Washington DC

A war-wounded woman meets myth in ‘Circular’ by Laura Shamas, livestreaming from Spooky Action Theater

Interview by Roberta Alves Spooky Action Theater’s livestreamed New Works in Action play-reading series continues Sunday, June 14, at 3 pm with Circular by Laura Shamas. Her heritage includes...

DMV theaters take a knee and take a stand

Beyond mourning and outrage, these DC Metro performing arts institutions have gone on the record with commitments to make a difference and be accountable. (Last updated June 12, 2020, 3:30 pm.: added...

Remembering the power of live theater: My night of rapture under a ‘Silent Sky’

By Christopher Lancette I sit down at Ford’s Theatre a few months ago—back when there was no coronavirus and the world was normal—to watch a play. I have never been much of a theater guy. Not because...

Solas Nua puts ‘Being Here’ on pause to address protests for racial equality

From Artistic Director Rex Daugherty June 9, 2020: Dear friends of Solas Nua, I wanted to let you know that we are pausing our production of BEING HERE to give the artists more time to make the...

A challenge to theaters to reopen now—outdoors

When are the Small Box theater companies going to throw off the straightjacket of conventional space-bound theater and explore alternative venues? Black Lives Matter Plaza was created overnight with a...

Scenes of radical hospitality for #OpenYourLobby at STC and Woolly (photos)

Six DC theaters welcomed #BlackLivesMatter protesters the weekend of June 5 to 7, 2020 . Photographer Malcolm Lewis Barnes reports from two of them, Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth...

The stirring street theater of Black Lives Matter in DC (photos)

The sheer creativity and inventiveness of the protesters was on full display at every turn as they each seemed to come prepared with energy and a message. As if re-experiencing What to Send Up When It...

NOVA playwright Soo-Jin Lee’s streaming ‘Peaches’ is bittersweet and affecting

With DMV theaters still shuttered because of COVID-19, there has been the opportunity to explore original streaming content written by local playwrights. One of those playwrights is Northern Virginia...

Lobbies closed by COVID reopen to support #BlackLivesMatter

“We call on theaters to #OpenYourLobby in support of protestors,” said the impassioned post on social media. Do not equate the property violence of protestors to the massive, state-sanctioned violence...

How does ‘Homebound’ happen? A peek behind the screens

There has been oodles of well-deserved praise for Round House Theatre’s homegrown Homebound, an original ten-installment web series exploring life under stay-at-home orders. Penned by some of the DC...

A void in live protest theater is a silenced cry of pandemic proportions

Once again, anti-Black violence strikes at the heart and soul of America. We are shocked and saddened to watch an unarmed, handcuffed Black man struggle to breathe as he lies helpless on the ground....

Playwright Matthew Kelly on queering power in ‘We Victorians,’ online Sunday from Spooky Action Theater

Interview by Roberta Alves Spooky Action Theater’s New Works in Action play-reading series continues livestreaming Sunday, May 31, at 3 pm with We Victorians by out queer playwright Matthew Kelly. In...

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...

The vision and resurrection of Studio Acting Conservatory

When Joy Zinoman—the doyenne of DC theater and founder of Studio Acting Conservatory—describes the training center’s new home as a “sacred place,” she’s not exaggerating. “Theater is my religion,” she...

Studio Theatre welcomes ten new commissioned artists

Building on over 40 years of producing powerful contemporary theater, Studio Theatre is embarking on the largest round of commissioning in its history. They are awarding grants to ten...

Applications now open for $500 microgrants to emerging writers and composers

A new arts program—Emergent Seed—is offering $500 microgrants and the opportunity for emerging writers and composers in the DC Metro area to have their work broadcast in virtual events. Committed to...

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...

Signature Theatre postpones ‘Mamma Mia!’ at The Anthem until 2021

Mamma Mia! at The Anthem DC will not run June 25 – July 5, 2020 as previously scheduled. Signature Theatre has worked with our sponsors Amazon and Max Productions and our partners at The Anthem and...

‘Henry IV, Parts I and II’ were stellar at American Shakespeare Center

The Shakespeare scene in and near Washington, DC, in the months prior to the virus’s intervention, was truly rich in character and ideas; so much so that even a certain fat braggart managed to strut...

Young Artists of America at Strathmore announces virtual summer camp program

Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) is thrilled to announce Virtual Summer Performing Arts Intensives, an online version of their award-winning summer musical theater program. While COVID-19...

DMV-area organizations continue to cancel and postpone events due to COVID-19 pandemic

After a month of cancelations, DMV area organizations continue to postpone or cancel shows and events, as well as make changes for their 2020-2021 season. The following list reflects those...

Major-media reviewers voice worries about returning to the theater

Twice a month, Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal; Elisabeth Vincentelli, contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker; and Peter Marks of The Washington Post get together on “3 on the...

‘A King and No King’ was a goodly one at American Shakespeare Center

Looking back on the last few months, each of us has our “Shoulda seen it/Shoulda been there” moments, events that we would have given anything to see live. So at the moment, imagine if you will that...

Spooky Action shifts new play readings to YouTube

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Spooky Action Theater’s New Works in Action play-reading series has been shifted to a virtual meeting space on the company’s YouTube channel. “We are excited to explore...

IN Series to build a digital opera house without walls

If the COVID-19 pandemic has a lesson for the arts community, it’s that what’s small can still be mighty. Without a house to fill and lavish sets and costumes to maintain, Washington’s tiny itinerant...

Adventure Theatre honors API Heritage Month with streaming special events

Though the sea of online content is deep at the moment, that’s not stopping Adventure Theatre MTC. They are diving right in with a full lineup of API Heritage Month storytimes, interviews, and digital...

Gwydion Suilebhan: “Now is the time for artists to ask The Deep Why”

By Gwydion Suilebhan In 1960, a Turkish immigrant named Erol Onaran arrived in the United States with a whopping $32 in his pocket and a fair bit of skill as a television repair person. Erol was a man...

Theater artists to envision the future in Saturday chats online from Olney

In a time when connection is more important than ever, Olney Theatre Center is revamping its Streaming Saturdays, a live online discussion series featuring the perspectives of a wide range of theater...

Brave Spirits Theatre kicks off festival of playreadings from the early English stage

Brave Spirits Theatre announces a virtual summer staged reading festival celebrating the history plays of the English early modern stage. A supplement to BST’s two-year Shakespeare’s Histories...

National Theatre of London streams an epic ‘Antony and Cleopatra’

As we ease into an impromptu season of watching live theater captured on video, it’s helpful to remember that there are challenges of scale. This is especially true in the case of webcasts from the...

Lessons in creative coping during COVID-19: Bowie State University theater and dance faculty tell how it’s going

With university campuses closed because of COVID-19, how is student education continuing forward? This is a critical question, especially for higher education theater and dance departments—where...

IN Series produces first ever fully digital opera performance season

As performing arts organizations worldwide struggle to schedule live performance seasons in the midst of a global pandemic, DC’s IN Series leads the charge onto the digital stage by programming an...

‘Hamilton’ and other shows postponed as Kennedy Center delays re-opening through August 9

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced today the postponement of all scheduled ticketed performances through August 9, 2020, due to the ongoing effects of COVID–19. The Center’s...

Mosaic Theater Company promises provocative 2020–2021 season

In the face of global crisis and economic uncertainty, Mosaic Theater Company of DC draws inspiration for its new season from a nucleus of towering yet under-appreciated figures in history. These...

Artists Who Inspire! #5: Patrick Flynn

Playwright Patrick Flynn was on a roll before Coronavirus brought American theater to a standstill. His adaptation of The Velveteen Rabbit, produced by Adventure Theatre MTC, earned him a 2019 Helen...

In virtual ‘Borders,’ the radical realism of a gay meetup on Grindr

Borders, a play by Nimrod Danishman, tells the story of two young men—Boaz (Eli Schoenfeld), an Israeli, and George (Adrian Rifat), who is Lebanese—who meet on Grindr and fall in love despite their...

‘The Grapes of Wrath’ at The American Shakespeare Center strikes a haunting note

“It’s need that makes all the trouble” says (ex-) preacher Jim Casy in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. That, in a nutshell, is the ordeal of our times, as millions live without paychecks and...

Local playwrights write short scripts you can download for free

In the wake of COVID-19 theater closures, DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre, The Public Theater of NYC, and The Repertory Theatre of St....

The American Shakespeare Center’s streaming ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is a much-needed romp

Yes, it’s a drag to have to stay at home instead of seeing our favorite performers live—but then again, after a little adjustment, it’s amazing to get to see our favorite performers at home. Our...

Round House Theatre premieres ‘Homebound’ web series

Round House Theatre is making streaming news with their project Homebound, a new web series bringing together DC-area playwrights, actors, and designers to explore life under stay-at-home orders in...

Quotidian Theatre Company to close, a casualty of COVID-19

Those of us in the arts are all getting used to a new normal. Unfortunately, a return to any kind of normal will not be possible for some organizations. And, sadly, it turns out that Quotidian Theatre...

Shakespeare Theatre Company hosts ‘Twelfth Night’ viewing party

Shakespeare Theatre Company invites audiences to celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday by attending a viewing party of the National Theatre of London’s 2017 production of Twelfth Night on Thursday,...

The Pandemic Players offer a helping hand to Baltimore theaters

It is said that the best actors know how to improvise—and a group of DMV-area performers is doing just that, by forming a fully online theater company from the ashes of Baltimore live performance....

Mosaic Theater welcomes Psalmayene 24 as playwright-in-residence

Mosaic Theater Company and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have announced the illustrious recipient of their National Playwright Residency Program Grant—Veteran DC playwright, director, and Helen...

World’s largest celebration of Shakespeare to mark the Bard’s birthday

The Folger Shakespeare Library is partnering with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for the world’s largest celebration of Shakespeare—inviting audiences all over the...

When theaters reopen, will DMV audiences return? Survey says it’s iffy.

What follows is sobering news about the challenges ahead for the DMV theater community. We at DC Theater Arts share this information in a spirit of solidarity and with determination to do all we can...

Round House Theatre announces full 2020–2021 season

Round House Theatre Artistic Director Ryan Rilette and Managing Director Ed Zakreski recently announced the six shows that will constitute Round House Theatre’s 43rd season. All shows will be...

Arts Barn previews compelling 2020–2021 season

Arts On The Green, the organization that provides indispensable arts programming at a collection of venues on the beautiful Gaithersburg campus, has recently offered audiences a sneak peek at the...

Fade to black: Coronavirus closures force local theaters to rethink their futures

This article originally appeared in the April issue of District Fray Magazine. It is reprinted here with permission. The paint was still drying on the set of Signature Theatre’s world-premiere...

1st Stage announces dynamic 2020–2021 season

1st Stage, a vibrant professional company in Tysons, Virginia, recently announced their dynamic 2020-2021 season. This 13-year-old organization has grown from a grassroots collective of local artists...