2016

In the Moment: Providence Players of Fairfax Honor Their Student Scholarship Awardees: Miryam Mendelson and Blake Phillips

Giving back to the community is an important goal for the Providence Players of Fairfax. The Providence Players (PPF) is known for its work to serve its diverse community, especially with its Theater...

‘Pushing the Envelope to Attract Contemporary Audiences: Goldoni at the Hedgerow Theatre: Part 2 of An Interview with Director Aaron Cromie

Here is the second of two interviews with Aaron Cromie, one of Philadelphia’s most beloved directors, mask makers, writers, and interdisciplinary theater artists. Henrik: Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)...

Interviews from London Below: Inside Cohesion Theatre’s ‘Neverwhere’: Part 1: Joseph Coracle

In Part One of a series of interviews with cast members of Cohesion Theatre Company’s Neverwhere, meet Joseph Coracle. Patricia: Please introduce yourself and tell our readers where they may have seen...

Review #2: ‘Going to a Place Where You Already Are’ at Theater Alliance

The main reason I adore live theatre, in comparison to other art forms like cinema, is that the fiber and ligaments that make up this thing we call life – truth, in other words – is best experienced...

Review: ‘Good People’ at The Colonial Players of Annapolis

The Colonial Players’ Good People is a powerful, emotionally raw production that talks about class, poverty, and race in dramatic ways. Written by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Edd Miller, it...

‘Riffing, Replacing, and Reworking Goldoni’s “Servant of Two Masters” at the Hedgerow Theatre: An Interview with Director Aaron Cromie: Part 1

This is the first of two interviews with Aaron Cromie, one of Philadelphia’s most beloved directors, mask makers, writers, and interdisciplinary theater artists. Henrik: Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793),...

Review: ‘The History Boys’ at The Little Theatre of Alexandria

The Little Theatre of Alexandria presents Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning The History Boys. Frank D. Shutts ll directs a talented cast in this rich production. Utilizing thousands of literary...

Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal bring ‘Love Letters’ to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre

Love is breaking out in Baltimore. Or should we say the “second time around”? Nearly 50 years after starring together in Love Story, Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal have brought A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters...

Review: Cirque du Soleil ‘Paramour’ at The Lyric Theatre in NYC

Spectacular circus arts meet vintage-style song-and-dance in Cirque du Soleil’s premiere Broadway musical, Paramour, now playing at the Lyric Theatre. Known for its consummately graceful and...

Review: ‘El Paso Blue’ at GALA Hispanic Theatre

‘El Paso Blue’ in long-awaited East Coast Premiere at GALA It took roughly 20 years for Octavio Solis’ El Paso Blue to make it to Washington, DC. But now that it has arrived, the play—written and...

Review: ‘Red Herring’ at the Providence Players Players of Fairfax

Red Herring at the Providence Players is a delightful mix of murder mystery, romance, and broad farce. A noir of the 1950s, it reminds us vividly of the joys, sorrows, and nightmares of that period....

Review #1: ‘Going to a Place Where You Already Are’ at Theater Alliance

Whatever your mental picture of heaven, the funny and beautifully moving production of Bekah Brunstetter’s Going to a Place Where You Already Are just opened at Theater Alliance may alter it....

Review: ‘The Wind in the Willows’ at Creative Cauldron

Creative Caldron presents The Wind in the Willows, an original reimagining of Kenneth Grahame’s beloved classic. Directors Ellen Selby and Denise Perrino adapted this production for the performers of...

Review: ‘Lost in Wonderland’ at Pallas Theatre Collective

‘Lost in Wonderland’: Journeys Through an Author’s Imagination Have you ever wanted to ask a famous, classic author, say a Mark Twain or an Edgar Allen Poe how and why they shaped their characters the...

Review: ‘36 Views’ at Lantern Theater Company in Philadelphia

On the surface, Naomi Iizuka’s 36 Views is a straightforward story set against the backdrop of the art world. It’s about an art dealer with a shady reputation, an art scholar who gets drawn into his...

Preview: Columbia Festival of the Arts Weaves ‘Silk Road Stories’ from June 10th Through the 26th

The Columbia Festival of the Arts Summer, Silk Road Stories begins to blossom this upcoming Friday, June 10th with a reprise of Stoop Storytelling at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center – 7246 Cradlerock...

Review: ‘Floyd Collins’ at 1st Stage

“No more plowing a hard-scrabble field, I just know it’s my lucky day!” Evan Casey’s voice rings through the 1st Stage Theater as he navigates the narrow confines of a deep underground cave. His...

Review: ‘Midlife’ at Single Carrot Theatre

Ben Hoover’s Midlife explores that most difficult of theatrical terrains, human subjectivity. Not that subjectivity expressed by human babble, i.e., talking, of which America’s logocentric culture...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Gloaming’ at The Kennedy Center

The Ireland 100 closes this weekend with new Irish sensation Ireland 100: The Gloaming who made their Kennedy Center debut with a lovely mix of traditional music, improvisation, and new classics....

A Celebration of Life for Vincent Hill is on Monday, June 27th at 7:30 PM in The Fichandler Stage at Arena Stage

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR VINCENT HILL MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2016 AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE FICHANDLER STAGE AT ARENA STAGE AT THE MEAD CENTER FOR AMERICAN THEATER From Arena Stage: The greater D.C. area lost a...

Magic Time! ‘An Octoroon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s An Octoroon wears irony on its sleeve with the same effrontery that three of its characters wear red, white, and black greasepaint to dissemble “race.” Just opened at Woolly...

Review: ‘Straight White Men’ at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia

It’s Christmastime at the Norton house. The three Norton boys – well, they’re in their forties, but they sure act like boys most of the time – are spending the holiday with their widowed dad. They’ve...

Spine: ‘An Octoroon,’ ‘The Octoroon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

An Octoroon, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ re-imagining of Dion Boucicault’s pre-Civil War classic The Octoroon, opened last night at Woolly Mammoth. Postmodern, hip, sardonic, farcical–An Octoroon deals...

Review: ‘An Octoroon’ at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Welcome to playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ world. You’re just living in it. Or, is it, welcome to 19th Century playwright Dion Boucicault’s world and Branden Jacobs- Jenkins is living in it? Or, is...

Review: ‘The Miser’ at Faction of Fools

Faction of Fools is delightfully back with a well-concocted, refreshing, street-fair fare of Moliere’s The Miser. This happy show is one with a pointed, underscored, right-on-the-surface message about...

Filichia on Friday: ‘The Answer to May’s Brainteaser’ by Peter Filichia

This is Peter’s final column in ‘Filichia on Friday.’ It’s been a pleasure and an honor to share this column with our DCMTA writers. THIS WEEK: The Answer to May’s Brainteaser Purchase Peter...

Playwright Octavio Solis on His Play ‘El Paso Blue’ Now Playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre

Texas-born Octavio Solis is one of America’s leading contemporary playwrights, yet he is relatively unknown in the DC area. Now El Paso Blue—one of his most powerful plays—introduces his work to the...

Review: ‘Neverwhere’ at Cohesion Theatre Company

To close out an already impressive second season, Cohesion Theatre Company has mounted its most ambitious show yet – the Baltimore premiere of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, adapted for the stage by Robert...

Director Nick Olcott on Directing ‘Floyd Collins’ at 1st Stage

It’s one of my favorite musicals and I am thrilled that Nick Olcott is directing 1st Stage’s production of Floyd Collins, which plays through June 26th. Joel: Floyd Collins is rarely produced and is...

Review: ‘Cirque du Soleil Paramour’ at The Lyric Theatre in NYC

It will be interesting to keep an eye on this new spectacular show – Paramour – calling itself a New Broadway Musical, for it’s a combination of circus, swanky cabaret floorshow and old world musical...

Review: Ireland 100: ‘The Hunger’ at The Kennedy Center

The East Coast concert premiere of The Hunger begins with a harsh, discordant note, immediately conveying that this will be a performance about pain. The short opera, from modern Irish composer...

Review: ‘Hillary and Clinton’ at The Philadelphia Theatre Company

Power. Election. Power. Primaries. Backroom Deals! Power! It’s election season again, and the media is overflowing with comment and analysis. After the surprise of the 2008 election and the disaster...

Eddie’s Travel Picks: ‘Let’s Take a Boat to Niagara’

I am now going to make a suggestion as to where you should take your summer vacation. It’s a place I hadn’t seen in about 30 years, that is until a month ago. It’s Niagara Falls Canada, as opposed to...

Review: ‘Juliet and Romeo’ by the Royal Swedish Ballet

The Swedes take on an old classic and make it relevant. Mats Ek’s Juliet and Romeo for the Royal Swedish Ballet, at The Kennedy Center for only four more shows, is a bold retelling of Shakespeare’s...

Providence Players Open Michael Hollinger’s Noir Comedy “Red Herring” This Weekend in Falls Church

The Providence Players close their 2015-2016 season with a number of belly laughs from Michael Hollinger’s comedy Red Herring. The production opens Friday, June 3rd and runs through the 18th at the...

In the Moment: ‘The Who & the What’ at Round House Theatre

So here we are in a world class city with ever changing demographics that represent all the world. Those include refugees, immigrants and people who may practice a different faith. Thanks to Arena...

Review: ‘The Who & the What’ at Round House Theatre

As I was leaving Round House Theatre on opening night of Ayad Akhtar’s The Who & the What, I heard one patron say to another, “Wasn’t that fabulous?” And the response was, “Yes.” I’m not sure what I...

Richard Seff and the 2016 Winners of The Richard Seff Award: Lois Smith and Bill Camp

DCMetroTheaterArts’ beloved NYC critic and columnist Richard Seff has an award named after him: The Richard Seff (Seffie) Award, and yesterday the 2016 recipients were honored: Lois Smith and Bill...

Magic Time! Theater Against Type: A Q&A With Actors Jeremy Keith Hunter and Shravan Amin About Performing ‘When January Feels Like Summer’

After I saw When January Feels Like Summer—Cori Thomas’s counter-stereotypical romantic comedy at Mosaic Theater Company—I found myself thinking back to what happens between two particular characters....

Final 4 Performances for ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Arts Collective @ HCC

There’s only F-O-U-R performances left for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Arts Collective@HCC. Don’t miss it. Here’s what DCMTA’s Ilene Chalmers had to say about this wonderful...

Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) Playwrights Interviews: Part 1: Susan Miller and “20th Century Blues”

Here is Part 1 of 5 interviews by Sharon J. Anderson, Contemporary American Theater Festival Trustee/Professional Story Listener and Creative Director. Meet Playwright Susan Miller and learn about her...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Chinquapin, Louisiana, the fictional setting of Steel Magnolias, is one enchanting place. You don’t see much of it in Robert Harling’s play – the whole show takes place in the town beauty parlor – but...

Magic Time! A Report on ’24/7′ at African-American Collective Theater

For the 24th year, the African-American Collective Theater marked DC Black Pride Weekend with readings of seven short plays, collectively titled 24/7, all written and directed by Alan Sharpe, whose...

Review: ‘Superior Donuts’ at Maryland Ensemble Theatre

Humor and calories abound in Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s production of Superior Donuts, written by Tracy Letts and directed by Gené Fouché. Set in uptown Chicago, the play follows the story of...

Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ at 2nd Star Productions

2nd Star Productions’ highly entertaining Guys and Dolls is a lively, colorful production about charming guys and their frustrated dolls. Based on characters and a story by Damon Runyon, this classic...

Review: ‘Moon Over Buffalo’ at Vagabond Players

As a former actress, I can attest that the goings-on backstage are often just as dramatic as what is happening onstage. Celebrating their 100th anniversary season, the Vagabond Players expertly...

Review: ‘The Wedding Singer’ at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre

This charming musical is an entertaining way to kick off Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre’s 50th anniversary season. With a book by Chad Beguelin, who also wrote the lyrics and Tim Herlihy, music by...

Talking with Susan Sullivan About ‘Steel Magnolias’ at the Bucks County Playhouse

There are few actresses more familiar, or more beloved, than Susan Sullivan. For four decades she’s been a regular, dependable presence on television, most notably in eight seasons as kindhearted...

Review: ‘Dreamgirls’ at Tantallon Community Players

Dreamgirls Sizzles with Soul Why is sudden fame so destructive? Can true friendship survive the pressures of show business? Those questions and a whole heaping spoonful of soulful, Motown-inspired...

Review: ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ (‘Dangerous Liaisons’)’ at Audrey Herman’s Spotlighters Theatre

There are a lot of folks who are thoroughly enjoy a good period drama. And even more who enjoy a night out watching a great play. They’re in for a delightful dose of both at Audrey Herman’s...