2015

Meet the Cast of ‘Boeing, Boeing’ at Montgomery Playhouse: Part 4: Christina Fox

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with the cast of Boeing, Boeing at Montgomery Playhouse, meet Christina Fox. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the past...

Meet the Cast of ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at 2nd Star Productions: Part 4: Malarie Novotny

In Part 4 of a series of interviews with the cast of I Hate Hamlet at 2nd Star Productions, meet Malarie Novotny. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in...

In the Moment: A Tip of the Hat to Mary Stuart’s Todd Scofield

There is a “minor” character who has a key role in the terrific Mary Stuart production currently at the Folger Theatre. He has only a few moments of visibility. But, I want to call him out with a tip...

Magic Time! Look Who ♥s ‘The Vagina Monologues’

Each year at Valentine’s Day time, thousands of college and community groups around the world present staged readings and productions of The Vagina Monologues, by Tony Award–winning playwright Eve...

Meet the Cast of ‘Boeing, Boeing’ at Montgomery Playhouse: Part 3: Anne Vandercook

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Boeing, Boeing at Montgomery Playhouse, meet Anne Vandercook. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the...

Meet the Cast and Director of Spooky Action Theater’s ‘Last of the Whyos’: Part Three: Meet Tia Shearer by Roberta Alves

This is the third in a series of interviews with the cast of Spooky Action Theater’s Last of the Whyos. In Part Three: Meet Tia Shearer. Roberta: Why did you want to become a member of the cast of...

Wynton Marsalis’ ‘Blues Symphony’ at Washington Performing Arts at Strathmore

Last night, thanks to the generosity of Washington Performing Arts, DC audiences had the rare opportunity to see Wynton Marsalis in the fullest sense – as consummate performer, as bandleader, and as...

‘Menopause The Musical’ at Hylton Performing Arts Center

Menopause The Musical is still hysterical and fresh after 15 years and multiple thousands of performances. I use the word ‘hysterical’ on purpose: for many women who have gone through the mood swings...

Magic and Mayhem: An Interview with David London and Harley Newman as They Appear at The Black Cat Tomorrow-February 6th at 9:30 PM

One of the things I love most about the variety arts is that since it’s a retro art form there’s a lot of room to be innovative. One of the most innovative performers I know is magician David London....

In the Moment: Chamber Dance Project Prepares for 2015 Summer Season at The Lansburgh

Who wouldn’t find it fascinating to listen to a performing artist describe a path to creativity to “put myself in a box as a way to take on a task or a new problem. Then to force myself to go and find...

Meet the Cast of the McLean Community Players’ Production of 13: Part Three: Celine Jelinski, Gabrielle Gardner, Jayne Saxon Zirkle, Olivia Kulczycky, Rachael Cranston, and Rebecca Blacksten by Laura Beth Dailey

13 is a hilarious, coming-of-age rock musical with music and lyrics by Tony-Award winning composer Jason Robert Brown and a book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn. The story centers around Evan Goldman,...

‘Dunsinane’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

As the guerilla war in Dunsinane intensifies, Siward, the English commander sent to Scotland to bring peace to the warring clans, admits to burning to death a village’s captured adult males. In light...

‘Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’ at The Kennedy Center

Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater returned to The Kennedy Center last evening with a tribute to its famous six-foot tall Texan director. Ailey died 25 years ago and filling his size-12 shoes has...

Meet the Cast of ‘Godspell’ at Olney Theatre Center: Part 3: Allie Parris

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of Godspell at Olney Theatre Center, meet Allie Parris. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the past...

Review Just Posted. McLean Theatre Company Presents the Musical ‘Big Fish’ on February 16, 19-22nd by Brent Stone

Update: Here is Joel Markowitz’s review of Big Fish. ______ The McLean High School Theatre Company (MTC) premieres the musical Big Fish to the Metro DC area this February. Led by Artistic Director,...

Meet the Cast of ‘Boeing, Boeing’ at Montgomery Playhouse: Part 2: Jim Breen

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Boeing, Boeing at Montgomery Playhouse, meet Jim Breen. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the past...

‘Rapture, Blister, Burn’ at Round House Theatre

Consistent with its mission to “captivate audiences with stories that inspire compassion, evoke emotions, and demand conversation,” Round House Theatre welcomed back DC native, award-winning...

Spine: The Enlightened World of Folger’s ‘Mary Stuart’

Frederic Schiller’s historical drama, Mary Stuart (1800), gives us two potent, yet vulnerable women, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It gives us religious fanaticism — no, not Sunni versus Shia...

Meet the Cast of ‘Boeing, Boeing’ at Montgomery Playhouse: Part 1: Renetta Morelli

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Boeing, Boeing at Montgomery Playhouse, meet Renetta Morelli. Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the...

The State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico at the George Mason Center for the Arts

World orchestras are at their most interesting when they bring a blend of their native musical language with the European tradition that defines “classical music.” With the help of two soloists, one...

‘Murder in the Cathedral’ at Compass Rose Theater

T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, on stage at Compass Rose Theater, is a poetic drama about the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket (Charles Matheny) in Canterbury circa 1170. Director...

‘Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood’ at Adventure Theatre MTC

Adventure Theatre MTC presents Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood, adapted from the book by Mike Artell and Jim Harris, with Book, Music, and Lyrics by Joan Cushing. Directed and choreographed by...

‘Clybourne Park’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

Clybourne Park, written by Bruce Norris in 2010 as sequel to Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 A Raisin in the Sun, is a riveting play that focuses on race relations, America’s covenant-based housing bias,...

David London’s ‘Magic Outside the Box’ at Baltimore Theater Project

Magic, Laughter and Wonder (Bread) Without an announcement of any kind, from stage left a shrouded figure appeared. The figure glided towards the audience bearing a puppet with the likeness of the...

‘Mary Stuart’ at The Folger Theatre

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.” This nursery rhyme is often said to be about Mary Stuart. The pretty maids...

‘The Comedy of Errors’ at The Arlington Players

Many recent productions of The Comedy of Errors set Shakespeare’s language within a more recent environment, and in this case The Arilngton Players have set their production in Chicago in the 1920s –...

Meet the Cast of ‘Godspell’ at Olney Theatre Center: Part 2: Kurt Boehm

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Godspell at Olney Theatre Center, meet Kurt Boehm. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the past...

‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’ at The Warner Theatre

Set during the Roaring Twenties in the heyday of prohibition, the Tony-winning musical Nice Work If You Can Get It is a celebration of the best of the iconic music of George and Ira Gershwin. A...

Peter Hillard, Matt Boresi, and Bob Wood of UrbanArias on ‘Blue Viola’ Playing Today and Tomorrow

Introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us the kind of work that you do. Tell us a bit about UrbanArias. Wood: UrbanArias is a five-year-old company dedicated to producing short (defined as 90...

‘Half Life (a zombie letter for no one)’ at Mead Theatre Lab

“I’m not dead, I’m just hurt real bad,” says Regina, a young woman whose life is a painful wreck, a sorry mess. She’s homeless, rejected and shut out, even by her mother. She is an outsider so alien...

In the Moment: Walnut Street Theatre’s Touring Company Brings ‘A Life in the Theatre’ to GMU’s Center for the Arts on February 6th

America’s oldest theatre, Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA, also has a touring company component. The touring company is a regular presence at the George Mason University Center for the Arts,...

Meet the Cast and Director of Spooky Action Theater’s ‘Last of the Whyos’: Part Two: Meet Michael Kevin Darnall by Roberta Alves

This is the second in a series of interviews with the cast of Spooky Action Theater’s Last of the Whyos. In Part Two: Meet Michael Kevin Darnall. This past Monday night Michael Kevin Darnall was...

Meet the Cast of ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at 2nd Star Productions: Part 3: Carole Long

In Part 3 of a series of interviews with the cast of I Hate Hamlet at 2nd Star Productions, meet Carole Long. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the...

‘Gigi’ at The Kennedy Center

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe‘s Gigi, the Oscar-winning 1958 film musical that was later adapted for the Broadway stage over 40 years ago, premiered for a pre-Broadway engagement in the...

Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage Robert Barry Fleming on ‘Blue Viola’ Playing Tomorrow and Sunday

Michael: Introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us the kind of work that you do. Robert: I work to realize the artistic vision and mission of Arena Stage in our practical day-to-day business and...

Meet the Cast of ‘Godspell’ at Olney Theatre Center: Part 1: Jordan Coughtry

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Godspell at Olney Theatre Center, meet Jordan Coughtry. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the...

Motion City Soundtrack at The Fillmore Silver Spring

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, an artist comes along who changes your life in an immeasurable way: their art shapes you, comforts you, inspires and excites you…for me, these artists are the members of...

National Symphony Orchestra with Violinist Arabella Steinbacher at The Kennedy Center

It’s almost a cliché to sit smugly in a 21st century theater or concert hall enjoying a work that some original critic destroyed to his everlasting infamy. And audiences at this week’s National...

Interviews with Artists Stephen Blickenstaff, Isaac Bidwell, Todd Gardner, and John Detrich on their Pop up Gallery Show at ‘Shocked & Amazed Presents: Strange For Hire’

This Saturday, January 31st, Shocked & Amazed Presents: Strange For Hire will perform at the Artisphere in Rosslyn. Accompanying the performance art will be a pop up gallery art show featuring artists...

Visual Arts Viewpoint: An Interview with Baltimore Artist Jim Condron

Visual Arts Viewpoint takes a look inside the contemporary visual arts in the area. Talking to artists, curators, and gallerists, this is a forum not just to spotlight their creative work and...

‘The Widow Lincoln’ at Ford’s Theatre

In the world premiere production of The Widow Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, playwright James Still and Director Stephen Rayne create a mélange of fact and fiction, mystery and history, in a stunning...

The Highwood Theatre Opens ‘Other Desert Cities’ on February 6th by Sarah Scott

Some families lie to the world, some families lie to each other, and some families even lie to themselves. In the Wyeth family, you get all three. Jon Robin Baitz’s drama Other Desert Cities delves...

In the Moment: George Mason University Gets STEAMED

What is the arts role as a means to spark creativity for the American workforce in the post-recession world? Much is being said about keeping the competitive edge of the United States through what is...

An Interview with Isaac Solomon

On the evenings of November 14, 15, 21, and 22, 2014 Isaac Solomon performed the role of Link in Hairspray at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD. I had a chance to talk with Isaac about...

‘Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign’

No girl grows up dreaming of terminating a pregnancy. There are plenty of aspirational fantasies out there—some good for her, some not—but to be in a situation where she decides to have an abortion is...

Mariinsky Ballet Featuring Hodson’s ‘Le sacre du printemps,’ Fokine’s ‘Le Spectre de la Rose’ and ‘The Swan,’ and Petipa’s ‘Paquita Grand Pas’ at The Kennedy Center

Russians return to the glory days of ballet Ulyana Lopatkina could have wrapped up The Kennedy Center and taken it home with her after her performance in The Swan, a.k.a. The Dying Swan, created by...

‘Our Mutual Friend’ at Lumina Studio Theatre

“Part mystery, part romantic comedy, part moral fable, Our Mutual Friend justly earns its place among Dickens’s most brilliant novels.” With these words, Directors Kelly Newman O’Connor and John...

A Full Moon for el Festival de Teatro para Niños by Christine Stoddard

Season to season, festival to festival, Teatro de la Luna, co-founded by Mario Marcel and Nucky Walder, ping-pongs between the Gunston Arts Center and Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre. One of the metro’s two...

An Interview with the ‘Strange for Hire’ Sideshow Duo Frankie Sin and Donny Vomit

Think that sword swallowing, fire eating, and burlesque are all lost entertainments of a bygone era? Think again. Strange for Hire, presented by Shocked and Amazed! and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not,...

Meet the Cast of ‘I Hate Hamlet’ at 2nd Star Productions: Part 2: Zak Zeeks

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of I Hate Hamlet at 2nd Star Productions, meet Zak Zeeks. Joel: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen you in the...