2014

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: “C-“

(Best of the Fringe!) C-, a SPNP Tech production is a one-man play featuring writer and director Eric Jaffe. The performance, based on Jaffe’s interviews of his former hard-partying fraternity...

Capital ‘Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Everybody Know This is Now Here’

Everybody Know This is Now Here, by Mountain Empire, is a disappointing multi-media performance that takes an exploratory look of female friendship over a year – in both physical and virtual distance...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Program Assistant’

(Best of the Fringe!) Fringe favorite John Krizel is at it again with his new show The Program Assistant, which he wrote, directed, and produced. It is a polished, fast-paced, painfully funny comedy...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘Tomorrow’s Dawn’

(Best of the Fringe!) What would you get if you crossed a French High School Musical with some of the characters from The Breakfast Club? You’d get Tomorrow’s Dawn, a bright, original musical in...

Capital Fringe 2014 Review: ‘The Old Man Never Let It Go’

(Best of the Fringe!) If Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea strikes you as an interesting choice of subject for a movement theatre piece, you are where I was prior to seeing The Old Man Never...

The Playwright’s Playground: ‘The Playmakers – CATF 2014: Interview With Ed Herendeen & Peggy McKowen Who Preview The Season

This Special Edition of The Playwright’s Playground introduces The Playmaker Series: CATF 2014. In a series of in-depth conversations, I speak with the artistic teams associated with the the plays at...

‘Bearlesque’ From The City of Brotherly Love at Town Dance Boutique

WHERE THE BOYLESQUERS GRRR… On a recent Friday night at Town Dance Boutique a large group of gentlemen gathered to watch a group of large gentlemen “bear” it all. Visiting from the City of Brotherly...

‘The King and I’ at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre

Allow the Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre to transport you back in time to an exotic land ruled by a stubborn King who is confronted by an even more stubborn schoolteacher. Under the able direction of...

Magic Time! ‘Rodney King’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

If ever there was an Inadvertent American Hero, it’s Rodney King, the black construction worker whose brutal beating in 1991 by white cops in LA, caught on videotape, appalled the world, indicted a...

Capital Fringe Preview 2014: ‘La Llorona’- An interview with Playwright Amanda Zeitler

Thee Candidates Graduate Theatre Company presents a production of Amanda Zeitler’s La Llorona in this year’s Capital Fringe festival. The play recently won the Wichita State University National...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘The Matty Matthews Foundation’ by John McGrath

Matty Matthews Wants Young People to Learn His Cash’n Carry Politics The Matty Matthews Foundation is allegorical, historical, funny, and disturbing. Before Citizens United, before the Koch Brothers,...

“Shall We Dance? “Meet Jenna Pinchbeck-Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre’s Anna in ‘The King and I’

Shall We Dance? Meet Jenna Pinchbeck, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre’s Anna in The King and I, Opening Tonight, July 9th Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless classic, The King and I, boasts one of the...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Medea’s Got Some Issues’ by Joanna Castle Miller

Medea’s Got Some Issues – the Funniest Tragedy of the Summer The first time I saw Lisa Hodsoll read the role of Medea in Medea’s Got Some Issues, it was to a packed house at the Former Residence of...

Capital Fringe 2014 Show Preview: ‘Size Doesn’t Matter: 7 Shorts By DC Playwrights’ by Nan Kyle Ficca

For the seventh consecutive summer, Fully Charged Productions gleefully romps at Capital Fringe in Size Doesn’t Matter — 7 Shorts by DC Playwrights In this incarnation, Fully Charged revels in a...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Not Every Card’ by Emmanuel S. Wazar

THE GAME Having the distinct pleasure of sharing the company of the most distinguished Sebastian Martin over the years in leisurely moments as he dutifully tended to his garden, from time to time, a...

Cinema Speak with Sydney-Chanele: ‘Unscripted and Improvised – Roger Guenveur Smith, Discusses Making Movies & His Unparalleled Collaboration with Spike Lee’

Roger Guenveur Smith is a writer, director, and one of those enigmatic actors whose work continues to illuminate the international stage and screen. This classically trained Yale School of Drama...

Capital Fringe 2014 Show Preview: ‘Mandarin Orange’ by Hunter Styles

Mandarin Orange is written and performed by Kate Robards. Uprooted from country life in Orange, Texas, Kate finds herself at the center of Shanghai, China’s largest city. Now, with humor and wit, she...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Balloon Plays’ by Babel Theatre

Sometimes a Fringe show is like a recipe: it’s all about starting with the right ingredients. In the case of Balloon Plays, we started with a whole mess of balloons, added three clowns, and finished...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: Meet the Cast of ‘Breast in Show’: Part 3: Matt Dewberry

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Breast in Show, meet Matt Dewberry How did you get involved in the show? Matt: I had worked with Kate Bryer previously at Imagination Stage (most...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Point…Blank…Period!’ by Tramaine Brathwaite

We all have one. That friend that you share WAY too much information with. That friend that you say the most embarrassing things to and know, secretly, they are thinking the same thing too. One day I...

Meet The Cast of ‘Gruesome Playground’ at The Flying Muskrats: Meet Ben Peter

In Part 1 of interviews with the cast of The Flying Muskrat’s Gruesome Playground, meet Ben Peter. Joel: Where might DC theatre goers have seen you on stage before? Ben: I’ve done a lot of work at...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Walken In His Shoes’ by Leah Rosthenhausler

Can one man who loves Star Trek, one man who loves Barry Manilow, another who loves to eat fried chicken, and a fourth who might steal your car, get along? Yes, they can when their love for...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘#albatross’

MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet’s appearance at this month’s Capital Fringe Festival combines dance, electric guitar, and social media in its presentation of a brand-new work and two audience favorites....

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Homeboy Thanksgiving’ by Rhiannon Cooper

What do you get when you combine gaming, gangs, and a family meal? A recipe for disaster. Homeboy Thanksgiving tells the story of two estranged brothers struggling to find some common ground…on...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Girl in Space’ by Jason Patrick Wells

It’s the Bedroom at Fort Fringe and it’s November and it’s fallFringe and we’re moving and trying to get our stuff out of the way and back into the corner so the venue manager and the bartender can...

The Playwright’s Playground-Unscripted and Improvised-Roger Guenveur Smith Discusses His Solo Performance of ‘Rodney King’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Roger Guenveur Smith is a writer, director, and one of those enigmatic actors whose work continues to illuminate the international stage and screen. This classically trained Yale School of Drama...

Attend The Tale: Cast Announcement for Landless’ Summer of Rock productions of ‘Sweeney Todd – Prog Metal Version’ and ‘Rock Bottom’ [A Rock Opus] by Landless Theatre Company

The Landless Theatre Company announces casting for Summer of Rock productions at Warehouse Theatre: Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd – Prog Metal Version and Rock Bottom [A Rock Opus]. Both productions...

‘The King and I’ Opens This Wednesday at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre-Cast Interviews Part 1

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless classic, The King and I, boasts one of the most luscious scores of all time. Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre opens this romantic musical about tolerance and cultural...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘The Inaugural Election for President of Mrs. Jacobson’s Sixth Grade Class’ by the Federal Theatre Project

For some scripts, writers will get on a roll, crafting a story from start to finish. Then comes the tough part: titling the show. In January 2013 I was kicking around an allegorical story about an...

‘God of Carnage’ at The Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre

Behaving well gets you nowhere. Courtesy is a waste of time. In the end we’re all like children, bashing each other’s teeth in with sticks to settle our differences. Or that’s what Yasmina Reza would...

Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 7/5/14

Here are our Top Scene Stealers for the week ending July 5, 2014. Congrats to all our honorees! ______ (1) Mary Ellen Cameron Singing “I Dreamed a Dream’ at Les Misérables at Way Off Broadway Dinner...

Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) Offering Pay-What-You-Can Previews Until July 10th

Expanded this year! CATF’s Pay-What-You-Can Preview series allows you to experience the 2014 repertory of plays before they open at whatever price you care to pay. While the playwrights, directors,...

‘Verdict’ at Thunderous Productions

Agatha Christie. The name immediately draws to mind thrilling murder mysteries of the ‘who-dunnit’ era of the utmost suspenseful caliber. Thunderous Productions in the black box theatrical space at...

Finding Their Purpose: Meet the Cast of Olney Theatre Center’s ‘Avenue Q’: Part 3: Evan Casey

This is the 3rd part of a series of interviews with the cast of Olney Theatre Center’s Avenue Q. In Part 3: Meet Evan Casey. Joel: Where have local theatregoers seen you perform this year? Evan: I was...

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ Opens July 10th at The Flying Muskrat Theatre Company

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise, they’ll kill you”- Oscar Wilde. These words could not be personified more fully than in Rajiv Joseph’s contemporary classic, Gruesome...

Capital Fringe Preview: ‘As We Are’ by Emily Sucher

Out-Side the Box Theatre is thrilled to present its fourth staged production in this year’s Capital Fringe: As We Are, by Larry E. Blossom. Each Blossom play seeks to explore a weighty subject,...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Cross the Line’ by Jenna Selby

A few years ago I took a semester to study abroad in Spain. On returning, I realized that my circles of friends at school had found other friends and created new worlds that no longer included me in...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?’ by Ronna J Levy

This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss? is a solo show that has been 20 years in the making. Twenty years ago I detoured from acting into academia. I became so frustrated trying to explain what I teach...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Stone Tape Party: Hauntings and Humor’ By Nu Sass Productions

“Sex. Drugs. Jazz. You know, the classic ghost story” proclaims the catchy tagline for the new comedy Stone Tape Party. Every ghost story needs a ghost, obviously, and Stone Tape Party has several....

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Hey, Hey, LBJ’

David Kleinberg’s latest solo theater work, Hey, Hey, LBJ! – a powerful drama on the most divisive foreign war in America’s history – appears five times (July 10th through July 18, 2014) at the Goethe...

A Report on ‘Les Misérables’ at Howard County Summer Theatre

The question of ,‘Do you hear the people sing?’ is being heard all throughout the Baltimore and Washington area this summer as Les Misérables makes its way across the professional and community...

Capital Fringe 2013 Show Update: Life After “In Search of the Perfect G-String’ by Yvonne Caruthers

Capital Fringe ’14 opens in a month, but in spite of my best intentions, I won’t be taking to the stage this time around. I thought I would be, because I wanted to follow up on the thrills, chills,...

Cinema Speak by Sydney-Chanele: Film Review: ‘Life Itself – Roger Ebert, A Cinematic Celebration’

Roger Ebert is an indomitable spirit, and Life Itself is a definitive, inspired love letter to and from this man who loved movies and championed film – especially lesser known, independent films....

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: Meet the Cast of ‘Breast in Show’: Part 2: Jennie Lutz

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Breast in Show, meet Jennie Lutz. Joel: How did you get involved in the show? Jennie: I was asked to join the show by the director, Kate Bryer. Why...

Meet Cast Members of Prince William Little Theatre’s “The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)’ Which Opens on July 18th by Melissa Jo-York Tilley

Prince William Little Theatre’s production of The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) opens on July 18th at the Gregory Family Theater in the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, VA! Joanne...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘About A Girl’ by Eddy Roger Parker

I am thrilled to have my first full length play About A Girl receive its premier performance as part of the Capital Fringe Festival. It’s been over three years since I started writing it, and what an...

Capital Fringe 2014 Preview: ‘Four Dogs and a Bone’ by Vanessa Terzaghi

Back­stabbing, greed and the pursuit of fame are just a few of the issues in John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone. The four dogs are two actresses (Brenda and Collette), a producer (Bradley)...

Meet the Cast of Unexpected Stage Company’s ‘Dani Girl’: Caroline Wolfson, Joshua Simon, Maggie Robertson, and Zach Brewster-Geisz

Meet the cast of Unexpected Stage Company’s Dani Girl. _______ Caroline Wolfson (Dani) Joel: Where did you get your training and where have local theatregoers seen you perform? Caroline: I’m a...

CFTC Performs Rollicking ‘Pippi Longstocking: The Family Musical’ July 18-26, 2014 at Lanier Middle School

Grab your hat and join the fun as pirates, circus entertainers, a few cops and robbers, and the world’s most popular whippersnapper come to life this summer in the City of Fairfax Theatre Company...

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ at Pallas Theatre Collective

Were Betty Friedan and H.P. Lovecraft to have a baby, Pallas Theatre Collective’s new musical, might be their demented offspring. The show (with music by Sarah Taylor Ellis, book and lyrics by Lane...