright and vibrant story of a peasant...

‘A Streetcar Named Desire (The Opera) at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts by Audrey Thornton

Virginia Opera’s third installment in their 2013 American series, A Streetcar Named Desire, an opera in three acts premiered at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on Friday, March 1, 2013...

‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ at Clarice Smith Performance Arts Center by Tiffany Draut

There is a fine group of young actors in the cast of Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone, a surrealistic and sometimes confusing play (I wish there were more production notes to help make the play more...

Arena Stage and George Washington University Announce the Launch of ‘The National Civil War Project’

The National Civil War Project to Create Original Theatrical Productions and Innovative Academic Programming Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater and the George Washington University...

‘The 1940’s Radio Hour’ at Dundalk Community Theatre by Amanda Gunther

December 21, 1942— the final holiday broadcast of the Mutual Manhattan Variety Cavalcade on New York’s WOV radio station. The gang’s all here and the only thing missing is you, but you can fix this...

‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ at The Catholic University of America by Jessica Vaughan

Catholic University spoofs musicals everywhere in a hilarious production of The Drowsy Chaperone, the show-within-a-show that lovingly satires the best and worst in musical theater and the people who...

GWU New Plays Festival ‘wild42hold’ by Rick Westerkamp

On Thursday night, while waiting for the GWU New Plays Festival’s wild42hold to begin, I was transported to an attention-grabbing site. Thanks to the massive set, covered in graffiti, a la Banksy, and...

‘Brutus’ at The Catholic University of America by Justin Schneider

On stage, a man tosses and turns in his sleep. Nearby in an overstuffed leather chair, a woman rests. The view from the audience, on bleachers overlooking the stage, is intimate. And “intimate” may be...

Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra: ‘Mardi Gras with the MJO’ at George Mason University by Audrey Thornton

There is no annual holiday celebration in Louisiana without Mardi Gras! According to historians, Mardi Gras, a one-day prelude to Lent dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and...

‘The Skin of Our Teeth’ at American University by Alexa Kelly

It’s a play that willfully does not want to make sense. It revels in the absurd. At every turn, it asks us—hey, just go with it! And if you can strap in for the ride, you won’t be disappointed....

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ at Opera AACC (Anne Arundel Community College) by Andrew L. Baughman

The last local production of Jesus Christ Superstar I attended was Open Circle Theatre Company’s acclaimed 2004 production. It boasted a brilliantly original concept and some of the region’s most...

Ben Lurye & Robert Bradley on Anne Arundel Community College’s ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’

What’s a nice Jewish Boy playing Jesus Christ in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar at Anne Arundel Community College? Benjamin Lurye gives us the divine details. Ben: I joined this...

’30th Annual Choreographers’ Showcase’ at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center by Rick Westerkamp

When I attend a showcase of multiple artists’ works, I expect that the program will be distributed evenly between those that intrigue, and those that bore. It’s a good evening in the theatre when one...

‘SoLe Sanctuary’ with Savion Glover at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts by Audrey Thornton

Savion Glover, artist, actor, choreographer and tap dance superstar extraordinaire, is widely known to everyone, young or old, who loves tap. His latest offering, SoLe Sanctuary offers audiences a...

Aquila Theatre’s ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ at George Mason University by Mark Dewey

At first glance, I took Edmund Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac for a comedy about a misbegotten wretch whose every chance for happiness is thwarted by his nose, which looks like a noble erection. I...

‘The Bald Soprano’ at The Nomadic Theatre at Georgetown University by Francine Schwartz

The Nomadic Theatre’s production of The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesca is a very funny play and a wonderful production. Lorrie Damerau’s surrealistic set consists of a frieze of over 50 teacups, a...

‘Boged (Traitor): An Enemy of the People’ at Theater J by Amanda Gunther

Doing the right thing will always start a war. In a time plagued with controversy, a thought-provoking intensely profound new work comes out of Theater J’s ‘Voices From A Changing Middle East...

The Moscow Ballet’s ‘The Great Russian Nutcracker’ at George Mason U.’s Center for the Arts by Flora Scott

Getting dressed up and then bundled up to venture out into the weather to see The Nutcracker with family, friends ,or a date during the Christmas season is a tradition as uplifting, rich, and...

‘Finishing the Hat: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim’ at Signature Theatre by Eric Denver

On December 11th, an article by James Gardiner and his cast of Putting It Together: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim from George Mason University was posted on DCMetroTheaterArts. In it, they talked...

Tonight at 8 PM: ‘Finishing the Hat: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim’ at Signature Theatre by James Gardiner

This is my second semester as an adjunct professor of theatre at George Mason University, where I teach a Musical Theatre Workshop. Edward Gero, Professor of Theatre, and Ken Elston, Chair of the...

‘Christmas Gift!’ at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center by Audrey Thornton

A Celebration of African American Holiday Traditions Through Music and Spoken Word The premiere was, as they say, “all that.” Before an appreciative fully engaged audience Director and artistic...

James Gardiner and the Cast on ‘Finishing the Hat: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim’

This is my second semester as an adjunct professor of theatre at George Mason University, where I teach a Musical Theatre Workshop. Edward Gero, Professor of Theatre, and Ken Elston, Chair of the...

30th Anniversary ‘Christmas Revels’ at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium by Jessica Vaughan

For The Washington Revels 30th anniversary Christmas Revels, the company pulls out all the stops, tripping through the centuries in England from medieval times to the 1920s as they bring traditional...

Dance Exchange’s ‘Straight to the Source’ at U of MD’s Clarice Smith Tomorrow & Tues at 7 PM by Breena Siegel

Straight to the Source In true Dance Exchange form Artistic Director Cassie Meador and Sarah Levitt will be conducting Straight to the Source – a two-day improvised movement workshop at the Clarice...

‘Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk’ at George Washington University by Rick Westerkamp

Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk, choreographed by Maida Withers and performed by the Maida Withers Dance Construction Company (MWDCC), is a beautifully complex and thought-provoking piece of...

HCC’s Arts Collective’s Magical Twist on Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 6 – 16th by Sue Kramer

Did we hear you right? Did you say “Bah-humbug..(groan).. Not another A Christmas Carol?!!! Hold your sleigh horses! This adaptation of Dickens’ beloved story has a not-to-be-missed unique and magical...

An Interview with Choreographer Maida Withers on ‘Collision Course – a.k.a. Pillow Talk’ by Rick Westerkamp

Maida Withers is an artist with extraordinary gifts for dance and choreography. She loves not know and is as interested in the discovery as in the performance. And artist who has reinvented herself...

‘Dancing in the Wings’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center by Audrey Thornton

If you have two hours to spare this beautiful Sunday afternoon, and want to enjoy a world-class venue in a beautiful performing arts space, hurry to reserve your family seats at the Hylton Performing...

‘The Merry Widow’ at Catholic University by Flora Scott

Because Ward Recital Hall at Catholic University is an old ecclesial building originally intended as a facility for liturgical music, there will always be an undeniable piety in it’s structure and...

‘Die Zauberflöte’ (‘The Magic Flute’) at U of MD’s Maryland Opera Studio

Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) is widely considered to be Mozart’s masterpiece, a label which brings with it high expectations. Fortunately, those expectations were more than amply fulfilled in the...

‘In the Red and Brown Water’ at University of Maryland by Jessica Vaughan

In the Red and Brown Water is a stunning piece of theater by the School of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland at the state of the art Clarice Smith Performing Arts...

‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ at American University by Colleen Sproull

Glengarry Glen Ross at American University’s Katzen Arts Center was a wild ride. First off, special consent was given by David Mamet for a bold twist – seven women play the men’s roles. With direction...

‘Venus’ at Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts by Veronique MacRae

Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts continues its 2012-2013 season ‘Reclaiming the Black Body, Identity, Discourse, and Politics’ with the powerful story of Saartje Baartman in Venus,...

‘Titus Andronicus’ at U.S. Naval Academy’s Masqueraders by Flora Scott

Finding Mahan Theatre to see Titus Andronicus proved to be as difficult as finding anything not to be impressed with in this humble production. Upon entering the Beaux style theater built in 1907, I...

‘Dr. John & The Blind Boys of Alabama’ at George Mason University by Dr. Cheryl Paulhus

The ‘Dr. of funk’ left no doubt that, decades after being known as “The Night Tripper,” he can still stir up a mean musical brew. Dr. John got the party started Saturday night at George Mason...

‘Assassins’ at The Center Stage at Catholic University by David Friscic

The Center Stage production of Stephen Sondheim’s dark and subversive musical Assassins, now playing at Catholic University, is a valiant attempt but just misses the mark. A Sondheim work is often...