Venus Theatre

Venus Theatre’s ‘The Powers that Be’: fighting the double bind

Venus Theatre’s staff don’t open the house until immediately before The Powers that Be begins, presenting audience members, as they take their seats, with the evening’s most arresting image,...

Review: ‘The Finger’ at Venus Theater

Ambiguous loss that binds two people together while pushing them apart. Incompatible paths of grief that alienate each other’s only source of connection. The dominating presence of someone who is...

Review: ‘Running on Glass’ at Venus Theatre

Cynthia Cooper’s Running on Glass, playing at Laurel’s Venus Theatre, celebrates six pioneering female athletes, all of whom had to overcome barriers not only of gender but of race, class, illness, or...

Review: ‘Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley’ at Venus Theatre

Living and Dying with Tricia McCauley is a raw and personal journey through grief. Tricia McCauley, the local actress whose brutal 2016 murder rocked the theater community, was a personal friend and...

Review: ‘The Speed Twins’ at Venus Theatre

The Speed Twins by Maureen Chadwick is presently playing at Venus Theatre in Laurel Maryland. This is the National Premiere of the British drama and is directed by Deborah Randall who is also the...

Review: ‘This Little Light’ at Venus Theatre

This Little Light by Jennifer Faletto opened this week at Venus Theatre. Deborah Randall is the director of this remarkable play. In her director’s notes, Randall calls This Little Light a comedy....

Review: ‘Aglaonike’s Tiger’ at Venus Theatre

Aglaonike’s Tiger, written by Claudia Barnett and directed by Deborah Randall, is playing now at the Venus Theatre in Laurel, MD. The drama is based on the first recorded woman astronomer of Ancient...

Review: ‘Tunnel Vision’ at Venus Theatre

Tunnel Vision, written by Andrea Lepcio and directed by Deborah Randall, at Venus Theatre is a powerful and a thought-provoking play. Venus Theatre, under the direction of Founder Deborah Randall, has...

Review: ‘Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays’ at Venus Theatre Company

This review comes after I saw the final performance of Venus Theatre’s remarkable, inspiring, supremely artistic vision: Selections From: The Methuen Drama Books of Suffrage Plays. But in my view, a...

Post-Play Palaver: ‘Soft Revolution: Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah’ at Venus Theatre

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

Review: ‘Rock the Line’ at Venus Theatre Company

In the program note for Rock the Line, Playwright Kathleen Warnock describes her new play as, “Kind of like Waiting for Godot, if Godot really came and played electric guitar.” As it turns out, this...

Review: ‘Garbage Kids’ at Venus Theatre Company

The new play Garbage Kids by Baltimore-based playwright Jayme Kilburn, now receiving its world premiere at Venus Theatre Company, is a cleverly plotted emotional booby trap. The first act is a series...

Review: ‘Fur’ at Venus Theatre Company

Venus Theatre’s new tour de force production of Migdalia Cruz’s Fur opens with a characteristically jarring scene: Michael, a white-suited animal lover, wheels a giant industrial strength hand cart...

Spine: ‘Raw’ and Revolution at Venus Theatre and Women’s Voices Theater Festival

Revolution is in the air. As Arab Spring lies bloodied beneath military dictatorships in Egypt and religious extremists in Libya and the same ol’ same ol’ dictatorship in Syria (plus Islamic State,...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Raw’ at Venus Theatre Company

Among other notable experiences I’ve had during the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival, I can now say I’ve been admonished by a cow. Please don’t think I’m being derogatory. Because in Venus Theatre’s...

The Women’s Voices Theater Festival: ‘Witches Vanish’ at Venus Theatre Company

Underlying Witches Vanish, the new play by Venus Theatre Company (and third entry in the DC area-wide Women’s Voices Theater Festival), is a cold bedrock of fact: A tremendous amount of women are...

2015 Capital Fringe Preview #13 ‘Half Past What?’ by Casey Bauer

In a tiny apartment somewhere near the sea dairy comes on Mondays and staple guns on Sundays. A wheel turns outside the window and a traveling dentist knocks on the door. Two young women who call...

‘dry bones rising’ at Venus Theatre Company

In her program note, director (and founder of Venus Theatre Company) Deborah Randall has this to say about her company’s newest play, dry bones rising: “The style… could be described as ee cummings...

‘Virus Attacks Heart’ at Venus Theatre Company

Virus Attacks Heart, a new play by Australian playwright Shannon Murdoch, is a romance for people who don’t do romances. It’s a horror story of a relationship that makes you ache for an intimacy as...

‘We Are Samurai’ at Venus Theatre

Experiencing Venus Theatre’s production of Daria Miyeko Marinelli’s We Are Samurai feels something like when your dad threw you into the deep end so you could learn to swim. At first, it is scary and...

‘Light of Night’ at Venus Theatre Company

Love is more than safety and self-sacrifice; it is freedom and being able to receive someone else’s sacrifice. A stronger message will be tough to find, especially when it comes to being able to love...

‘Ding. Or Bye Bye Dad’ at Venus Theatre

Society has a collective concept of normal that we think everyone experiences, but as it turns out everyone has a unique experience and no one’s experience is quite the same as anyone else’s. This is...

Artistically Speaking: Part One: An Interview with Venus Theatre’s Deborah Randall by Cate Brewer

Deborah Randall is the founder of Venus Theatre. Deb has been producing and performing around the DC area professionally since 1985. In 2012, Deb was the recipient of the Alumna of the Year Award for...

‘731 DeGraw Street’ at Venus Theatre Company by Amanda Gunther

Highly evocative, emotionally gripping, stunning new work with much artistic integrity behind it comes to the stage to close out the 13th season at Venus Theatre Company on C Street in Laurel. With...

‘Gift of Forgotten Tongues’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

Would you really want to live in a world without words? Take a moment and think about this. A perfect understanding between people; never a miscommunication, no more terrorism or wars. But a life...

‘Grieving For Genevieve’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

Isn’t there a statute of limitations on guilt? When a mother is involved, the answer is always and indefinitely no. When Delilah, the middle child and ‘bad daughter’ of the three Peck sisters,...

2013 Capital Fringe Show Preview: ‘Mme. Macbeth’ by Timothy King

King’s Players presents Mme. Macbeth, a new perspective on a classic. Walking down 7th Street NW, heading from a performance of Georgetown Theatre Company’s Night of the Living Theatre (by Dead...

‘Following Sarah’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

When faced with the pressures of life at what point does it all become too much to handle? A deeply moving and richly emotional tale of struggle and acceptance during the delicate years of high school...

Venus Theatre Announces its 2013 Season: ‘Lucky 13: Free Your Mind (and let the girl talk.) by Deborah Randall

Lucky 13: Free You Mind (and let the girl talk.) embraces four new works by four living playwrights. The box office is OFFICIALLY open. Join us for another year of artistic adventure. And sign up now...

‘Claudie Hukill’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

Every small town has a small town hero. And for every small town hero there’s bound to be some family secrets that go along with him. Of course in a small town they probably aren’t as secret as the...

‘Devil Dog Six’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

And it’s off to the races! The horses are out of the gate, thundering around the bend and pulling ahead to take the lead is Devil Dog Six, the third selection in the Venus Theatre’s “Bold Hope” 2012...

‘Punk Rock Mom’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

If you’re looking for a show that will truly rock your world – it’s landed at Venus Theatre. This world premiere of Alyson Mead’s Punk Rock Mom is the second show in their 2012 season of Bold Hope and...

Kathryn Kelley on Playing Emily Dickinson in ‘The Belle of Amherst’ at Bay Theatre Company by Joel Markowitz

Kathryn Kelley is portraying the poet Emily Dickinson in Bay Theatre Company’s production of The Belle of Amherst, and is receiving raves from local critics and audiences. I asked Kathryn to talk...

‘A Girl Named Destiny’ at Venus Theatre by Amanda Gunther

Genergy. noun – The study of male and female energies – gender energies – as applicable to roles presented on the stage. This concept is thoroughly explored and developed through Venus Theatre’s world...