2012

A Capital Fringe Review; ‘Raising Cane: A Family Portrait’ by Derek Mong

Raising Cane, presented by Grain of Sand Theatre, was quite a pleasant surprise at the Capital Fringe. Set in a backwards incestuous cult in a location I can only presume is the South, the play...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Freshman 15/Life in Transition’ by Derek Mong

the freshman 15/life in transition presents an intimate, honest look at the college experience for today’s young people. This performance is presented in a series of 15 vignettes that complicate the...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Paul Gonsalves on the Road’ by Veronique MacRae

A poignant and moving piece about the inner demons that plague the soul of the brilliant jazz artist, Paul Gonsalves, Art Luby’s Paul Gonsalves on the Road is a masterpiece in the making. While the...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Daydreams’ by Veronique MacRae

As the lights rose, the familiar scene of a bustling New York subway slowly emerged upon the stage. A ‘Chatty Cathy’ filled the air with the latest gossip as a woman applied makeup to her face. The...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Sacred & Scared Get the Same Score in Scrabble’ by Tzvi Kahn

“Listen, it can get lonely up here at the top,” God informs the audience in the opening minutes of Charles Shafer’s breezily amusing one-man show, which seeks, according to the program notes, to...

Stephen Gregory Smith – ‘Naked’ at Sizzlin’ Summer Cabaret by Doug Poms

Stephen Gregory Smith is in love, and he wants the world (or at least cabaret audiences to know it). In his poignant cabaret called Naked, which is part of Signature Theater’s ‘Sizzlin’ Summer...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Play About the Coach’ by Jessica Vaughan

The Play About the Coach tracks the three potentially most important minutes of a man’s life and career. It is also one of the tensest hours of theater I’ve experienced and one of the best one-man...

Capital Fringe Festival: ‘Thomas is Titanic’ by Jessica Vaughan

Thomas is Titanic could more accurately be called “Stalking Kate Winslet.” Thomas Choinacky wrote and performed this one-man show about his preoccupation with her and her role in Titanic growing up....

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame’ by Jessica Vaughan

Blanche: The Bittersweet Life of a Wild Prairie Dame is something special and unlike most musicals I have seen before. Onalea Gilbertson found a photo album of her Grandmother’s as she moved to a...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dada Returns (20th Anniversary Edition) by Mariya Danilenko

Dada Returns! is a play in true Dada style; it is completely absurd, irrational and avant-garde. The Dada art movement was created in Europe during the early twentieth century as a reaction to the...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Lady Luck is a Whore’ by Andrew L. Baughman

Lady Luck is A Whore (What happens in Vegas Stays in this show) is a sharply written one-woman show by NYC based Leanne Linsky. Linsky flexes her Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade trained...

A Preview of ‘Nightmerica’ by B. Stanley

I receive mass email forwards from my right wing religious pro-military uncle in North Carolina every couple of weeks. Inevitably he has had something sent to him in a mass email forward that he feels...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Nightmerica’ by Andrew L. Baughman

Veteran DC Artist B Stanley, Artistic Director of Theatre Du Jour, has this annoying habit of making me think every time I walk into his theatre. I prefer to live in a fluffy world of superheroes and...

Drama Learning Center Expands Popular Summer Camps Program to Baltimore City by Katie Johnson

Drama Learning Center (DLC) will be bringing its highly successful and educational summer camps program to Baltimore City again this summer. Camps begin July 9th and include many fun and engaging...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Medieval Story Land’ by Anne Tsang

Medieval Story Land (Written and Co-Produced by Scott Courlander) is this uproariously funny story of an innocent and naïve elf with a heart of gold named Todd (Forrest Rilling) who meets the...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Ecce’ by Veronique MaCrae

The attempt to birth a theatrical piece rooted in the history of the Roman takeover of the land of Israel, the conflict for position of authority and favor of Caesar (Thomas McGrath) between Tiberius...

‘How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular’ by Joel Markowitz

DreamWork Animations’ How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular has landed at The Verizon Center until Sunday with its fire-breathing dragons, wall-to-floor projections, stunning costumes, and...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Last Flapper’ by Julia L. Exline

Carmela Lanza-Weil directs The Last Flapper, a theatrical biography of Zelda Fitzgerald, with a passionate solo performance by Kate Erin Gibson as Zelda. Set on the date of her death (March 10th,...

Nibbles and Sips Around Town: ‘Love Thy Neighbor and Their Beer’ by Jordan Wright

What’s more local than partnering with your neighbor? For the food trucks that visit Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company, producer and neighbor Logan’s Sausage lends kitchen space close by the...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Apocalypse Picnic’ by Mariya Danilenko

Apocalypse Picnic is a sketch comedy show about life in a post-apocalyptic world. The show is comprised of nine different sketches that show how the apocalypse has affected all kinds of people,...

Erica Smith on her play ‘Come Out and Say It’ by Teresa McCormick Ertel

Each year The Mobtown Players selects an original work for production. This year playwright Erica Smith’s Come Out and Say It was chosen and is currently playing. The show was directed by Brent Englar...

Cabaret Review: Carolyn Cole’s ‘Born to Take the BELTway’ at Signature Theatre

Some time ago, I went to see a No Rules Theatre Company production of The Stephen Schwartz Project and I remember being impressed by a petite brunette with a really, really fierce belt. That brunette,...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Thumbs Up!’ by Grace Kim

Thumbs Up, written and performed by Michael Venske, with technical direction by Anthony Logan Cole, is a one-man show deftly performed by Michael Venske. It’s a good story with some great lines. In...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Me and the Devil Blues’ by Mike Spain

The steamy heat of a Washington summer night added to the ambiance of the World Premiere of Me and the Devil Blues by Seamus Sullivan, after all the play is set in Hell. The band played smooth jams as...

Snow White and Her Prince Train with Puppets at The Puppet Co. by Erin Gifford

The Puppet Co. is a repertory family theater, and it produces a new show about every two years. In 2011, it premiered Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and will reopen the newest production in repertory on...

Wilco at Wolf Trap by Mike Spain

The Lee Ranaldo Band opened for Wilco on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. Ranaldo is best known for his time spent with Sonic Youth – a band he founded and spent three decades as the band’s lead guitarist. I...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Planet Egg’ by Mariya Danilenko

Planet Egg is one of the most ingenious shows at the Capital Fringe Festival. It is a puppet cinema performance, which means that the artists create a puppet show in front of a live camera while the...

An Interview with The Normal Heart’s Christopher J. Hanke by Joel Markowitz

Christopher J. Hanke is a member of the outstanding ensemble of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, now playing at Arena Stage. I asked Christopher to talk about his role and working with his fellow...

Capital Fringe Review: Almost, “Almost Maine” by Grace Kim

I’m full of love for Almost, “Almost, Maine’s” actors – Christian Beltran and Mandy Nicole Moore, who sublimely perform 7 different characters each over 7 vignettes about love in relationships. In...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Stone Age Recreation: An Operetta’ by Francine Schwartz

Stone Age Recreation is an operetta developed by The Apron Theatre Company. It is a “physical comedy” by DC-area writer/producer Tyler Budde and director Maria Benson which minimizes dialogue in favor...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Burlesque and Belly Laughs’ by Jessica Vaughan

Burlesque and Belly Laughs provides plenty of both. With a cast of improv actors and burlesque dancers from troupes around DC, the evening alternates between improv sketches and more traditional...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Night In (Or The Night My Wife Left)’ by Julia L. Exline

LIV Creations presents A Night In (Or The Night My Wife Left), a quirky show about a man who delves into his psyche after he comes home to a half-empty apartment, a vanished wife, and a note that...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘In the Company of De Sade’ by Amanda Gunther

In The Company of De Sade presented by the King’s Players at the 2012 Capital Fringe Festival is the show to see if you can only see one. It is well composed; thoroughly outlined with an actual plot...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass The Vetting’ by Mariya Danilenko

All-Nude College-Girl Revue or Why I Can’t Pass The Vetting is a hilarious autobiographical one-woman show performed and written by Lisa Faith Phillips. Inspired by a recent lawsuit from the Franklin...

Cabaret Review: ‘What I See’ – Natascia Diaz at Signature Theatre by Jennifer Perry

Natascia Diaz has several NYC/Broadway credits and has been a mainstay in the DC theatre scene for nearly an entire decade. Given her well-established musical theatre pedigree, I arrived at Signature...

A Preview of ‘Afterplay’ at Quotidian Theatre Company by Steve LaRocque

I had a chance last week (in blessed air conditioning) to see a rehearsal of the Quotidian Theatre Company’s upcoming production of Brian Friel’s Afterplay. The show is visually exquisite; the acting...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘A Year of Giving’ by Jessica Vaughan

Rockville Little Theatre’s production of A Year of Giving is an extraordinary story and it makes for an extraordinary play. Reed Sandridge was laid off in ’09 and decided to give $10 a day to a...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘BFF’ by Natalie McCabe

Brian Feldman’s one-man “show” BFF takes its single audience member on a two-hour journey- literally- to becoming Feldman’s, well, “BFF.” Feldman’s “friend-building excursion” may take the audience...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Making Love Legal’ by Jessica Vaughan

Making Love Legal is clearly a labor of love. Sara Schabach, a first-time director, and her cast infused every odd-ball scene with enthusiasm. It is an ambitious and sensitive topic to explore and...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Post Reality Show: Talk Media!’ by Derek Mong

The Post Reality Show: Talk Media! claims to be the avant-garde of the avant-garde of the Capital Fringe Festival. While it is true that it is the first ever Capital Fringe performance over webcast...

Coming to The Capital Fringe Festival: ‘Stone Age Recreation: An Operetta.’ by Rick Westerkamp

Imagine you’re at your local diner with six of your closest friends. It’s your circle’s ‘Cheers Bar’ or Central Perk. Then all of a sudden, one of you creates a hypothetical situationin which you’re...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Shock/Trauma’ by Tzvi Kahn

If the cinematic car crash constitutes the cliché that never dies (or kills or wounds its action hero passengers, for that matter), the new play presented by Unstrung Harpist Productions and directed...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Language From the Land’ by Joel Markowitz

This was my second dance Fringe experience that featured young dancers. Before the show began we were informed that what we were about to see was put together in one week with 25 young dancers from...

Capital Fringe Review:’ I <3 Hummels' by Ally Jenkins

Raymond (James Radack) loves Hummels. No, I mean he REALLY loves them. For those not in the know, Hummels are porcelain figurines depicting apple-cheeked boys and girls in all sorts of settings. They...

National Symphony Orchestra: The Wizard of Oz’ at Wolf Trap by Jane Coyne

Lions and tigers and bears … and a live orchestra … oh, my! It’s hard to imagine a better outdoor movie experience than one could have found Saturday night than by heading over to Wolf Trap to watch...

‘Legally Blonde – The Musical’ at McLean Community Players by Julia L. Exline

McLean Community Players presents Legally Blonde—The Musical, an infectiously silly show carried by actors with great dance moves, voices, and comedic timing. Directed by Mike Replogle, Legally Blonde...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Jesus Le Momo’ by Don Michael Mendoza

JR Foley’s play Jesus Le Momo is an exciting 50 minutes of a wild ride through the story of a wife and husband’s prayer meeting interrupted by the ghost of mad playwright Antonin Artaud. A meeting led...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Rolling By’ by Amanda Gunther

Rolling By presented by Patchwork Productions is not one of the shows you’ll want to roll on by. It’s actually a fairly decent work in progress. Written by A.R. Lange the show’s central concept is...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Capital Anthropological, Inquisitorial Probe’ by Julia L. Exline

Cecily Marlborough and Gwendolyn Hamm (otherwise known as Karen Getz and Kelly A. Jennings) are two time-traveling cultural anthropologists here to study our culture. What you won’t really find in...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘James Judd’s Funny Stories’ by Julia L. Exline

I’m not sure I have ever laughed that hard in my whole life! That being said, James Judd’s Funny Stories is an absolute Fringe must-see! Are you looking for something deep? Something that makes you...