2014

Performing at The Howard Theatre on Friday and Saturday – Up Close with Alice Smith

Two or three times a year, Alice Smith seduces D.C. audiences with an intoxicating cacophony of R&B, pop, jazz and blues influences, the tension of an aching, volcanic sound and her soul-revealing,...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright Elizabeth Archer on Her Play: ‘Old Gray Devil’

The Playwright’s Playground is a monthly in-depth conversation with a local female playwright in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in...

‘Cloak and Dagger’ at Signature Theatre

You know you’re in the presence of a legend when the material doesn’t matter as much as the immaterial. With the world premiere of Cloak and Dagger: Or the Case of the Golden Venus — Ed Dixon’s...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright Susan Goodell on Her Play: ‘After Unlocking the Universe’

Welcome to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of...

Ed Dixon on Writing and Appearing in ‘Cloak and Dagger’ at Signature Theatre

I am a huge fan of Ed Dixon’s work. I was thrilled to be able to catch up with him, and to see the press performance of his new musical Cloak and Dagger on Sunday night at Signature Theatre. Joel: Why...

‘The Wizard of Oz’ at The Puppet Co.

Back by popular demand, The Puppet Co. presents The Wizard of Oz, adapted from Frank Oz’s beloved tale with a script and puppets by Christopher Piper, and directed by Allan Stevens. Set and Costume...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – An Interview With CJ Ehrlich on Her Play ‘Picnic on the Lake’

Welcome to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of...

‘Louisiana Swamp Romp’ at Wolf Trap

This much-anticipated yearly event at WolfTrap was a winner once again. The Stooges Brass Band, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet and Big Sam’s Funky Nation showcased the breadth of music in New Orleans...

The Playwright’s Playground: SOURCE Festival 2014 – Interview with Playwright A.K. Forbes on Her Play: ‘Collateral Damage and Other Cosmic Consequences’

The Playwright’s Playground is a monthly in-depth conversation with a local female playwright in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of those involved in...

Source Festival: ‘Revenge: Six 10-Minute Plays’

Someone once said “revenge is sweet.” In the case of CulturalDC’s Source Festival show Revenge, not only is revenge sweet, but it is hilarious, thought-provoking, and at times a little frightening....

‘Plaza Suite’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

Step into The Plaza, one of the most upscale venues and hotels in Upper Manhattan. Plaza Suite, a Tony Award-winning comedy written by Neil Simon in 1968, welcomes audiences to Room 719 as it captures...

‘Happy Days’ at SCENA Theatre

Rejoice, Beckett fans! Short of an actual festival, it’s rare to have the opportunity to see two productions of the same Beckett play in a single season. SCENA Theatre’s latest production of Happy...

Source Festival: “The Thrush and the Woodpecker’

As a self-described launching pad for plays, the Source Festival offers writers and artists an opportunity to incubate promising new work, even if scripts exist in but a fledgling state. Such is the...

‘BSO: Casablanca – Movie and Music’ at The Music Center at Strathmore

At the 16th Academy Awards in 1944, Casablanca took home Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Music Score. While I had never before seen the film, all my life I had heard about the film’s...

‘Avenue Q’ at Olney Theatre Center

It sucks to be you! Or at least it will suck to be you if you miss out on seeing Olney Theatre Center’s incredible production of Avenue Q! This Tony Award-winning, envelope-pushing, puppet-sex-having,...

‘Beauty and the Beast, JR’ at Fauquier Community Theatre’s Youth Program

Fauquier Community Theatre’s Youth Program tackles a “tale as old as time” with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, JR. The five-star cast of 60+ kindergarteners through high school seniors all give...

‘Menopause The Musical’ at The Warner Theatre

If a musical about not being able to the pay the rent or a plant that eats people can make it big, a musical about Menopause is following in a great tradition. It’s long run demonstrates it’s enduring...

‘Ghost: The Musical’ at the Drama Learning Center and TYA

For two hours or so, Ghost: The Musical may have you believing in life after death. But the show’s premiere regional staging at the Drama Learning Center in Columbia enjoyably proves the case for its...

“Spring Awakening’ at Little Butterfly Theatre Company

It wasn’t difficult to locate Little Butterfly Theatre Company’s production of Spring Awakening. All I had to do was follow the overpowering scent of teenage hormones coming from the theatre. Since...

‘La Traviata’ at The In Series

The In Series tackles their first Verdi in their 31-year history with the classic tragedy La Traviata (The Fallen Woman). Director Nick Olcott apparently had the idea 10 years ago and it has come to...

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

The comedic style of the classic Victorian era theatrical collaborators Gilbert and Sullivan has regaled audiences for well over a century. Almost 135 years after the very first performance of Pirates...

‘The Apocalypse Comes at 6PM’ at Single Carrot Theatre

There are 8,670 hours in one year. Burnt food has a sad taste. Despite the title, the show will start at 7:30PM. The end of the world can be a very personal thing. In true Single Carrot Theatre...

‘Some Girl(s)’ at Unquiet Theatre Company

The message of Neil Labute’s Some Girl(s) is pretty well summed up by one of the characters, Bobbi, towards the end of Act II: “Guys always mean well right before they fuck somebody over.” Indeed, the...

‘The Producers’ at Sandy Spring Theater Group

In 2001, The Producers took home 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Original Score. Adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, the piece brilliantly captures the dark humor of...

‘Il Volo’ at Wolf Trap

Last night’s Il Volo concert is THE best show/concert I’ve seen at Wolf Trap in a long time! After every song, the singers received standing ovations from the crowd, which seemed to shock the humble...

Source Festival Review: ‘Countdown’

Countdown: An Interlude Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” This statement is particularly apposite to the CulturalDC Source Festival, which...

‘The British Players’ 50th Anniversary Old Time Music Hall’

Wine, beer, barmaids, and song—these are the mainstays of The British Players’ 50th Anniversary Old Time Music Hall. A salute to the popular British music halls of the 19th and early 20th century, the...

Washington National Opera: American Opera Initiative: ‘An American Soldier’

Washington National Opera continues their new project the American Opera Initiative with An American Soldier, with music by Huang Ruo and libretto by David Henry Hwang. It is a stunning conclusion to...

A Celebration for Jerry Manning Is Set for Monday, June 23rd at 6 PM at Arena Stage

A celebration of Jerry Manning‘s life will take place at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater on Monday, June 23 at 6:00 pm. The gathering, organized by Gary Phillips—a longtime friend...

‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Cauldron is presenting an artful rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with everyone in the huge cast under the age of 20 except for the king and queen of the faeries. The queen, Titania is...

‘Made in America: Celebrating American Choral Music’ at The Kennedy Center

“Made in the USA”: for generations, assurance that the product we were about to enjoy was produced upon the great land mass containing the contiguous 48, also known with patriotic pride, devotion and...

5 Top Scene Stealers of the Week-Week Ending 6/13/14

Here are our 6 (We have a tie) Top Scene Stealers for the week ending June 13, 2014. Congrats to all our honorees! A Special Scene Stealer of The Week: Frank Britton Returns as Pontius Pilate in The...

Source Festival: ‘Mortality’-Six 10-Minute Plays

Last night I was back at CulturalDC’s Source Festival for Mortality, a series of six 10-minute plays inspired by the full length play, A Bid to Save the World. Mortality, one of the 3 themes of the...

‘Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band’ at Wolf Trap

Talk about adding to your own personal bucket list! Last night at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap, a huge audience “got by with a little help from my friends” as Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band got...

Magic Time! ‘Grounded’ at The Studio Theatre

Sometimes an extraordinary piece of theater plays like a synecdoche on steroids. It serves as a small part that represents a vast whole with astounding force. A window that lets us see something more...

‘Healing Wars’ at Arena Stage at The Mead Center for American Theater

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wage on; in Syria, the blood still flows, as it does in Somalia and South Sudan; in Mexico, death continues to pile up bodies in the drug war, as they do in America’s...

The Playwright’s Playground: Part II: ‘Izumi Ashizawa -The Inspirations and Passions of a Japanese Interdisciplinary Artist’

Welcome back to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the D.C. theatre community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of...

Marquise Dre White on His New Musical ‘My Choice to Change’ Which Plays This Weekend at Notre Dame of Maryland University

Baltimore is the city for up-and-coming new theatre. Be it newly inspired personal works, new musicals, or new companies, Charm City has it all. Featuring a tried and true performance company— J.C....

Source Festival Review: ‘A Bid to Save the World’

Summer is theater festival season in DC and first up is CulturalDC’s Source Festival, now in its seventh year. Each year the festival is built around 3 themes which are each support by a full length...

‘Grounded’ at The Studio Theatre

America’s air war–first there was the B-17 Flying Fortress, then the B-52 Stratofortress, then the F-16 Fighting Falcon, then the Cruise Missile, then Precision Guided Munitions (or Smart Bombs), then...

Contemporary American Theater Festival Interviews: Part 1: An Interview with ‘North of the Boulevard’ Playwright Bruce Graham

In Part 1 of a series of interviews, Sharon J. Anderson, The Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) Trustee and Professional Storyteller, interviews Playwright Bruce Graham whose play North of...

The Playwright’s Playground: Part I: Izumi Ashizawa & The Art of ‘Kwaidan’

Welcome back to the conversation and The Playwright’s Playground, an in-depth conversation with female playwrights in the DC theater community. Female theatre artists make up more than 50 percent of...

‘Comfort and Joy’: Appearing in 1st Stage’s ‘Bat Boy:The Musical’: Part 3: Maria Rizzo

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Bat Boy:The Musical at 1st Stage, meet Maria Rizzo. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they might have seen you on the...

An Evening of Theater Celebration at the 15th-Annual Cappies Gala

While the Tony Awards were celebrating the nation’s top theater talent, the Washington capital area hosted its very own celebration of up-and-coming theater talent. The National Capital Area Cappies...

‘The Pirates of Penzance’ Opens Tonight at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

The article is by by Ed Vilade & Courtney Kalbacker. Pirates, police, and the lovely daughters of a modern Major General combine in the topsy-turvy whirl of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most popular operetta,...

“After the Storm” Benefit Concert for Victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines This Sunday at 8 PM at The Kennedy Center

WORLD RE-KNOWNED VIOLINIST, JOSHUA BELL AND GLEE STAR, DARREN CRISS ADDED TO THE ALL-STAR LINE-UP CELEBRATING THE PHILIPPINES JOINED BY PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED CAST: LEA SALONGA, LOU DIAMOND PHILLIPS,...

Finding Their Purpose: Meet the Cast of Olney Theatre Center’s ‘Avenue Q’: Part 1: Rachel Zampelli

This is the first part of a series of interviews with the cast of Olney Theatre Center’s Avenue Q. In Part 1: Meet Rachel Zampelli. Joel: Rachel, where have local theatregoers seen you perform this...

Meet the Cast of ‘Ghost The Musical’ at Drama Learning Center Opening This Friday 6/13-Seth Fallon, Claire Cerand, and Josh Altenburg

TYA (Teaching Young Actors) at Drama Learning Center present the area premiere of Ghost the Musical. After getting special permission from Theatrical Rights Worldwide to present this title prior to...

Meet the Cast of No Rules Theatre Company’s ‘Boeing Boeing’: Part 4: Sherry Berg

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with the cast of No Rules Theatre Company’s production of Boeing Boeing, meet Sherry Berg. Joel: Tell us where local theatregoers have seen you on the stage and the...

Bravo Productions’ ‘Into the Woods JR’ plays This Friday thru Sunday at Randolph Road Theatre

This Friday June 13th through Sunday, June 15, 2014, Producing Director and Choreographer Darnell Morris, is directing Into The Woods, JR for Bravo Productions, with a special artistic design with...