DC

Review: ‘In Search of My Father…Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

In Search of My Father…Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins is an autobiographical exploration of identity and manhood packaged in a 90-minute one-man show written and performed by W. Allen Taylor. The play...

Review: ‘Handbagged’ by Round House Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Two powerful, verbally skilled women come together weekly for tea and talk for over a decade. They are locked in a power struggle about politics and cultural norms that affect a nation and the world....

In Their Own Words: Helen Hayes Nominees React to 2018 Nomination News

The 2018 Helen Hayes Awards nominations were announced last night at a festive and familial reception from Washington, D.C.’s National Theatre. As the night began, aspiring nominees, Helen Hayes...

Review: ‘Digging Up Dessa’ at The Kennedy Center (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Despite its off-putting (and overly-clever) title, Digging Up Dessa is a lively and often moving tale of two 12-year-olds who are lost in the middle of a strange new world and trying to find...

Review: ‘La Foto: A Selfie Affair’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

“La Foto: A Selfie Affair is a simple story, both feminist and humorous, about how the intimacies of our daily lives can be exposed and exploited on social media.” ~ Gustavo Ott, playwright La Foto: A...

Review: ‘The Trojan Women Project’ at Brave Spirits (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Brave Spirits Theatre adds its distinctive style to the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival with The Trojan Women Project. It is a singular event. The Trojan Women Project is packed with moments of...

Interview: Playwright Anu Yadav on ‘The Princess and the Pauper – A Bollywood Tale,’ Debuting at Imagination Stage

Playwright Anu Yadav’s first commissioned piece The Princess and the Pauper–A Bollywood Tale, debuts this February at Imagination Stage. This play is the perfect platform to introduce children to the...

Review: ‘Character Building’ at American Ensemble Theater

There is something heart-stirring and inspiring about this new one-man musical. In between excerpts from glorious hymns and spirituals, the great African American educator and orator Booker T....

Interview: Nataki Garrett, ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ Director (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Have you ever met someone who left you feeling as though there is nothing you can’t do? I got that feeling each time I sat down with four playwrights and a director who identify as women of color from...

Review: American Ballet Theatre’s ‘Whipped Cream’ at the Kennedy Center

Take a step away from the mundane. Shrug off your office separates, buff hose, and business professional thoughts, and riggle into a world more like a pop-up children’s book than the screaming...

Report: ‘Yoga Play’ at Mosaic Theater Company Workshop Series

Yoga Play, a new work by Dipika Guha, was presented as part of Mosaic Theater Company’s 2018 Workshop Series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on Monday, January 29th. The play was commissioned and...

Review: ‘American Ballet Theatre: Ratmansky, Robbins, Millepied and Wheeldon’ at the Kennedy Center

As parts of the nation settled in to hear 45 read the script of the State of the Union address, and other parts assiduously ignored the same, balletomanes and ballet goers in the Washington area...

In the Moment Part 2: Interviews with Playwrights Dominique Cieri, Wendy Graf and Hope Villanueva (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

This is the second part of a two-part series of interviews with Women’s Voices Theatre Festival playwrights. In this series, I asked the same questions to a number of Women’s Voices Theatre Festival...

Interview: Anderson and Roe Piano Duo on Their Special Vibe and Upcoming Kennedy Center Performance

Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe are both world-class pianists and they love to play together. And that’s all you can say about them that fits any model. Their artistry is not patterned after any...

Magic Time!: Katie Kleiger on Bonding and Being a Warrior in ‘The Wolves’ at Studio Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

The reason I asked to interview Katie Kleiger is that after I saw her in Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves at Studio Theatre, I realized I had seen her on the same fourth-floor stage in Lucy Prebble’s The...

Magic Time!: Gloria Steinem Talks About ‘Sovereignty’ at Arena Stage (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

“What Mary Kathryn Nagle has given us on stage tonight is the history we don’t learn,” said renowned feminist author and activist Gloria Steinem during one of the most buzzed-about talkbacks of the...

Review: ‘The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus’ at Restoration Stage

Inspired by the lives of his great-great-grandparents Ollie Thomas and Ruby Dyson, playwright Steven A. Butler Jr. brings their legacies to life in The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus. Set...

Interview: Kyla Garcia on Playing Sarah Ridge Polson in ‘Sovereignty’ at Arena Stage (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Kyla Garcia is starring as Sarah Ridge Polson in Sovereignty at Arena Stage. Sovereignty, by Mary Kathryn Nagle, tells two stories. One is of a modern Native woman (played by Garcia) fighting for her...

In the Moment: Interview with Director Stevie Zimmerman on Special ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Performance

Inspiring generations of theater-goers and music lovers alike is one of the aims of Director Stevie Zimmerman by connecting the talents of the professional Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (FSO) with the...

Review: ‘Sovereignty’ at Arena Stage

Sovereignty, the long-heralded new play by Mary Kathryn Nagle – a member of the Cherokee Nation and one of barely a dozen Native American playwrights writing today – has arrived. Inspired by a Supreme...

Magic Time!: ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ at Ford’s Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

A portrait of George Washington hangs in Ford’s Theatre on the presidential box where Abraham Lincoln was shot. When you stop to think about it, this is an odd disconnect. Presumably faithful to what...

Review: ‘4,380 Nights’ at Signature Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

4,380 Nights is a raw, emotionally charged political theater production that makes the movie Zero Dark Thirty look timid. That is my trigger warning about a new play by Annalisa Dias that explores...

Review: ‘Rabbit Summer’ at Ally Theater Company

By Guest Author Cecilia Mencia Institutional racism, cultural trauma, gun right, police brutality: Playwright Tracy Conyer Lee tackles many social issues in her play Rabbit Summer. Directed by...

Interview: Annalisa Dias, ‘4,380 Nights’ Playwright (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Have you ever met someone who left you feeling as though there is nothing you can’t do? I got that feeling each time I sat down with four playwrights and a director who identify as women of color from...

Review: ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ at Ford’s Theatre

The Ford’s Theatre production of Jefferson’s Garden (by Timberlake Wertenbaker), which had its American premiere on January 24, tries to balance the oft-tread narrative of Thomas Jefferson’s role in...

In the Moment: ‘Image China: Dragon Boat Racing’ at the Kennedy Center

Explore some of the modern culture and 20th-century history, the music and movement, of the world’s most populous country, China. Take in a full-scale epic tale, full of pageantry and a youthful love,...

Review: ‘Hamlet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet, directed by Michael Kahn, is a rich, multi-layered interpretation of a uniquely great play. Hamlet is central to the Western literary tradition....

Review: ‘Unnecessary Farce’ at The Keegan Theatre

With one two-act-long scene, eight loudly slamming doors, and countless head-over-heels tumbles, Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith makes its hilarious D.C. premiere at the Keegan Theatre. Directed...

Tributes to Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novel ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ will be staged at Spooky Action Theater (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

This year’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival features 24 plays, four of which are adaptations. Three are based on works by great male writers—Shakespeare, Congreve, Ibsen—and one is based on the work...

Interview: Tracey Conyer Lee, ‘Rabbit Summer’ Playwright (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Have you ever met someone who left you feeling as though there is nothing you can’t do? I got that feeling each time I sat down with four playwrights and a director who identify as women of color from...

Review: ‘This Is All Just Temporary’ at Convergence Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Convergence Theatre, as a part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, has produced a new play by Olivia Haller called This Is All Just Temporary. The original work focuses on college graduate Lauren,...

Pinky Swear Productions Presents the World Premiere of ‘Use All Available Doors,’ a Local Playwright’s Love Letter to DC and the Metro

Pinky Swear Productions is excited to announce the world premiere production of a new play by a local playwright that celebrates the beauty, diversity, and absurdity of life in the nation’s capital....

Review: ‘All The Things You Are: Jerome Kern’ at The In Series

As the Great American Songbook continues to recede from its long-held prominence, productions such as the In Series All the Things You Are: Jerome Kern are priceless for those who want to hear the...

Review: ‘The Wolves’ at Studio Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

If the Women’s Voices Theater Festival existed only to give us Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves, it would be worth it. But we have more than 20 other new plays by female playwrights to enjoy in this year’s...

No Side Hustle Necessary: Justin Trawick on Life as a Working Musician and His Pearl Street Warehouse Album-Release Concert

Washington, D.C.-based musician Justin Trawick’s career can be traced back to the day he found a guitar under the steps of his parents’ pre-Civil War Virginia home. “Neither of my parents were...

Magic Time!: ‘The Trial’ at Synetic Theater

Kafka’s nightmare novel about a man named Joseph K—who is arrested, detained, and tried but never told what he has done wrong—would seem perfect for Synetic Theater’s magic touch. A promising...

Review: ‘The Trial’ at Synetic Theater

The creative, resourceful folk from Synetic Theater have made another date with an old friend and literary powerhouse, well beyond the “silent” Shakespeare for which it is justly known. The author is...

In the Moment: ‘The Way of the World’ at Folger Theatre (Women’s Voices Theatre Festival)

There’s lots to like about Theresa Rebeck’s The Way of the World just as my DC Theater Arts colleague Sophia Howes points out in her review. The show is the Folger Theater’s Women’s Voices Theater...

WATCH Award Nominees: And the Nominees Are…!

The annual 18th annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH Awards) nominees were just announced. Here are the nominees…. In each of the thirty-eight categories, five nominees were selected...

Review: ‘See Rock City’ at Washington Stage Guild

Last night I had the pleasure of my first trip to the Washington Stage Guild to see See Rock City at the Undercroft Theatre in Washington, D.C. When you visit, you will find this theater tucked in the...

Tonight: WATCH Awards Nominees To Be Announced on DC Theater Arts at 9:00 PM Following Ceremony at Birchmere

The 18th annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (The WATCH Awards) nominees will be announced tonight at 7:30 PM at a ceremony taking place at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. DC...

Review: NSO Pops and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds at the Kennedy Center

The NSO Pops presented its first-ever collaboration with superstar Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds on Friday night for a two-night run in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. Under the musical direction...

In the Moment: Interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights – Part 1

This is the first part of a multi-part series of interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights. In this series, I asked the same questions to a number of Women’s Voices Theater Festival...

Review: ‘Imogen’ by Pointless Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Imogen, Pointless Theatre’s adaptation of Cymbeline, places one of Shakespeare’s most confusing heroines at the center of a battle for her independence. As in Cymbeline, Imogen has to contend with a...

Post-Play Palaver: ‘The Way of the World’ at Folger Theater (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their exchange in...

DC Theater Arts Announces New Collaboration Initiatives with TodayTix

As DC Theater Arts continues to grow in its mission to provide theater fans with the best critically-engaging coverage, we are happy to announce that we will be exploring additional affiliate...

‘Everything Is (Finally) Illuminated’ – Aaron Posner’s Setting of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Masterpiece Makes Its DC Debut at Theater J

Twelve years after it was first adapted for the stage by British playwright Simon Block, the play Everything Is Illuminated – based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer – has arrived at Theater J,...

Review: ‘Let Freedom Ring!’ MLK Celebration Featuring Vanessa Williams at the Kennedy Center

The 16th Annual Let Freedom Ring! Celebration honors the life, legacy, and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hundreds of people from all walks of life filled the pews of the Kennedy Center’s...

Enter the TodayTix 5 for 5 Preview Lottery for ‘The Wolves’ at Studio Theatre

What is the TodayTix 5 for 5 Lottery? Studio Theatre and TodayTix are offering a mobile Lottery for $5 preview tickets! Enter the 5 for 5 Lottery for a chance to win exclusive tickets to The Wolves‘...

Interview: Lawrence Grey, Jr. Chats About Receiving La Ti Do Productions’ Inaugural Joel Markowitz Award

La Ti Do, DC’s premier cabaret series, will award Lawrence Grey, Jr. the inaugural Joel Markowitz Audience Award at their 6th Anniversary Celebration on January 22, 2018. This award, named in honor of...