Silver Spring Stage

DCMTA 2021 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Community Theater Productions

Here are some of the community theater productions that made an indelible impression on our writers this year.

Nostalgia makes for a winning ‘A Christmas Story’ at Silver Spring Stage

An iconic holiday classic and a delightful trip down memory lane.

‘A Black and White Cookie’ premieres at Silver Spring Stage

Can a bakery favorite repair the world?

Silver Spring Stage returns to live performance with bold 53rd season

The company “is reaching beyond its comfort zone” with “a fully multiethnic, intersectional selection of plays.”

Quotidian’s going-away gift of artistry in ‘The Day Emily Married’

The treasured theater company’s final production is the Horton Foote play it premiered.

For Quotidian’s farewell, an encore of its Horton Foote world premiere

Theater grande dame Jane Squier Bruns, starring in ‘The Day Emily Married,’ talks about the challenge of playing ‘the mother from hell.’

‘She Kills Monsters’ from Silver Spring Stage is a roleplay pleasure

A fun tribute to Dungeons & Dragons, the production combines comedy with deep emotion.

A prickly take on marriage rocks ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’ at Silver Spring Stage

Lucas Hnath’s sequel to Ibsen’s classic raises thoughtful contemporary questions.

Excitement of discovery drives ‘Ada and the Engine’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s streaming production of Ada and the Engine is an exciting mixture of history, science, and poetry. Written by Lauren Gunderson, it tells the story of Ada Byron, a mathematician...

Lauren Gunderson’s inventive ‘Ada and the Engine’ to go live online

Silver Spring Stage proudly presents the area community theater premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s Ada and the Engine, directed by Jon Jon Johnson and produced by Alika Codispoti and Maura Suilebhan. Ada...

The joys of watching actors in virtual ‘Lobby Hero’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s streaming production of Lobby Hero is a pleasure to watch. Filmed on the theater’s stage, it combines the joys of seeing actors physically interacting together with some of...

Silver Spring Stage goes online with arresting opener ‘Lobby Hero’

Silver Spring Stage is offering a new season of virtual performances. First up is Lobby Hero by the Academy Award–winning Kenneth Lonergan, an absorbing play where good intentions can be undermined by...

Capital-area community theaters plan fundraising telethon

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the country, its effects on the arts have been devastating. Many organizations have turned to creative ways to raise funds in an effort to offset losses from canceled...

DCMTA Spring 2020 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Community Theater Productions, Performances, and Design Elements

Normally we who cover theater for DC Theater Arts collect our favorites as the year draws to a close, but this has not been a normal year. In mid-March the 2020 season was interrupted by a pandemic...

20th annual WATCH Award winners

Announcement of Awards: 20th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (THE WATCH AWARDS) The 2019 WATCH Award winners were announced on April 4th, 2020. The ceremony was canceled due to the...

‘Perfect Arrangement’: Silver Spring Stage explores perfect present, future dreams

Recipe for a Perfect Evening: Take heaping cups of American mid-century corn (straight from the pages of Good Housekeeping), place it in a beautifully crafted Dutch Oven (from the pages of the...

2019 WATCH Award Nominations

In a ceremony at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, the WATCH Award committee announced the 2019 WATCH Award nominees. 101 productions (40 musicals, 61 plays) were adjudicated in 2019. The...

‘Yellow Face’ at Silver Spring Stage sparks important conversations

Is racism a taboo subject in the arts? Of course not. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Porgy and Bess to the whitewashing of the Oscars, artists have used their platform to explore America’s history of...

Family friendly ‘Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s production of Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol is a fun, family-friendly take on Charles Dickens’ classic tale. Written by Ken and Jack Ludwig, this 2015 play has Tiny Tim and his...

DCMTA 2019 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Design Elements in Community Theater Productions

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the shows that left an indelible impression on them in 2019. In this category, outstanding community theater design, we recognize:...

DCMTA 2019 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Performance in a Community Theater Production

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the shows that left an indelible impression on them in 2019. Here are the community theater performances that made the biggest...

DCMTA 2019 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Community Theater Productions

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the productions that left an indelible impression on them in 2019. Here are the community theater productions that left the...

‘Sweat’ at Silver Spring Stage: a precise portrayal of workers caught in a rip tide

I’ve never been to Reading, PA, the location of Lynn Nottage’s searing 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sweat, now playing at Silver Spring Stage, but my life has been bracketed by living in or near...

Review: Book ‘The Book Club Play’ at Silver Spring Stage

Whether you’re an avid reader or a theater buff or both, there’s a supersmart, superfunny show up in Silver Spring that should be on your short list. Marking its 52nd anniversary (!), community...

50th Annual Ruby Griffith Award Goes to 2nd Star Productions

By Frankie Lewis The British Players’ ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of The Ruby Griffith Awards for Excellence in Community Theatre was held at the Bretton Woods Recreation Center in Germantown,...

Review: ‘Intimate Apparel’ at Silver Spring Stage

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage is a bittersweet and brilliantly acted dramedy at Silver Spring Stage, featuring insightful direction from Seth Ghitelman for this period piece with a modern message...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at Silver Spring Stage

For a play so interested in the parameters of boredom endured by English high society, Silver Spring Stage’s rollicking production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is anything but...

Review: ‘Appropriate’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage is known for producing professional-level community theater, garnering more WATCH nominations and awards than any other company in Maryland. The Obie-award winner Appropriate by...

2019 WATCH Award Winners and Ceremony Recap

The 19th Annual WATCH Awards recipients were announced tonight at a ceremony at The Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia. The ceremony was notable for two touching moments. Charles Hall, father of Leta...

The 2019 WATCH AWARDS Ceremony Takes Place Tonight

The 19th Annual WATCH Awards winners will be announced tonight at a ceremony at the Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia. DC Theater Arts will be at the ceremony to bring you updates on social media...

Review: ‘In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play’ at Silver Spring Stage

When I think of how the scientific community has historically addressed the scourge of feminine hysteria, I tend to think of electro-shock treatments – those relics of masculine control over the...

WATCH Awards Nominations: 19th Annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors

The nominees for the 19th Annual WATCH Awards were announced tonight at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.

Review: ‘Equivocation’ by Bill Cain at Silver Spring Stage

It is 1605. The Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of disaffected Catholics attempted to blow up King James I, his wife, his children, and all the political and religious leaders of the age, has just...

DCMTA 2018 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Performance in a Community Theater Production

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the shows that left an indelible impression on them in 2018. Here are the community theater performances that made the biggest...

DCMTA 2018 Staff Favorites: Outstanding Community Theater Productions

As the year draws to a close, we asked DCMTA writers to think back on the productions that left an indelible impression on them in 2018. Here are the community theater productions that left the...

Review: ‘Season of Light: A Winter Fairytale’ at Silver Spring Stage

The simplest tales can oftentimes bring the most enjoyment. Steph DeFerie’s Season of Light: A Winter Fairytale tells the mythical tale of a young girl, Magda, and a band of actors searching for the...

Review: ‘The Crucible’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s spectacular and engrossing show, The Crucible, under Director Craig Allen Mummey’s expert guidance, tackles many contentious subjects, including sexism, racism, religious...

Review: ‘Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight’ at Silver Spring Stage

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson, produced by Bill Hurlbut and directed by Erin Bone Steele is presented at Silver Spring Stage. The company has recently...

The 2018 Ruby Griffith Awards

As we know from the recent Royal Wedding, the British know how to throw a party. The most recent example was the top-notch afternoon when the British Players hosted the leading lights of Washington...

Review: ‘The House of Blue Leaves’ at Silver Spring Stage

First staged in 1971, The House of Blue Leaves is a descendant of the kitchen sink dramas and average joe tragedies that marked the American and British theater scenes in the turbulent decade...

Review: ‘A Delicate Balance’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s production of A Delicate Balance brings Edward Albee’s 1966 play to vivid, powerful life. Directed by Fred Zirm, it combines excellent acting with a detailed set, clever lighting...

Review: ‘The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence’ at Silver Spring Stage

Thematically, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence is simple and relevant: the frightening trend toward rejecting selfless, mutual, unconditional love with a person in favor of a mechanical...

Here Are the Winners of the 2017 WATCH AWARDS

THE 18th Annual WATCH AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED Sunday, March 11, 2018 – 7:00 pm at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA HERE ARE THE WINNERS (IN BOLD) Outstanding Set Design in a Musical (5) Skip Gresko –...

Review: ‘All in the Timing’ at Silver Spring Stage

Ever wonder what would happen if you took theater, literature, linguistics, and film, put them into a blender, and then wrote a collection of witty comedic scenes with the reference puree that...

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: ‘Wit’ at Silver Spring Stage

Wit, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play written by Margaret Edson and directed at Silver Spring Stage by Jeff Mikoni, graces the stage with a darkly comedic tale of a strict university professor dying of...

Review: ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ at Silver Spring Stage

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is not your typical holiday story. Adapted from the best-selling book by Barbara Robinson, this rendition is laced with hilarity, mischief, and wonder. Andrea Spitz...

Review: ‘Omnium Gatherum’ at Silver Spring Stage

In keeping with performing plays from five different decades in celebration of their 50th Anniversary Silver Spring reached back to right after Sept. 11, 2001, to do Omnium Gatherum by Alexandra...

Review: ‘Deathtrap’ at Silver Spring Stage

The opening of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap this weekend marked the start of the 50th Season for Silver Spring Stage. The play, which opened on Broadway in the late 1970s, is a suspense thriller with lots of...

Review: Silver Spring Stage 2017 One Act Festival, Weekend Three

One-act plays are tricky beasts. Playwrights must balance tension with plot and story. Too little tension, and the audience is left bored, slogging through countably interminable minutes until the...