2021

Tom Prewitt memorial fund set up to aid future generations of aspiring artists

The family of W. Thompson (Tom) Prewitt and the nonprofit organization Embracing Arlington Arts have launched a memorial fund to honor the legacy and contributions of longtime DC-area theater...

Theatre Prometheus to center asylum seekers and marginalized playwrights

Theatre Prometheus—following its “arresting, provocative, and hauntingly relevant” production of 14, José Casas’s play about immigration—has announced two new projects in 2021 highlighting its mission...

A return to the performing arts with 100 days of ‘NY PopsUp’ events

Governor Andew M. Cuomo has just announced that, beginning on Saturday, February 20, an unprecedented and expansive festival featuring hundreds of pop-up performances (many of which are free of charge...

‘Loveday Brooke’ audio play from We Happy Few is an entertaining gem

Loveday Brooke is generally referred to as “the female Sherlock Holmes.” Author Catherine Louisa Pirkis first published her lady detective story in 1893 and, aside from having created the first female...

Selections for streaming this week

Numbering among this week’s assorted streaming selections are a timely discussion, a revealing interactive phone call, and the remount of an iconic concert from the ‘60s. Queer Amory: Queer Love in...

‘Cry It Out’ comedy about motherhood up next from Everyman Theatre

Everyman Theatre actors, designers, and crew are back in the rehearsal room preparing for the run of Molly Smith Metzler’s 2017 play, Cry It Out. The full production will be filmed at the theater and...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Andrew Barth Feldman

At the age of eighteen, Long Island native Andrew Barth Feldman has already far surpassed his Warholian fifteen minutes of fame and has a lifetime more coming. After winning the Best Actor Award at...

O villainy! Patrick Page slays in ‘All the Devils Are Here’ from STC

“This rough magic I here abjure.” This phrase, from Prospero’s farewell in The Tempest, is among the most exquisite in Shakespeare. In All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain,...

Choreographer Jenn Rose is honored with the 4th annual SDCF Breakout Award

The not-for-profit Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), founded in 1965, as an affiliate of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, has announced that the recipient of this...

Four views from ‘The Mountaintop,’ streaming live from the Arts Barn

By Laura W. Andruski, theater program coordinator, The Arts Barn Rockville Little Theatre – in cooperation with Arts on the Green – will livestream The Mountaintop, Katori Hall’s gripping reimagining...

Signature Theatre’s lovely ‘Simply Sondheim’ feels like a live performance

Signature Theatre’s production of Simply Sondheim is a lovely tribute to one of America’s best composers and lyricists for the stage. Co-conceived by David Loud and Eric Schaeffer, and directed by...

Five upcoming audio-plays from Audible feature award-winning casts

Audible – a leader in creating and providing the best in audio storytelling – announced its new slate of audio-plays to be released this month through April, which will feature performances by Tony...

Flushing Town Hall’s ‘Black History Trilogy’ features solo performances by Broadway stars

To honor Black History Month, Flushing Town Hall presents its Black History Trilogy, a three-part series of Broadway luminaries showcasing the speeches and music of influential African-American...

‘Hi, Are You Single?’ at Woolly Mammoth is hugely moving and entertaining

Ryan J. Haddad’s incredible one-person show, Hi, Are You Single?, is the first time any performer has set foot on the Woolly Mammoth stage since March 2020. This gem of a show, presented by Woolly...

Haunting last words from a Black cop on death row in Meshaun Labrone’s ‘Spook’

“It’s not what you are, it’s what you don’t become that hurts.” This quote by musician Oscar Levant is what opens the film Spook. Based on a solo stage piece by the same name, written and performed by...

For lovers of sleuthing, a Sherlock Holmes audio drama from We Happy Few

In this ever evolving age of the coronavirus, theaters have been experimenting in ways to keep the arts alive and thriving. We Happy Few has recently been producing audio recordings with extras. Their...

Mint Theater Company presents ‘Katie Roche’ in its Silver Lining Streaming Series

Next up in Mint Theater’s free on-demand Silver Lining Streaming Series – celebrating the award-winning Off-Broadway company’s silver anniversary and marking “twenty-five years of unearthing and...

Synetic Theater to produce original art films and stream on custom app

Synetic Theater has announced the launch of a new digital streaming app as well as the creation of a film production arm, Synetic Motion Pictures. The streaming service, dubbed “Synetic Streaming,”...

New from Red Bull Theater: Exploring ‘King Lear’ with André De Shields and a call for ‘Restoration’ new short-play entries

This Monday’s installment of Red Bull Theater’s ongoing RemarkaBULL Podversation series, Exploring King Lear with André De Shields, considers Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of ca. 1605-06, inspired by...

Metro update: Without Biden bailout, slashed service still likely

We at DCMTA continue to track the WMATA budget and any service-cut issues, given Metro’s critical importance to the survival of live performing arts. Based upon our reach-out to arts leadership, Metro...

Top picks for weekend streaming from Lauren Marcus, Mariza, and The Seeing Place

This weekend’s top streaming picks include headline concerts by a multi-hyphenate Broadway favorite and an international Fado artist, along with a post-apocalyptic dark comedy with songs from a...

15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Birdland’s Jim Caruso

Famed showman and impresario Jim Caruso hasn’t let the coronavirus pandemic slow him down. He continues to keep audiences connected to the New York nightclub scene, musical theater, and performing...

Patrick Page to bare the Bard’s bad guys, onstage at Shakespeare Theatre Company

Shakespeare Theatre Company’s first-ever online-only production, All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, a performance written by and starring STC Affiliated Artist Patrick...

New biography of Tom Stoppard, prolific playwright of ideas

Hermione Lee’s biography of Tom Stoppard is a comprehensive look at the life and work of one of the English language’s most accomplished playwrights. Lee, a prolific biographer of 20th-century...

In deeply personal ‘The Catastrophist,’ an unheeded warning of pandemic

In the midst of our current disastrous COVID-19 pandemic comes a compelling world premiere play centered on Dr. Nathan Wolfe, the renowned virologist who has been warning for over a decade about...

Rapping about ‘Freestyle Love Supreme’ with Shockwave and Young Nees

Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan has co-created just that as an original member of the eponymous hip-hop improv squad and its 2019 Broadway show Freestyle Love Supreme. Begun by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel...

Felicia Curry is a sheer powerhouse in ‘Queens Girl: Black in the Green Mountains’ at Everyman Theatre

In its efforts to further enhance its commitment to theater accessibility on every level of comfort, Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre reawakened its 30th-anniversary season opener to digital access,...

Riveting adaptation of ‘Tape’ to unreel live on line six nights only

TheSharedScreen’s powerful adaptation of Stephen Belber’s hit play Tape—featured last month in DC Theater Arts (Using Zoom in a new way to create theater that transforms how we see)—returns live on...

Stars of the stage and screen observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day with the Museum of Jewish Heritage

It must never be forgotten that more than one million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust and countless others survived the horror. Some, like the well-known and widely read Anne Frank,...

Stepping to Go-Go, Step Afrika! takes on COVID prevention

“We have a shared responsibility to keep our communities safe,” Step Afrika! founder C. Brian Williams told me at the top of our phone conversation. With the pandemic continuing to ravage the DC area...

Story Pirates’ virtual ‘Sleep Squad’ launches kids into dreamland through February

An award-winning leader in online entertainment for kids, with a #1 podcast that’s been downloaded more than 25 million times, NYC-based Story Pirates, in partnership with Tony-winning producer Eva...

Excitement of discovery drives ‘Ada and the Engine’ at Silver Spring Stage

Silver Spring Stage’s streaming production of Ada and the Engine is an exciting mixture of history, science, and poetry. Written by Lauren Gunderson, it tells the story of Ada Byron, a mathematician...

New album releases by Broadway’s Nicolas King, Rebecca Luker and Sally Wilfert

Theater-goers and music-lovers who are missing the voices of their favorite Broadway stars can enjoy two new album releases from PS Classics (founded in 2000, and recipient of nine Grammy Award...

Ditch the “Is this theater?” debate, by Jordan Friend and Gregory Keng Strasser

Gregory Keng Strasser (producing director): Hey, Jordan. Jordan Friend (artistic director): Hey, Greg. I guess we have to pretend like we don’t talk to each other every day. Greg: So. 4615 GO — where...

YPT to present virtual readings of plays in progress by two young playwrights

Young Playwrights’ Theater’s (YPT) new script development program, Young Playwrights in Progress (YPIP), will present the work of two talented young playwrights through virtual play readings followed...

Signature Theatre announces cast and dates for ‘Simply Sondheim’ review

Signature Theatre announces the full cast and streaming dates for Simply Sondheim, the first production in the Signature Features 2021 Season. Starring 12 singers and an orchestra of 16, Simply...

Studio Theatre goes all-digital, sets streaming dates through July

Given the ongoing pandemic and challenges to safely presenting live performances, Studio Theatre has taken its five-play season entirely digital. Productions will be filmed in Studio’s intimate spaces...

TCG books releases ‘A Strange Loop’ by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson

One of the most highly acclaimed productions of the 2019-20 season, A Strange Loop, which made its Off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons, earned multiple awards, including Best Musical from the...

All-star benefit concert to ‘Save Birdland’ scheduled for January 24

As previously reported, the iconic Birdland jazz club, located in the heart of NYC’s Theater District at 315 West 44th Street, has suffered financial setbacks due to the extended shutdown of live...

Why Trump has made Shakespeare matter more than ever in DC

There is something inherently Shakespearean about DC. It’s easy to picture Lincoln wandering the corridors of the White House reciting his favorite passages. In his journal, John Adams once observed a...

NewYorkRep’s anti-racism short-play festival ‘CivilWrights’ debuts this Sunday

To honor Martin Luther King Day, NewYorkRep, in association with Tony-nominated producer Rashad V. Chambers and Five Ohm Productions, is responding to the national crisis of systemic racism with...

Freestyle Love Supreme Academy begins its winter sessions for kids this weekend

Created by Thomas Kail, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Anthony Veneziale in 2004, the critically acclaimed improv troupe Freestyle Love Supreme – famed for its successful run on Broadway in 2019, and as the...

Atlantic Theater Company’s ‘African Caribbean MixFest’ launches next week

Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company – committed to connecting with audiences from a broad range of economic backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, and perspectives – returns next week with its annual...

Lauren Gunderson’s inventive ‘Ada and the Engine’ to go live online

Silver Spring Stage proudly presents the area community theater premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s Ada and the Engine, directed by Jon Jon Johnson and produced by Alika Codispoti and Maura Suilebhan. Ada...

Two rival sisters feud in intense and surreal Adrienne Kennedy drama

Round House Theatre, in association with McCarter Theater Center, concludes its festival of works by celebrated playwright Adrienne Kennedy with the world premiere of Etta and Ella on the Upper West...

NYTF’s ‘Soul to Soul’ concert explores parallels in African-American and Jewish history

In commemoration of Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 18, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) premieres its tenth annual, and first virtual, production of Soul to Soul – an...

Muslim women’s voices in ‘Unveiled’ serve up tea and empathy

Hot tea is the recommended beverage for viewing Chicago-based playwright Rohnia Malik’s Unveiled, available online through January 2021 from Baltimore Theatre Project. The one-woman show introduces us...

Essential Theatre to mark MLK Jr. Day with Rosa Parks play

In celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, The Essential Theatre Performances in Cyberspace will present Rosa Parks: Such a Time. Written and performed by Gwendolyn Briley-Strand,...

An all-star cast of MasterVoices launches ‘Myths and Hymns’ theatrical song cycle

As the pandemic shutdown of in-person performances continues, MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) is bringing its 79th 2021 season online from January through May, with Myths and Hymns, a...

Studio’s free new audio plays— ‘Kings’ and ‘I Hate It Here’—available now

Studio Theatre looks back at the politics and precariousness of 2020 through two intimate and immediate Studio in Your Ears audio plays available for free now on its website. Studio’s first-ever audio...