Atlas Performing Arts Center

Tuyet Thi Pham reclaims her family origin story in ‘Motherland’ at Atlas

What can be discovered if we find the time and ability to have a conversation with our parents about the time before we existed? Think of what we might learn. Think of the unremembered or...

Stepping to Go-Go, Step Afrika! takes on COVID prevention

“We have a shared responsibility to keep our communities safe,” Step Afrika! founder C. Brian Williams told me at the top of our phone conversation. With the pandemic continuing to ravage the DC area...

Step Afrika!’s ‘Magical Musical Holiday Step Show’ is a winter wonderland of joy

Now in its eighth year, Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show has established itself as the season’s most joyful and lovable family festivity in DC. Exuberant music, adorable humor, and...

Review: ‘NOC-tURNE’ by NFT Dance & Company at Atlas Performing Arts Center

The airy-fairy world of contemporary ballet takes a turn toward the macabre in Nancy Flores-Tirado’s darkly romantic NOC-tURNE, performed by NFT Dance & Company in follow-up to Atlas’ INTERSECTIONS...

Shu-Chen Cuff and Gin Dance Company Return to Atlas Intersections Festival with ‘Next’

Shu-Chen Cuff and her Gin Dance Company are returning to perform at the celebrated DC Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival. “We are thrilled to be part of the 10th anniversary of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS...

Review: ‘Working’ by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC has presented a production of the musical Working that perfectly captures the individual and collective spirit that embodies the strength and dignity of the...

Review: ‘The Last American Hammer’ by UrbanArias

Stick a right-wing conspiracy theorist, a curator at a Toby jug museum, and a rookie FBI agent in the same porcelain-filled room in a no-name town in rural Ohio, then make them talk over tea and...

Review: ‘Cirque De Nuit’ by PrioreDance at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Figures emerge into the light. They are remarkably similar and without guise, and as the bodies accumulate in number; it is as if one has been multiplied by ten. The variations are obvious but the eye...

Review: ‘An Iliad’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

The setting (designed by Daniel Prosky) is not a battlefield in Anatolia in modern day Turkey, but what appears to be the office of an academic – perhaps a classicist. There is no computer on the...

Review: ‘Outside the Lines’ at Arts on the Horizon

Arts on the Horizon is a non-profit theater company that provides a professional, safe, and interactive theater experience for children ages six and under. Known for their vibrant nonverbal...

In the Moment: ‘Florida’ from UrbanArias at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Life’s a bitch especially for those struggling with the angst of life — in this particular case, the characters of the world premiere opera Florida from UrbanArias. Now please don’t stop reading...

Review: ‘Florida’ by UrbanArias

In the second production of their 2017-2018 season, UrbanArias brings the world premiere of Florida to the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Based partly on true events, Florida follows the 16-year-old...

Review: ‘That Part Is True’ at Rabble Crew Productions

Wouldn’t it be fun to be a young urban radical and cohabit with other young revolutionaries—in a cheap walk-up apartment that you all share—eating fast food, having polyamorous sex, doing recreational...

Preview: ‘That Part is True’ at Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival

That Part Is True, written and directed by DC local Madeline Farrington, is a psychological thriller for the resistance featuring activists, intrigue, betrayal, and garden stakes. As a blizzard...

In the Moment: ‘Power and Lunch’ at Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival

In the DMV area, there are plenty in the political and social elite who can be found clicking away on their social media working hard to make us aware of what we should think. These same folks are...

Turning Trauma Into Art: Amy Oestreicher on ‘Gutless and Grateful’ and PTSD in Theater

Amy Oestreicher was a theatre-obsessed teen until her world changed overnight after waking from a coma, caused by her stomach literally exploding. After 27 surgeries and six years being unable to eat...

Interview: Alter Circus members Zoe Stasko, Georgeanna Layton, and Jessica John Get ‘Hysterical’

One of the newest companies in the DC circus scene (yes there is one), Alter Circus, is dedicated to challenging gender norms and celebrating “the rebellious spirit, strength, and grace of women.”...

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: ‘It Takes Two…’ at Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington D.C.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC has just offered the DC Metro Theatre Region an alternately wistful, romantic, and humorous cabaret review entitled It Takes Two…. Presented at the Atlas...

Review: ‘Shining Brow’ at UrbanArias

Can an artist be true to his art as well as to his promises? Is destruction the price of creation? These are the questions at the heart of Shining Brow—music by Daron Hagen; liberetto by Paul...

Review: ‘Lady M’ – A Co-Production of Collective Eleven, Women from Mars and Gitana Theatre at Atlas Performing Arts Center

In the first scene of LadyM, a show devised by Francesca Chilcote, Rachel Hynes, Vanita Kalra, and Anastasia Wilson, a woman dressed in white dumps an entire bottle of ketchup onto a burger. She tears...

Interview: Montana DeBor, Mark Harding, Gwynne Flanagan Cox, and Elise “Teddy” Sipos from Sweet Spot Aerial Production’s ‘Smoky Mirrors’

“My faith is a great weight hung on a small wire.” – Anne Sexton Each performer in Sweet Spot Aerial’s Smoky Mirrors places great faith in materials: fabric, rope, chains, muscle. There’s also a...

Magic Time!: Sweet Spot Aerial Productions’ ‘Smoky Mirrors’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

No sooner did some aerial apparatus drop from the fly space—ropes, straps, silks, hoops, trapezes—but what some artist-athletes would take hold of it and make acts of suspended animation. These...

2017 Capital Fringe Announces 5 Best of Festival Awards and 16 Show Extensions

Out of nearly 90 shows in this year’s Capital Fringe Festival, 5 captured Audience Awards, as announced Monday, July 24. And a total of 16 shows got coveted extensions because they became so popular....

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘My Lack of a Social Life’

Douglas Stafford is a very talented juggler. If that is an interest of yours, if you like juggling, and you’ve got an hour, then you may like this show. Stafford is pretty good as a magician. If you...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Heroes’ Tale’

Four black men in their forties sit around a chess game in Dupont Circle park in 1980. They open the show singing barbershop-quartet style, an upbeat song about themselves: They are the 1342 Dupont...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dancing Through Life…By the Way’

Dancing Through Life…By the Way is a one-man show starring Christopher Bennett. No director is credited in the Playbill, but it appears that Mr. Bennett did the majority of the heavy lifting here. He...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘ClickB@it’

Internet addiction is no laughing matter. However, for the talented team now lighting up the stage at the Sprenger Theatre at Atlas, the Internet–and all the craziness it has produced–is the stuff of...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’ at Barabbas Theatre

Exit, Pursued by a Bear, produced by Barabbas Theatre for their 2017 CapFringe entry and directed by Kevin O’Connell, is a welcome DC introduction to Lauren Gunderson’s pithy, ratatat meta riff on...

2017 Capitol Fringe Review: ‘Show Business 101’

Welcome to show business! And welcome to Show Business 101, the comedy revue where four talented actors burst on and off the stage offering send-ups of various show biz situations, real and imaginary....

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Laramie Project’

One of the most frequently performed plays in America today, The Laramie Project, is now on view at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, where the bare stage of the Lang Theatre has been transformed, for...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Tiresias’ Tits’

Tiresias’ Tits is a self-described satirical, surreal, burlesque (fun fact – the author of the ur-source material, The Breasts of Tiresias, Guillaume Apollinaire, is responsible for giving us the word...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ghouls’

There is a moment in Sean Surla’s one-woman piece, Ghouls, where Emel Haddad – Surla’s stand-in for herself, and an extraordinarily generous actress – describes driving to the top of Pike’s Peak with...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Hexagon 2017: Let Freedom Zing’

Described as “D.C.’s only all-original political satirical musical comedy troupe,” Hexagon gives a musical zing to the political madness of the past year. Now in its 62nd year, Hexagon brings its...

2017 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Words She Gave Me’

The Words She Gave Me, Solia Bickersteth’s ambitious multimedia project, is a bighearted and moving exploration of how African-American women have shaped one another’s concept of womanhood. Sisterhood...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘J-Swizzle’s (and D-Man’s) Epic Awesome Swaggy Broventure for Sweet Rhymes’ by Emma Choi

Between Hebrew classes and surviving middle school, best friends Jared “J-Swizzle” and Daniel “D-Man” dream of becoming the biggest rap stars in the universe. It will take a magical quest that...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘I’m Margaret Thatcher, I Is!’ at AnyStage Theater

AnyStage Theater presents I’m Margaret Thatcher, I Is! After premiering their sci-fi comedy Amelia Earhart In Space at last year’s Capital Fringe Festival, AnyStage is thrilled to bring their latest...

Capital Fringe Preview: A Guided Tour of ‘Last Ditch Playlist’ by Brad Baron

Last Ditch Playlist is about two men, Aaron and Wes. They’re probably just broken up. So we flash backwards and forwards in a whirlwind of Aaron’s memories to figure out exactly where he stands. While...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘It’s What We Do: A Play about the Occupation’ by Pamela Nice

What is it like for a young Israeli soldier to have to enforce the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza? What is life like for Palestinians living under that occupation, subject to martial law, for 50...

Review: ‘Lucy’ at UrbanArias

As the PETA-hounded circus left town on its farewell tour, I headed to the Atlas Performing Center to see Lucy, an UrbanArias opera about an actual chimp. I was reassured to learn that no animals were...

Review: ‘Bigoudi’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Is it just me or do the French have a way of taking the most mundane, everyday objects and making poetry out of them? Consider the humble plastic hair-curler, those tiny, porous tubes that feature...

In the Moment: Atlas Intersections Festival 2017: Four Dance Troupes: Company Danzante, Jane Franklin Dance, Gin Dance Company, and Rebollar Dance.

This year’s Atlas Intersections Festival has a theme of “where the art world and the real world intersect. The Festival aims to “engage audiences and artists alike by sparking conversation, deeper...

Review: Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show

With the audience seated in the round on a floor shared by the playing space, you could feel the whole place shaking and quaking. It was no subterranean tremor; it was the ebullient Step Afrika!...

Review: ‘Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW’ at The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

I can’t vouch for the truth of the confessions, at Let’s Misbehave! True Confessions of GMCW (The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC), but having each performer bare a bit of his soul as lead in to...

Review: ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’ at UrbanArias

Oliver Sacks’ non-fiction book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, consists of a series of neurological case studies. Each study examines one of Sacks’ patients, each of whom is suffering from...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Seven Windows’

In keeping with the theme of several shows in this year’s festival, Philadelphia-based SHARP Dance Company’s Seven Windows is another piece focusing on the power of dreams, death, and reincarnation....

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dial R for Robot’

Dial R for Robot is a mash-up of Hitchcock’s film Rope and the film Blade Runner, with some references to Hitchcock’s spy thriller Torn Curtain. The funk-rock opera is an immersive multi-media sci-fi...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘How to Give Birth to a Rabbit’

In this season of our discontent, How to Give Birth to a Rabbit reminds us that bizarre hoaxes and media frenzies are hardly 21st-century inventions. In fact, one of Western history’s more ludicrous...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The House of Yes’

Think about your worst family Thanksgiving ever, then amp up its bizarre agonies a thousand fold. Even then, you will not come close to the dysfunction displayed by the Pascal family of McLean,...

2016 Capital Fringe Review: ’35mm: A Musical Exhibition’

The idea of matching music to photographs is not new, but in 35mm—now having its DC premiere at the Atlas Performing Arts Center as part of this year’s Capital Fringe—the approach gets an energetic...