2018

Review: ‘The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus’ at Restoration Stage

Inspired by the lives of his great-great-grandparents Ollie Thomas and Ruby Dyson, playwright Steven A. Butler Jr. brings their legacies to life in The Very Last Days of the First Colored Circus. Set...

Review: ‘The Dog Must Die’ at The Highwood Theatre

What is a life worth? What is the Earth worth? And what are we doing – what can we do, what should we do – to sustain and preserve them? These provocative questions, and other questions that are as...

Interview: Kyla Garcia on Playing Sarah Ridge Polson in ‘Sovereignty’ at Arena Stage (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Kyla Garcia is starring as Sarah Ridge Polson in Sovereignty at Arena Stage. Sovereignty, by Mary Kathryn Nagle, tells two stories. One is of a modern Native woman (played by Garcia) fighting for her...

Review: ‘Time Stands Still’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Time Stands Still, Donald Margulies’ fascinating drama at Bristol Riverside Theatre, seems at first as if it’s going to be a deep meditation on war and politics. But Margulies’ characters, as it turns...

In the Moment: Interview with Director Stevie Zimmerman on Special ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Performance

Inspiring generations of theater-goers and music lovers alike is one of the aims of Director Stevie Zimmerman by connecting the talents of the professional Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (FSO) with the...

Review: ‘The Humans’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

The Blakes are not your ordinary dysfunctional family. As they gather for Thanksgiving dinner in an unfamiliar locale, everything seem fine, if a little off-kilter; they engage in their favorite...

Review: ‘Almost, Maine’ at Greenbelt Arts Center

Almost, Maine, by John Cariani explores the upside and downside of love as experienced by the residents of its mythical, titular town. Playing as almost a comedic version of Our Town, the...

Review: ‘Sovereignty’ at Arena Stage

Sovereignty, the long-heralded new play by Mary Kathryn Nagle – a member of the Cherokee Nation and one of barely a dozen Native American playwrights writing today – has arrived. Inspired by a Supreme...

Review: ‘Cloud 9’ at Iron Crow Theatre

Do you enjoy the works of playwrights like Oscar Wilde and Nöel Coward, but wish their plays had a little more adultery? Then Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill is the play for you. Never having seen the...

Review: Patriots and Scoundrels: Dominion Stage Presents a Biting ‘Assassins’

Written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman and directed by Melissa Jo York-Tilley, this production of the musical Assassins comes to Dominion Stage at one of the most politically tumultuous times in...

Review: ‘Company’ presented by Fredericktowne Players

Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, is now playing at the JBK Theater at the Frederick Community College presented by the Fredericktowne Players. It was...

Magic Time!: ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ at Ford’s Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

A portrait of George Washington hangs in Ford’s Theatre on the presidential box where Abraham Lincoln was shot. When you stop to think about it, this is an odd disconnect. Presumably faithful to what...

Review: ‘4,380 Nights’ at Signature Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

4,380 Nights is a raw, emotionally charged political theater production that makes the movie Zero Dark Thirty look timid. That is my trigger warning about a new play by Annalisa Dias that explores...

Review: ‘Rabbit Summer’ at Ally Theater Company

By Guest Author Cecilia Mencia Institutional racism, cultural trauma, gun right, police brutality: Playwright Tracy Conyer Lee tackles many social issues in her play Rabbit Summer. Directed by...

Review: ‘Young Frankenstein’ at Toby’s Dinner Theatre

It did not turn out well for Dr. Frankenstein or his monster, but receiving an abnormal brain was a blessing for Mel Brooks. After eight decades in show business, he is still using that gift to get...

Interview: Annalisa Dias, ‘4,380 Nights’ Playwright (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Have you ever met someone who left you feeling as though there is nothing you can’t do? I got that feeling each time I sat down with four playwrights and a director who identify as women of color from...

Review: ‘Anne of Green Gables’ at Little Theatre of Alexandria

In the first decade of the 20th century, on a farm in the tiny village of Avonlea, in Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, a brother and sister realize they need help to sustain their...

Review: ‘Jefferson’s Garden’ at Ford’s Theatre

The Ford’s Theatre production of Jefferson’s Garden (by Timberlake Wertenbaker), which had its American premiere on January 24, tries to balance the oft-tread narrative of Thomas Jefferson’s role in...

An Interview with John Guare: Previewing the ‘Lydie Breeze Trilogy’ at Philadelphia’s EgoPo Classic Theater

With an illustrious career spanning the past five decades, John Guare has been the recipient of Tony, Obie, and Olivier Awards, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and an Oscar nominee, among...

In the Moment: ‘Image China: Dragon Boat Racing’ at the Kennedy Center

Explore some of the modern culture and 20th-century history, the music and movement, of the world’s most populous country, China. Take in a full-scale epic tale, full of pageantry and a youthful love,...

Review: ‘Hamlet’ at Shakespeare Theatre Company

The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet, directed by Michael Kahn, is a rich, multi-layered interpretation of a uniquely great play. Hamlet is central to the Western literary tradition....

Review: ‘Unnecessary Farce’ at The Keegan Theatre

With one two-act-long scene, eight loudly slamming doors, and countless head-over-heels tumbles, Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith makes its hilarious D.C. premiere at the Keegan Theatre. Directed...

Tributes to Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novel ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ will be staged at Spooky Action Theater (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

This year’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival features 24 plays, four of which are adaptations. Three are based on works by great male writers—Shakespeare, Congreve, Ibsen—and one is based on the work...

Interview: Tracey Conyer Lee, ‘Rabbit Summer’ Playwright (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Have you ever met someone who left you feeling as though there is nothing you can’t do? I got that feeling each time I sat down with four playwrights and a director who identify as women of color from...

Review: ‘This Is All Just Temporary’ at Convergence Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Convergence Theatre, as a part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, has produced a new play by Olivia Haller called This Is All Just Temporary. The original work focuses on college graduate Lauren,...

Broadway in Annapolis: ‘The Secret Garden’ Coming to Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts

Annapolis gets a little Broadway treatment when Live Arts Maryland presents The Secret Garden on February 9-10 at 8 p.m. at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Joining Music Director J. Ernest Green,...

Review: ‘Hindle Wakes’ at Mint Theater Company

Long buried in a box marked “forgotten” was this remarkable play, now unearthed by Jonathan Banks’ Mint Theater Company, which has brought it back to shimmering life for a run at the Beckett Theatre...

Review: ‘The Consul, The Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart’ at Best Medicine Rep Theater Company

This sold out production by local playwright John Morogiello and directed by Rabbi Stan Levin touched on so many current and historical hot points that I wonder how it all happened in ninety...

Pinky Swear Productions Presents the World Premiere of ‘Use All Available Doors,’ a Local Playwright’s Love Letter to DC and the Metro

Pinky Swear Productions is excited to announce the world premiere production of a new play by a local playwright that celebrates the beauty, diversity, and absurdity of life in the nation’s capital....

Review: ‘All The Things You Are: Jerome Kern’ at The In Series

As the Great American Songbook continues to recede from its long-held prominence, productions such as the In Series All the Things You Are: Jerome Kern are priceless for those who want to hear the...

Review: ‘The Wolves’ at Studio Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

If the Women’s Voices Theater Festival existed only to give us Sarah DeLappe’s The Wolves, it would be worth it. But we have more than 20 other new plays by female playwrights to enjoy in this year’s...

Review: ‘Waxing West’ at 4615 Theatre Company (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” So said F. Scott Fitzgerald, at the end of The Great Gatsby. Waxing West, by Saviana Stanescu, is the story of a...

Review: ‘Passing Strange’ at The Wilma Theater

“Life is a mistake that only art can correct.” That’s not a line you’d expect to hear at a rock and roll show, is it? But Passing Strange isn’t your typical rock show, or musical, or biography. It...

No Side Hustle Necessary: Justin Trawick on Life as a Working Musician and His Pearl Street Warehouse Album-Release Concert

Washington, D.C.-based musician Justin Trawick’s career can be traced back to the day he found a guitar under the steps of his parents’ pre-Civil War Virginia home. “Neither of my parents were...

Magic Time!: ‘The Trial’ at Synetic Theater

Kafka’s nightmare novel about a man named Joseph K—who is arrested, detained, and tried but never told what he has done wrong—would seem perfect for Synetic Theater’s magic touch. A promising...

Review: ‘The Trial’ at Synetic Theater

The creative, resourceful folk from Synetic Theater have made another date with an old friend and literary powerhouse, well beyond the “silent” Shakespeare for which it is justly known. The author is...

Review: ‘The Addams Family Young @ Part’ at Ovations Junior Company

Ovations Theatre’s The Addams Family Young @ Part brings a fresh and original storyline to the beloved, if unconventional, family with a penchant for all things macabre. The Ovations Junior Company...

Review: ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ at Zemfira Stage

As you’re spending January shivering against these sub-freezing wind-chills and bracing yourselves for the next bombogenesis, I strongly urge you to seek refuge in Falls Church with Tennessee...

In the Moment: ‘The Way of the World’ at Folger Theatre (Women’s Voices Theatre Festival)

There’s lots to like about Theresa Rebeck’s The Way of the World just as my DC Theater Arts colleague Sophia Howes points out in her review. The show is the Folger Theater’s Women’s Voices Theater...

WATCH Award Nominees: And the Nominees Are…!

The annual 18th annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH Awards) nominees were just announced. Here are the nominees…. In each of the thirty-eight categories, five nominees were selected...

Review: ‘See Rock City’ at Washington Stage Guild

Last night I had the pleasure of my first trip to the Washington Stage Guild to see See Rock City at the Undercroft Theatre in Washington, D.C. When you visit, you will find this theater tucked in the...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ by Reston Community Players

Based on the 2005 book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatcher is a Tony Award-winning play by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. A lively production opened Friday, January...

Tonight: WATCH Awards Nominees To Be Announced on DC Theater Arts at 9:00 PM Following Ceremony at Birchmere

The 18th annual Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (The WATCH Awards) nominees will be announced tonight at 7:30 PM at a ceremony taking place at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. DC...

Review: NSO Pops and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds at the Kennedy Center

The NSO Pops presented its first-ever collaboration with superstar Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds on Friday night for a two-night run in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. Under the musical direction...

Review: ‘Copenhagen’ at Lantern Theater Company

With most of the performances sold out before the show even opened, Lantern Theater Company has already announced a one-week extension of its current production of Copenhagen, and that’s good news for...

In the Moment: Interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights – Part 1

This is the first part of a multi-part series of interviews with Women’s Voices Theater Festival playwrights. In this series, I asked the same questions to a number of Women’s Voices Theater Festival...

Review: ‘Imogen’ by Pointless Theatre (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Imogen, Pointless Theatre’s adaptation of Cymbeline, places one of Shakespeare’s most confusing heroines at the center of a battle for her independence. As in Cymbeline, Imogen has to contend with a...

Post-Play Palaver: ‘The Way of the World’ at Folger Theater (Women’s Voices Theater Festival)

Post-Play Palaver is an occasional series of conversations between DC Theater Arts writers who saw the same performance, got really into talking about it, and decided to continue their exchange in...

Review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof, Jr.’ at Bravo Productions

Bravo Productions had their first of two productions in 2018 this past weekend. Fiddler on the Roof JR ran for four shows in two days to completely packed houses. The Junior musical is a condensed...

Review: ‘Quartet’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

Colonial Players of Annapolis’ production of Quartet is an amusing comedy that offers plenty of food for thought. Written by Ronald Harwood and first performed in 1999, the play revolves around four...