DC Theater Arts

Author: Nicole Hertvik

  • What to expect at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards

    What to expect at this year’s Helen Hayes Awards

    The Helen Hayes Awards are back, baby, live and in person! For the first time since 2019, the DMV theater community will be able to celebrate its achievements with a big old party. This year’s event will look and feel different from past ceremonies, so DCTA sat down with Theatre Washington leadership to get the scoop on what to expect when you don your fancy duds on May 22.

    The 2019 Helen Hayes Awards at The Anthem. Photo by Shannon Finney.

    When and where?

    As in 2018 and 2019, the ceremony will take place at The Anthem in Southwest DC. This year, however, the ceremony will be split into two “acts.” Theatre Washington made the decision to split the show into two parts — both taking place on the same evening — after balancing feedback that recent ceremonies didn’t offer enough time to socialize with a determination to honor each nominee. “We are presenting 42 important awards and we want to give time to the nominees,” says Theatre Washington CEO Amy Austin. “We thought about options like splitting it into two nights or giving out some awards before the ceremony, but we didn’t want to leave anyone out on the one night when we’re together.”

    Doors open and drinks will be served starting at 4:30 pm. This year’s celebration will divide the awards presentations into two acts with an approximately 30-minute break to give people time to socialize. A DJ then comes in for an after-party for all guests on The Anthem’s first floor, so bring your dancing shoes and prepare for a great night.

    Winner, winner, you get dinner

    One big difference in this year’s ceremony is the inclusion of a sit-down dinner (think Golden Globes–style tables) served during “Act One” for nominees, theaters, and paid guests. A reservation in this section goes for a whopping $325, but every individual award nominee (all 220 of them) received one complimentary reservation. In addition to this year’s nominees, expect to see theater supporters and local dignitaries at these tables.

    A second section of first-floor seating has been set aside for all ensemble nominees (each of whom received one complimentary ticket), Helen Hayes judges, and other invited guests. A buffet dinner will be served in this section during “Act One” with drinks available from a cashless cash bar all night. Ensemble nominees each receive one complimentary drink ticket and can invite guests to join them in this section for $65.

    Finally, general admission tickets are available for $65. Similar to years past, these seats will be in the balcony section. Individuals affiliated with the region’s various theaters are encouraged to gather in groups to cheer on their theater’s nominees. Complimentary light food and paid food from the Anthem will be available and a cashless cash bar will be open all night.

    Tickets to both the catered dinner section and the general admission section are now available through Ticketmaster, the official ticketing partner of The Anthem, or through an affiliated theater sponsorship.

    Note that The Anthem does not take cash, so anyone planning to buy drinks or food should bring a credit or debit card.

    Lights, camera, action!

    Here’s a list of the DMV notables putting together this year’s Helen Hayes Awards:

    • Naomi Jacobson, Erika Rose, and Holly Twyford, whom Austin calls “three of the grand dames of DC theater,” will host “Act One.”
    • Christopher Michael Richardson, the DC performer and director who made headlines last year for understudying the role of Usher in Woolly Mammoth’s production of A Strange Loop, will host “Act Two.”
    • Michael Urie and Ryan Spahn, the real-life couple who appeared together in Jane Anger at Shakespeare Theatre Company this season, will appear as special guests. “We’re excited about our guests and the fun they will bring,” Austin says, noting that Urie, a frequent face on DC stages, is a previous Drama Desk Awards host. Urie will be in DC during May for the run of Spamalot! at the Kennedy Center.
    • Will Gartshore and Holly Twyford will co-direct the event. “They have been working hard on a script, performances, and how everything will be presented,” Theatre Washington’s Liz O’Meara-Goldberg shared. “A lot of great DC artists are working on the design of the show and performing in it.”
    • Musical wunderkind and multiple Helen Hayes recipient Walter “Bobby” McCoy will music-direct the show. What music can we expect? “An ensemble of performers will do some singing and dancing,” Austin says. “Unlike the Tonys where the shows are all still playing, that is not the case here because all the nominated shows happened in 2022. We bring fresh production numbers to the Awards.”
    • Jan Du Plain is this year’s Awards ceremony chair. She is a sparkling fixture on DC’s social scene, with deep ties to the diplomatic community where she is a longtime leader. “We are thrilled to have Jan because she works every day to raise the visibility of Washington-area theater with organizations and influencers in our region,” Austin says.
    • Angie Gates, the president and CEO of Events DC, is this year’s honorary chair. She was the former general manager at the Warner Theatre and the force behind the DC government’s 202Creates initiative at the Mayor’s Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment. “Angie has a deep commitment to creatives being able to live in the city, as well as making the arts community a more visible force in driving economic development for the city,” Austin says.

    The 2023 Helen Hayes Awards will recognize work from 131 eligible productions presented in the 2022 calendar year in 41 categories. Productions under consideration in 2022 included 39 musicals, 97 plays, and 38 world premieres. For a complete list of nominees, click here.

    The 2019 Helen Hayes Awards at The Anthem. Photo by Purple PPL Media.

    The 2023 Helen Hayes Awards will take place on Monday, May 22, 2023, at The Anthem, 901 Wharf Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. For more information and to order tickets, go online.

    COVID Safety: Theatre Washington will follow The Anthem’s mask-optional guidelines.

  • Getting to know Elizabeth Dinkova: ‘I like creating a brave space’

    Getting to know Elizabeth Dinkova: ‘I like creating a brave space’

    One of the most exciting events in the DC theater season took place last month not at a gala or a glitzy premiere but in the basement of a small church near Dupont Circle. The audience had gathered for a workshop presentation of a new play, an inauspicious event on its own, but one with great significance, because it was helmed by Elizabeth Dinkova, the incoming artistic director at Spooky Action Theater, and the face of renewed hope for a theater company whose very survival was in doubt just one year ago.

    Conflict at Spooky Action (as reported by DC Theater Arts and Washington City Paper) made headlines last year, resulting in the acrimonious departure of Spooky Action founder Richard Henrich and a reshuffling of the theater’s board. Under the interim leadership of Gavin Witt, Spooky Action carried out a search for Henrich’s replacement, choosing Dinkova from among a competitive pool of diverse applicants.

    Elizabeth Dinkova. Photo by Barrett Doyle.

    I spent a recent morning getting to know Beth, as her friends and colleagues call her, and came away with a renewed sense of excitement for the small, imaginative theater that operates out of the basement space of the Universalist National Memorial Church in DC’s bustling Dupont Circle neighborhood. Smart, observant, and effervescent, Dinkova seems to be just the breath of fresh air needed to bring Spooky Action back from the brink.

    First the facts: Dinkova was born in Bulgaria and came to the U.S. as a college student pursuing a double major in theater and psychology. “I worked with rats and pigeons by day and actors by night,” Dinkova quipped with what I soon gleaned was her characteristic wit. “I learned a lot about both species’ capacity for empathy and creativity.”

    Dinkova’s first job after college was in Studio Theatre’s artistic apprentice program, where she worked as an assistant director shadowing artistic director David Muse and also assisting Michael Kahn (founder and former artistic director of Shakespeare Theatre Company). Studio Theatre’s dramaturg, Adrien-Alice Hansel, remembers her from that time as a fantastic collaborator. “She’s smart, creative, reliable, and kind,” Hansel says. “She’s a great communicator and her taste is distinctive. She really hungers for collaboration, which I think will be fantastic for all the artists who will now get to work with her.”

    After a few other jobs — including a stint working with a German theater company at DC’s Goethe Institute, where she reimagined classical works, something she says has been a hallmark of her work from her earliest days as a director — Dinkova became one of the youngest students ever admitted into the three-year MFA directing program at the Yale School of Drama.

    At Yale, program chair Elizabeth Diamond quickly became a mentor. The small, demanding program admits just three students per year, and Dinkova’s tiny class became so close that they each got matching tattoos upon graduation with a line from Macbeth, “in thunder, lightning, or in rain,” written in Diamond’s handwriting.

    After Yale, Dinkova relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where she became an artistic leadership apprentice at the Alliance Theatre. “Being in the American South for the first time was a culture shock to me,” Dinkova recalls of her time in Georgia. “It was really helpful for me to see that part of the country. There are a lot of prejudices and stereotypes about people in the South and questions of inclusion and diversity. I started to think of my job as a mediator and ambassador for theater across different socioeconomic groups.”

    While at Alliance Theatre, Dinkova worked with the marketing and audience engagement departments “to try to make sure that the values in the artistic room were also present in the ways we talk to audiences and communicate around the workplace.”

    She also had the opportunity to create her own projects. One topic that interested her? Guns. The Gun Show, as the project came to be called, “was a market for ideas and viewpoints around gun culture because Atlanta was the first place I ever interacted with people who were interested in guns and I really wanted to understand why. I talked to people of color, women, artists, and in that process discovered that things are more complicated than they may appear.”

    Dinkova’s next stop was Atlanta’s 7 Stages Theatre, where she produced multi-disciplinary festivals and worked with the artistic director to create a team of associate artistic directors (she was one of them) “to think about ways to democratize leadership on a small theater scale.”

    In between, she produced a few large interdisciplinary festivals that invited artists from around the world and the U.S. to collaborate on festivals including dance, music, film, and theater. “The idea of crossing borders and ignoring artificial boundaries between stories or art forms is something I’ve been interested in,” Dinkova points out as she discusses these festivals.

    Then COVID shut the world down, leading Dinkova back to the classroom, where she began lecturing on theater at the university level and devising “a bunch of strange, utopian works virtually with a Canadian University.”

    And now, Spooky Action.

    Face to face with Dinkova, one is immediately impressed by her quick mind and clever turns of phrase — her command of the English language surpasses that of most native speakers and one can almost see sparks fly as she excitedly conveys her thoughts on theater. “As an immigrant, I am interested in questions of belonging and the scary, bloody, painful but also beautiful process of building community. We throw around this idea of community a lot in theater, but the reality is that it’s much more complicated than just getting a group of people to congregate in the same space. I’m often drawn to stories about outsiders and celebrating their resilience.”

    Indeed, listening to Dinkova describe her philosophy, it is hard not to be struck by the contrast between her and Spooky’s former leadership.

    “Being a catalyst for voices that collide is my artistic happy place. I don’t love being the sole writer of things. I like working with other people. I like creating a brave space where people can explore things that might be challenging. In that way, I think my interest in directing and what theater can do for a community naturally translated into artistic leadership.”

    And I am not alone in my admiration. Dinkova’s former colleagues were quick to respond to my queries with effusive praise for the young director.

    “Beth’s work at Yale was full of life — both formally inventive and emotionally true,” recalls Yale’s Liz Diamond. “Hearty, joyful, and brilliant are the words I use to describe Beth Dinkova.”

    The excitement about Dinkova’s arrival is palpable among those who remained with Spooky Action or joined after Henrich’s departure. Gillian Drake, Spooky Action board member and director of the theater’s new works program, was instrumental in bringing Dinkova to Spooky Action. (Drake and Dinkova both stressed that Henrich has been very gracious when they have reached out to him with questions since his retirement.)

    Gillian Drake and Elizabeth Dinkova. Photo by Nicole Hertvik.

    “She is the real deal,” Drake says. “She is serious-minded, incredibly generous and has vision and sensitivity when she talks theater. She is all about bringing people into a space and finding the common, emotionally based moment where we can all feel, breathe, and imagine together.”

    That sensitivity and sense of collaboration were on full display at the Spooky Action reading last month of Syrena, which Dinkova co-wrote and co-created along with Jesse Rasmussen and Ashley James. A piece of devised theater, Syrena began as a screenplay about a mermaid that arrives at a migrant detention camp. But mermaids are much more than singing children’s characters in Dinkova’s hands. “The siren is one of the few symbols of freedom that crosses cultures,” Dinkova says. “They symbolize the power of the voice to literally and figuratively shake the foundations of exploitative systems. In a cultural moment where women’s rights were being taken away, there is a real investment in conversations about who belongs in the U.S., who is a foreigner, and who is allowed to be here. It is important to investigate the ways we look at otherness.”

    Elizabeth Dinkova introducing the workshop presentation of ‘Syrena Project’ at Spooky Action Theater on March 20, 2023, and during talkback (third from left, with Ashley James, Jesse Rasmussen, Surasree Das, Raghad Makhlouf, Jordanna Hernandez, Jacqueline Youm, Deema Turkomani, and Laura Rhodes). Photos by Michael Kyrioglou.

    Dinkova and her collaborators asked themselves what a present-day mermaid story, combined with the various immigration crises happening around the world, would look like. “We decided to use the surreal aspect of a siren appearing at a refugee center as a catalyst for a conversation about how a community negotiates otherness.”

    With funding from Yale’s’ Midnight Oil Collective, Dinkova had been workshopping the show around the country with the goal of creating a semi-documentary-style film. But then Spooky asked her for a project that could kick off her tenure at the theater.

    “Gillian [Drake] asked me to think about a project that incorporates serious conversations about our shared humanity but has a magical element and I said boy do I have a project for you!”

    The reading, performed by five local actors — Surasree Das, Jordanna Hernandez, Raghad Makhlouf, Deema Turkomani, and Jacqueline Youm, who each have their own migration story — was attended by a sold-out audience of enthusiastic Spooky Action fans, people who were well aware that they were watching something far more significant than a mere play reading. They were watching a theater rise from the ashes in the hands of a new and capable leader.

    Shortly after the reading of Syrena, Dinkova returned to Connecticut to conclude the semester at Quinnipiac University and pack up her life before relocating to DC. Dinkova will officially begin her tenure at Spooky Action on May 1. She has no illusions that the job will be easy.

    “We are obviously working in a treacherous climate for small theaters and nonprofits from a financial and cultural standpoint,” she says. “But there is something extraordinary about the potential of small, intimate theater to create some of these connections and see the world in a visceral, new way. Spooky Action’s programming decisions have always been so joyfully distinct, and I would love for it to continue to define its identity as a hub for aesthetically boundary-pushing work and urgent, global conversations.”

    SEE ALSO:
    Elizabeth Dinkova named new Spooky Action Theater artistic director (news story, March 9, 2023)

  • ‘A piece of my heart onstage’: Patrick W. Lord on his new play for tots

    ‘A piece of my heart onstage’: Patrick W. Lord on his new play for tots

    While Patrick W. Lord is a familiar name in the DC-area theater community, most people know him from his work as a projection and video designer, Lord has gained national attention from his design work on multiple national tours, including Mean Girls, On Your Feet!, and Hairspray. Lord also enjoys writing, particularly for children. Start with a Spark, a children’s book that Lord co-wrote with Nitya Ramlogan, is now on sale at local Politics and Prose bookstores.

    Lord’s first piece of theater writing, Fitting In, a nonverbal show geared toward very young audiences (ages 1–5) co-written with Megan Thrift, is now enjoying its world premiere presented by Arts on the Horizon at Theatre on the Run (through March 25, 2023) and at 1st Stage (April 1). Lord is also directing the show. When I heard Lord remark that “this is the closest you will ever come to seeing a piece of my heart on a stage,” I became eager to learn more about the project. Here is what I found out:

    Nicole: Tell us about Fitting In. What is the story about? What should people expect from the production?

    Pablo Guillen, Emily Erickson, and Graciela Rey in ‘Fitting In.’ Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography.

    Patrick: Fitting In is about the power of imagination and the joy of creative play. It’s a story of siblings and family and the fun dynamics that exist between friends and family. The action centers around the simple task of needing to clean up and pack away random objects in an attic, and it takes audiences on a journey of discovery and delight through dance, clowning, puppetry, and some lovely moments of true magic.

    This is your first experience directing. What has it been like? What made you want to direct?

    I could not have asked for a better first experience directing, especially since I also co-wrote the show [with Megan Thrift] and so it was really dear to my heart. I am a big believer in the importance and power of creating theatre and art for young audiences because they are the audiences of the future, and so shows like this are how we spark an interest in the arts. I also had the privilege of an incredible cast and creative team of designers and artists around me, which I am so thankful for.

    I am just someone who loves telling stories, and I wanted to challenge myself to learn and grow as an artist. TVY (Theatre for the Very Young), which is different from TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences), is exciting because of how visual it is. Since the stories are nonverbal, we tell the narrative through action, movement, music, and stage pictures, so it was a perfect medium for me to apply my experience to something new.

    What is your writing background? I believe you wrote a children’s book recently. What draws you to writing for children?

    I don’t have much of a formal writing background — I’ve just been in the business of stories my whole life. I did write a children’s book recently, Start with a Spark — published locally through Politics and Prose here in the DC area. It’s about the power of inspiration and exploring the world. I really like creating art and stories for children because I think we have an obligation to inspire and uplift those coming after us. So much theater is geared toward older audiences, but those patrons are rarely going to have epiphanies or be moved in substantial ways — even if they enjoy a show. With young audiences, you have a chance to make a really unique and fundamental connection. Especially with Arts on the Horizon shows, this company serves an age group where the show they’re doing is often a child’s very first exposure to theater! I think it’s amazing to connect with other humans in such an honest and deep way, even if the other humans are a little smaller.

    Projection and Video Designer Patrick W. Lord

    I believe that you started in theater as a designer. What has been your experience shifting between different parts of the creative process (design, direction, writing, anything else you’ve done)

    Honestly, it may be surprising to hear, but I do not feel like my approach changes much, even in different roles. I work as a designer, and being a writer or director is a rare exception to that, but that just means using different tools, while still working toward the same goal: telling a clear and compelling story. I work hard to ensure that the heart of any process I’m a part of, no matter what side of the table or stage I’m on, is centered around creating a caring environment where every artist is able to do their best work, and we are all able to push creative boundaries and innovate.

    In a recent Facebook post, you describe Fitting In by saying, “This show is as close as you’ll ever see to a piece of my heart on stage.” Can you talk more deeply about that?

    As a designer in theater, I make a living creating worlds and making imagination manifest itself on stage. This show distills that idea down and really reminds people about the joy that can be found in imagination, and that’s been a lovely reminder to me. It’s easy to be cynical these days, to see the broken things in the world, but this production also shows us that even the most ordinary or common things possess an infinite potential, if we believe hard enough.

    Graciela Rey, Emily Erickson, and Pablo Guillen in ‘Fitting In.’ Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography.

    What do you hope very young audiences take away from early theater experiences?

    I hope every young audience member leaves every show believing, even just a little bit, that magic is real; that it’s inside them, and all around them. Even if it only lasts a little while, if we can impart that belief that the world is a truly wondrous and amazing place, that is the first step toward inspiring them to see what’s possible and, eventually, make the world better.

    Why is it important to expose very young people to theater?

    The earlier a person sees theater and art, the sooner they start dreaming of what’s possible and learning about the importance of stories. TVY and TYA are how we start to reshape what the theater canon looks like. When young people demand to see stories on stages that reflect their lives and the world they are in, then we start having conversations and creating art that really makes a difference and an impact.

    Because Fitting In is geared toward such a young audience, it — like most of Arts on the Horizon’s shows — is nonverbal. Can you talk about directing a show that is primarily told through movement and music? Also maybe the experience of collaborating with the composer?

    It is nonverbal, and that was a really fun challenge! It’s why we created a rich world of movement and music, and I was lucky to have Emily Erickson not only as a composer but as a member of the cast! Arts on the Horizon often has a live musician, but our world is prerecorded orchestrations, so Emily and I worked closely to build out rich, layered musical landscapes that were closely tied with each beat of the story. This show is closer to ballet than you might expect. Especially since our entire cast, Graciela Rey, Pablo Guillén, and Emily herself, are all extremely talented dancers and movement actors.

    Anything else you want to add?

    You don’t need a little human to see our show! We welcome adults and audiences of all ages, and I truly believe that anyone and everyone will enjoy and connect with this story and how beautifully the performers tell it on stage.

    Fitting In plays through March 25, 2023, presented by Arts on the Horizon performing at the Theatre on the Run, 3700 S Four Mile Run Dr, Arlington, VA. Tickets are $10 for children and adults and can be purchased online or at the door on the day of the performance: Fridays, March 17 and 24 at 10:30 am; Saturdays, March 18 and 25 at 10 am and 11:30 am. (Fitting In is also touring locally to Alexandria preschools, weekdays through March 28, 2023, and will be performed for free at 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road Tysons, VA, on Friday, March 31 at 10:30 am; Saturday, April 1 at 10 am and 11:30 am; and Sunday, April 2 at 11 am.)

    Best for children ages 2–5 and their families.
    Running Time: About 30 minutes.
    The program for Fitting In is downloadable here (scroll down).

    Fitting In
    Written by Patrick W. Lord and Megan Thrift
    ​Directed by Patrick W. Lord
    Original Music Composed by Emily Erickson & Produced by navi

  • Folger Theatre’s ‘Reading Room’ makes space for new voices

    Folger Theatre’s ‘Reading Room’ makes space for new voices

    “New takes” on Shakespeare have been all the rage for decades. In DC, we’ve had productions of Much Ado About Nothing set in a television newsroom, Twelfth Night at a 1960s airport departure gate, and Love’s Labor’s Lost in a gilded mansion in the roaring 20s.

    But for Karen Ann Daniels, artistic director of the Folger Theatre, simply moving Shakespeare from one setting to another is not enough to address the major challenge for classical theaters: bringing Shakespeare into the 21st century, an era that expects and demands that theater expands beyond the white male viewpoint of Shakespeare’s age.

    In a project designed to make space for female voices, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and others who have not traditionally had a space in the classical theater canon, Daniels is spearheading a new program at Folger called The Reading Room, a festival featuring staged readings of new plays “inspired by, in response to, and in conversation with Shakespeare.”

    In rehearsal for their play ‘Our Verse in Time to Come’: Karen Ann Daniels and Malik Work. Photo by Peggy Ryan.

    “It started with me talking to people who engage with Shakespeare in ways we don’t typically see,” Daniels told me during a recent phone conversation. “And I realized that this was an opportunity to think about who is in charge of how Shakespeare gets to exist in our culture.”

    In planning Folger’s upcoming season, Daniels says, she observed a commonality in conversations people were having about Shakespeare: “I realized that I wanted to create an opportunity to support new work. Here we are in DC in the seat of democracy and there are a lot of players trying to get a seat at the table, so it made sense to invite folks to the table.”

    So she created a festival that had seats for everyone.

    The first play that Daniels chose for The Reading Room was Julius X, a play by Al Letson that melds the lives of Julius Caesar and slain civil rights leader Malcolm X. Letson wrote the play years ago but was eager to revisit it in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and conversations about Black identity that have played out across the nation in the last few years.

    “It was something Al really wanted to explore and revisit and I was like, let’s make room for this. How can I be in service of the art making?”

    Next, Daniels turned to a play by Lauren Gunderson that she had read while working at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Room in the Castle focuses on Ophelia and Gertrude, two female characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and explores how their destinies would have been different if they had not existed within the confines of a patriarchy. The overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 led Daniels to think about the voices in society that don’t get to be heard. “Here we are with Roe overturned and I found this great play that was asking who gets to decide your fate as a woman?” Daniels recalls. “I reached out and asked if Folger could be a catalyst to move this commission forward.”

    Another issue on Daniels’ mind this year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays and it is widely recognized as ensuring the longevity of his work. (The Folger Shakespeare Library houses the largest collection of First Folios in the world.) In thinking about how to celebrate the anniversary, Daniels realized that there was not a play out there that would tell the story she wanted to tell. “I wanted to tell a story that felt relatable not from a high place of we should just revere the Folio,” she said. “Of course, we should revere it, but we should also be asking what we have in common with it.”

    So she wrote her own play.

    Daniels partnered with Malik Work, a theater artist with whom she had worked at New York’s Public Theatre, on a devised theater piece called Our Verse in Time to Come. She describes the work, which centers on twins Vi and Will sifting through the estate of their father who is ill with dementia, as bridging the past with the present and “creating an opportunity for people to come at the Folio from their own place.” Daniels hopes to take the play on tour later this year.

    The final play in The Reading Room is a bilingual reimagining of Hamlet set in modern-day New York City with a Spanish-infused text. Written by Reynaldo Piniella and Emily Lyon, this Hamlet features a Black and Latinx prince. “The play questions who language belongs to and what happens when identities are intersectional,” Daniels says. “In this version, Hamlet is questioning if he is Black enough or Latinx enough and using language to get at the heart of this conversation.”

    Daniels knows that this content differs from the traditional work audiences are used to seeing at Folger. But she sees it as an opportunity to carry on a conversation about identity and storytelling in tandem with the audience. “This is a journey we can go on together and I am here to hear feedback,” she observes.

    The readings will be accompanied by post-show conversations with the artists, an opportunity for audiences and creators to share knowledge and experience. And Daniels feels that the Folger Theatre, embedded in the larger cultural institution of the Folger Shakespeare Library, is the perfect place for that.

    The Reading Room Plays

    Hamlet
    By William Shakespeare
    Bilingual adaptation by Reynaldo Piniella and Emily Lyon
    Translation by Christin Eve Cato
    Directed by Tatiana Pandiani
    Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 7:30 pm

    Our Verse in Time to Come
    Commissioned by Folger Shakespeare Library to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio
    By Malik Work and Karen Ann Daniels, in collaboration with Devin E. Haqq
    Directed by Devin E. Haqq
    Friday, January 20, 2023, at 7:30 pm

    Julius X
    By Al Letson
    Directed by Nicole Brewer
    Saturday, January 21, 2023, at 2 pm

    A Room in the Castle
    By Lauren Gunderson
    Directed by Eddie DeHais
    Saturday, January 21, 2023, at 7:30 pm

    All four readings are followed by a conversation with the playwrights, directors, and scholars at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.

    The Reading Room Programs

    Anti-Racism and Shakespeare
    Saturday, January 21 at 11 am 
    Nicole Brewer, Kaja Dunn, and Dr. John Proctor III

    Lauren Gunderson and Al Letson
    Saturday, January 21 at 5:30 pm  
    (This event will have an ASL interpreter.)

    For further information, check the Folger website at folger.edu/events/the-reading-room.

    The Reading Room Tickets

    The Reading Room series takes place at The Lutheran Church of the Reformation at 212 East Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC.
    A pass to see all four readings: $25.
    Additional conversations and special events: $15.
    An All-Access Pass, which includes admission to all four readings and all special events: $50.
    Students: admitted free one-half hour before readings, with a valid ID.
    Tickets are available for purchase from the Folger Box Office: folger.edu/theatre or
    (202) 544-7077.

    COVID Safety: Folger Theatre’s The Reading Room series will require all attendees to wear a well-fitting mask inside the venue to ensure a safe atmosphere for patrons and artists alike. For more information, visit folger.edu/covid-19-safety-protocols.

    SEE ALSO:
    Lauren Gunderson and Al Letson(news story, December 14, 2022)
    For Folger’s Karen Ann Daniels, the Bard’s big O stands for opportunity (interview by Ramona Harper, October 12, 2021)

  • Michael Urie and Ryan Spahn spill the tea on ‘Jane Anger’ at STC

    Michael Urie and Ryan Spahn spill the tea on ‘Jane Anger’ at STC

    You may have seen the meme. It began to circulate in 2020, shortly after COVID shut the world down: “Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the Black Plague. What are YOU going to accomplish during COVID?” For many theater artists, it was a call to keep producing art during the pandemic. For playwright Talene Monahon, it was a reminder of the privileges that men like Shakespeare enjoyed during the Renaissance and beyond.

    “There was something about this meme that felt very sexist,” actor Ryan Spahn recalls. “Like, look at this wise man, be like him and forget your feelings.”

    Ryan Spahn as Francis, Michael Urie as William Shakespeare, and Playwright Talene Monahon as Anne Hathaway in ‘Jane Anger.’ Photo by DJ Corey Photography.

    Using the meme as a starting point, Monahon enlisted actors Spahn and Michael Urie, a real-life couple and members of her COVID bubble of close friends, in a project that began in 2020 as a farce about Shakespeare (played by Urie) and his apprentice (played by Spahn) stuck in a London apartment trying to write King Lear at the height of the Black Plague. Spahn and Urie performed it virtually from their apartment, where they were stuck at the height of COVID. With the subsequent addition of two female characters, the project grew into Jane Anger, the “Jacobean feminist revenge farce” now playing at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre after enjoying a successful off-Broadway run earlier this year.

    Jane Anger was a Renaissance writer whom you probably haven’t heard of because (gasp) she was a woman. Anger (or someone using that name) published a pamphlet in London in 1589 called “Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women.” It is thought to be the first writing published in English by a woman arguing against male supremacy.

    And that’s all that history remembers about Jane Anger.

    But where historical fuzziness is the bane of historians, it can be gold for theater artists. Although Shakespeare is a household name, very little is known about his life either. “The cool thing about playing Shakespeare is that we know so little about him,” Urie observes. “Our Shakespeare can be whatever we want him to be.”

    Monahon’s script imagines that Shakespeare and Anger actually knew each other and uses quick-witted, ribald comedy and fast-paced dialogue to explore what their relationship would have been like if Shakespeare was a toxic goofball and Anger an empowered free thinker.

    Ryan Spahn as Francis, Amelia Workman as Jane Anger, Michael Urie as William Shakespeare, and Talene Monahon as Anne Hathaway in ‘Jane Anger.’ Photo by DJ Corey Photography.

    Urie describes the Shakespeare he is playing as “a whiny, petulant man-child genius.” (A giant portrait of Urie as Shakespeare dominates the set, reinforcing the notion that Shakespeare was a self-absorbed egomaniac.) “It’s part borscht belt, part Monty Python and part Titus Andronicus,” he says.

    “In a lot of ways, the play has a modern sensibility. We don’t have to act like we’re in 1606, but we are people with a modern frame of mind stuck in 1606. Sometimes Shakespeare sounds like a millennial in 2022 complaining about his cell phone. The boundaries are quite wide, which is fun.”

    Spahn, who plays a groveling apprentice who ingratiates himself to Shakespeare for reasons that only become clear as the play goes on, adds, “You meet these men who are behaving in this ridiculous, comical way, and when the women enter you’re reminded of what has been denied to them because of the society that they are in. They decide at this moment not to take it anymore.”

    Urie is no stranger to Shakespeare’s plays. The Drama Desk winner and star of Netflix’s first gay, holiday rom-com Single All the Way, recently played both Hamlet and Romeo at Shakespeare Theatre Company before returning to play the Bard himself. “It’s pretty wild to be playing Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Theatre,” he laughs.

    Both actors feel that their close friendship with Jane Anger’s playwright has allowed for an especially collaborative process on Jane Anger. “She trusts us so much,” Spahn says. “It makes for a very warm and collaborative room.”

    It helps that Monahon wrote a part for herself into the script. Monahon plays Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife. “It’s very helpful having the writer physically inside the play,” Spahn continues. “It’s sometimes hard to explain to a writer who is sitting behind a desk what it feels like when something isn’t working. With Talene on stage with us, she can really understand on an emotional level what it feels like, which is a very rare thing.”

    Urie and Spahn have both carved out niches for themselves as actors developing new works with emerging playwrights, like Monahon. “It’s really special to make up the rules as opposed to following them,” Urie says. Spahn adds, “There is something really exciting about being the first one to do something, something beautiful in knowing that an audience is hearing these words for the first time.”

    Ryan Spahn and Michael Urie

    Over the course of their 14-year relationship, Urie and Spahn have had many opportunities to collaborate onstage. The couple produced two virtual shows out of their apartment while in quarantine and just last month, Urie stepped in for Spahn when a TV opportunity required Spahn to miss performances of the off-Broadway play Good Enemy. “That was a way of collaborating that we had never really anticipated,” Urie recalls. “He taught me how to do his role in the play. I had to cram.”

    Knowing they would be in DC through the holidays, Urie and Spahn were determined to make their stay here as cozy as possible. The couple rented a van in NYC, which they stuffed with Christmas decorations, their dog, their cat, and Monahon’s two cats. “We have a lot of our personal life here,” Spahn says. “We put up a Christmas tree and there are some presents under it so it feels very lived in.”

    It helps that Amelia Workman, the actor playing Jane Anger, is a DC native. “We insisted that she invite us home,” Urie jokes. “And then Talene will come over on Christmas morning and we’ll have cocoa.”

    But for all its humor, Jane Anger is a play that raises questions about who gets to have a voice in society, “particularly in the early 1600s when women were not given many opportunities,” Spahn says. “It’s a play that encourages people to seize their own narrative. And if you are trying to seize your narrative and no one is listening, speak up, and if people continue not to listen then start to get angry.”

    Jane Anger plays through January 8, 2023, at the Klein Theatre, 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($35–$125) may be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 202-547-1122. Special discounts are available for members of the military, students, seniors, and patrons age 35 and under. Contact the Box Office or visit Shakespearetheatre.org/tickets-and-events/special-offers/ for more information.

    The STC Asides+ program for Jane Anger is online here.

    COVID Safety: STC hosts MASK REQUIRED performances on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays and MASK RECOMMENDED performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

  • A fun chance to enjoy a Christmas panto in ‘Rapunzel’ from British Players

    A fun chance to enjoy a Christmas panto in ‘Rapunzel’ from British Players

    The British tradition of the Christmas panto is alive and well in the DC region thanks to The British Players. Panto, short for pantomime, is a distinctly British form of theater in which well-known children’s stories are told onstage through a mixture of theater, dance, vaudeville, musical comedy, and familiar songs with lyrics rewritten to fit the story being told. The audience is encouraged to participate — loudly — by booing the villain (there is always a villain) and arguing with the “dame” (a female character always played by a man for comedic effect).

    For nearly 60 years, The British Players has produced an annual panto during the Christmas season. The community theater ensemble first formed when some enthusiastic staff members at the British Embassy started performing pantos at the Embassy. The troupe is now an independent community nonprofit performing in Montgomery County, Maryland, at the Kensington Town Hall.

    Francis Hoag, Tia Monet Flores, and Clare Palace in ‘Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto.’ Photo courtesy of The British Players.

    This year’s panto tells the familiar story of Rapunzel. Subtitled A Tangled Panto, the show follows Rapunzel, a princess who was taken from her parents by an evil witch and raised in a tower where she was never permitted to cut her hair.

    But in true panto fashion, an array of new characters are added to the story. The script (credited to a company called Limelight Scripts) adds the characters of Willy Widdle (Mark Crimans) and Nurse Hetty Hairspray (Chuck Hoag), a man and “woman” who narrate much of the show through direct audience interaction and slapstick comedy. Crimans and Hoag are veterans of panto (both appeared in last year’s Wizard of Oz panto) and both possess entertaining comedy skills and delightful singing voices. Hoag particularly shows off his commanding tenor voice in the song “I Enjoy Being a Girl” from the musical Flower Drum Song. Hoag and Crimans’ interactions add humorous moments to the show including a comedic version of the popular Great British Bake Off television show in which they compete in baking the best cake.

    The villain in this year’s panto is the witch, Mother Gothel. Played by Missi Tessier, another British Players panto veteran, Mother Gothel revels in her wicked ways, encouraging the audience to boo her loudly whenever she appears onstage. When Rapunzel escapes from her tower, Gothel hires a pair of bumbling fools (another standard element of panto) to help her find the missing girl. Sara Cath and Andrew Harasty play Ball and Socket, two fools whose names are as silly as they are. Their opening number, “A Couple of Swells” from the classic Fred Astaire and Judy Garland movie Easter Parade, was enjoyable but I would encourage the pair to play up the comedy even more.

    Mark Crimans and cast in ‘Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto.’ Photo courtesy of The British Players.

    Amanda Dullin-Jones gives a standout performance as Rapunzel. Dullin-Jones possesses a lovely singing voice that shone in the tower scene as she conveyed her loneliness in “Some Things Are Meant to Be.” Also delivering lovely vocal performances throughout the show were Doug Richesson as King Ralph and Lisa Singleton as Queen Rose.

    Nicola Hoag’s direction added to fun ensemble numbers, but I would love to see even bigger emotions and slicker comedic timing from the entire cast during the comedy scenes.

    The centerpiece of the simple set and costumes was, fittingly, Rapunzel’s hair. Set designer Mike Lewis rigged a two-piece set that created the illusion that people were able to climb up Rapunzel’s hair and into her window. Justine Crimans’ costumes featured typical fairy tale princess gowns and lovely outfits for the three fairies who assist Rapunzel in finding her happy ending. (Clare Palace, Tia Monet Flores, and Francis Hoag played the cleverly named Fairy Good, Fairy Well, and Fairy Nuff).

    Chuck Hoag, Lisa Singleton, Amanda D. Jones, Doug Richesson, and Kris Humphrey in ‘Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto.’ Photo courtesy of The British Players.

    The show includes numerous ensemble numbers featuring simple but fun choreography by Shannon Cron. Group numbers include several songs with references to hair including the eponymous song from the musical Hair. One fun thing about pantos is that they offer ways for numerous ensemble members to get moments in the spotlight. Two young masked dancers (Tristian Singleton and George Hoag), for example, turned out a clever but brief dance to the song “I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me,” and another dancer (Molly Ross) executed a lovely ballet while the King and Queen sang about their daughter. An ensemble number featuring tap dancing was especially fun.

    The British Players’ production of Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto features a group of enthusiastic community performers who are clearly having fun on stage. As we exited the theater, my young daughter turned to me and said, “Give it five stars, Mommy. Those jokes were really funny.”

    Running Time: Two and a half hours with one 15-minute intermission.

    Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto plays on weekends through January 7, 2023, presented by The British Players performing at the Kensington Town Hall, 3710 Mitchel Street, Kensington, MD. Tickets ($15–$28) can be purchased at the door or online.

    COVID Safety: Masks are optional.

    Rapunzel: A Tangled Panto
    by Limelight Scripts

    CREATIVE TEAM
    Producer: Colleen Darling
    Director: Nicola Hoag
    Music Director: Chuck Hoag
    Choreographer: Shannon Cron
    Dance Captain: Molly Ross
    Stage Manager: Matt Mills
    Costume Designer: Justine Crimans
    Set Designer: Mike Lewis
    Lighting Designer: Steve Deming
    Sound Designer: Sarah Katz
    Projection Designer: Matt Mills
    Props Designer: Guy Palace
    Hair and Makeup Designer: Cathy Dunn

    CAST
    Rapunzel: Amanda Dullin-Jones
    King Ralph: Doug Richesson
    Queen Rose: Lisa Singleton
    Nurse Hetty Hairspray: Chuck Hoag
    Willy Widdle: Mark Crimans
    Prince George: Kris Humphrey
    Gothel: Missi Tessier
    Ball: Sara Cath
    Socket: Andrew Harasty
    Fairy Good: Clare Palace
    Fairy Well: Tia Monet Flores
    Fairy Nuff: Francis Hoag
    Sergeant Hawkeye: Colin Davies
    Young Rapunzel: Molly Ross
    Ensemble: Sonia Alam, Matt Craun, Penny Hannallah, George Hoag, Ellen Kaplan, Charlotte Leembruggen, Emilia O’Connor, Lauren Pacuit, Lily Pacuit, Tristian Singleton

  • Chamber trio Beau Soir to perform original composition by Mexican Composer Eduardo Angulo

    Chamber trio Beau Soir to perform original composition by Mexican Composer Eduardo Angulo

    Chamber trio Beau Soir Ensemble is an acclaimed flute, viola, and harp trio dedicated to the performance of standard and contemporary chamber music. Founded in 2007 by harpist Michelle Lundy, the group features Lundy on harp, Tsuna Sakamoto on viola, and Carole Bean on flute. Sakamoto and Bean are current members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Playing with Beau Soir gives them the opportunity to practice their craft in intimate settings including art galleries, mansions, and even private homes. A typical Beau Soir concert includes the opportunity to speak with the musicians, learn about chamber music and even try your own hand at the harp.

    Beau Soir Trio: Flutist Carole Bean, Viola player Tsuna Sakamoto, and harpist Michelle Lundy. Photo courtesy of the artists.

    Because not a lot of music exists for this particular trio of instruments, Lundy spends a lot of time scouring the internet for appropriate compositions. This is how she encountered acclaimed Mexican Composer Eduardo Angulo. After performing two of Angulo’s compositions, Lundy decided to do something she describes as “a big deal” in the world of chamber music: She commissioned Angulo to write a piece of new music specifically for Beau Soir.

    That composition, “Autumn Messengers” will premiere in Washington, DC in early December with two concerts (Friday, December 2nd at the Mexican Cultural Institute and Saturday, December 3rd at the Dacor Bacon House). I spoke to Lundy to learn more about Beau Soir and their growing relationship with Eduardo Angulo.

    How long have you (the members of Beau Soir) been playing together?
    Beau Soir Ensemble (BSE) was founded in 2007, originally as a flute and harp duo. We added viola to the group in 2012, and the current Beau Soir members have been performing together for four years.

    Michelle, what made you decide to found the group?
    I founded BSE to further my passion for performing chamber music and bringing unique musical experiences to audiences. Chamber music is an intimate musical form where each instrument stands out and has an equally important voice in the presentation. The flute, viola, and harp each have such a different and distinct sound, yet blend perfectly together to form music that stands in contrast to more typical arrangements involving a group that consists only of strings (such as the string quartet), brass, or woodwinds, where all of the instruments are in the same category of instruments with similar timbres.

    What does a typical Beau Soir concert look/feel like?
    We aim to have our concerts feel like you are experiencing a professional concert in your own living room. Beau Soir’s mission is to make chamber music approachable, accessible, and enjoyable for novice and sophisticated audiences alike. A typical BSE concert is a casual, intimate experience where audience members get to experience the music close-up and learn about each piece of music, not just hear it. We attempt to forgo some of the formalities of classical music in favor of a more participatory experience. We play in smaller venues (such as art galleries, historic mansions, worship venues, and even personal homes) where the musicians’ finger-work and their instruments can be seen and the music can be felt, not just heard. We include conversations and introductions about the music, so audiences have a story and context for what they hear. We play both standard and contemporary music, so that there is something new for everyone. After a performance, we often meet with audiences, answer questions, and socialize. People sometimes enjoy sitting behind the harp, as it is not a common instrument for most. Audiences leave our concerts feeling that they were a part of the performance, not just a listener.

    Your December concerts will feature an original composition by Mexican composer Eduardo Angulo. How did you learn about Eduardo Angulo?

    Composer Eduardo Angulo. Photo courtesy of Beau Soir.

    I am constantly seeking out new music and looking to promote lesser-known composers. Plus, there is not a lot of music that has been written for our unique instrumentation – flute, viola and harp. And, what music there is tends to be difficult to find – both in terms of sheet music and records. So, it requires a lot of research, including internet searches, phone calls, and emails. In this case, I actually first discovered the music of Eduardo Angulo about 7 years ago when doing a search for flute, viola and harp trios on YouTube. I was instantly smitten with his music and, over the past few years, have listened to almost everything I have been able to find that he’s written. But, finding the actual music scores for Angulo’s trios proved to be incredibly difficult. For almost two years I searched for sheet music through the standard methods of music purchase such as his website, sheet music distributors, and publishers and U.S. harp music distributors. After years of having no success with these standard methods, I located an email address to reach out to the musicians on the YouTube recording I originally fell in love with. The flute player of this trio was kind enough to contact the composer, who she personally knew, and sent me the music after a trip to Mexico. After sharing his music with my partners, they were equally as excited about performing his music; so, we committed to learning it and incorporating it into our repertoire.

    What is the process of commissioning a piece like? How closely do you work with the composer and what guidelines did you give him for what you wanted out of the work?
    After having the opportunity to perform two of Angulo’s existing works, I came to appreciate his adeptness at writing in a musical style that works well for all three of our instruments. But commissioning a new work is a big deal in chamber music. Simply put, we aren’t able to earn a lot playing chamber music. It is a labor of love more than anything and funding for new music is limited. However, it is something that I’ve always wanted to do – to have an amazing piece of music written for Beau Soir and to be able to introduce it to the world and then make it available for others to play. So, we took the plunge after going back and forth with Angulo from his home in Mexico. In order to help fund the commission, we applied for different grants and were fortunate to receive partial funding from the American Harp Society.

    All commission processes are different, but in this particular instance, we were lucky to trust the composition process to work well with very little oversight, feeling secure in what he would produce. We also had the freedom to allow Angulo to write any type of piece as there were no restrictions from other parties or venues to consider. I had my first conversation with Angulo in July of 2021 and while we emailed back and forth from time to time during the writing of the piece, it was more just for conversation (he is a delightful person). Otherwise, we really gave him the creative freedom to do what he wanted. Angulo finished the piece in March of 2022 and much to our delight, the piece is absolutely stunning. There was very little that needed correction, and while the parts are difficult, they work well for our instruments.

    We have had the chance to perform “Autumn Messengers” several times this fall, and at each of the performances we have received a standing ovation. In the piece, Angulo invites the audience to reflect upon life, and writes a substantial piece that is both uplifting and meditative. Angulo writes in a romantic style that is appealing to our trio, our instrumentation, and our audiences. His music is rhythmically interesting and has a distinct Mexican sound to it. So, it is both familiar in many ways and is not out of place with many of the standards, while at the same time being new, fresh, and a bit exotic. All three of us agree that rehearsing and performing his music is “good for the soul”.

    What else will be performed at your concert on Friday, December 2nd at the Mexican Cultural Institute and Saturday, December 3rd at the Dacor Bacon House?
    In addition to “Autumn Messengers” by Angulo, we will perform Angulo’s “Bacanal,” French music by Dubois, Holiday melodies, and a famous Mexican folk song, “Sobre Las Olas” arranged for our trio by Nicholas Greer. The last piece worth noting is “The Chasing Tale” by English Composer, Martyn Adams. This piece was written in 2021 for a flute, viola, and harp trio in England and we are the first group to perform it in the U.S.

    Beau Soir will perform “Autumn Messengers” and other compositions in two performances:

    On Friday, December 2nd, 2022 at the Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th Street, NW in Washington, DC. For tickets to this performance go online here.

    On Saturday, December 3rd at the Dacor Bacon House, 1801 F Street, NW in Washington, DC. For more information or to order tickets for this performance, go online here.

  • Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ buzz at Olney

    Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ buzz at Olney

    (This interview was originally published on December 21, 2021, shortly before the hit show was shut down due to COVID. It has been updated with current performance information.)

    Olney Theatre Center’s Beauty and the Beast has garnered national attention since it opened in November, largely due to the innovative nature of the production and the casting of the lead roles. Evan Ruggiero, a performer who lost a leg to cancer as a young adult, plays the Beast. Jade Jones, a self-described queer, plus-sized Black woman, plays Belle. These casting choices have attracted the attention of media outlets including MSNBC and People Magazine. A video of Jade singing “Home,” Belle’s solo number from the show, has gone viral. Marcia Milgrom Dodge directs the production. I spoke to Dodge last week about her approach to the show and asked why she thinks it is resonating so deeply with audiences.

    Marcia Milgrom Dodge

    Dodge has a long history of working in DC theater. She got her professional start at Arena Stage, choreographing a production of On the Town in 1989. At Arena, she also worked on a 1990 revival of Merrily We Roll Along, alongside Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, who were in residence for the production.

    More recently in 2009, Dodge directed a production of Ragtime at the  Kennedy Center. It was the first time that the Kennedy Center had hired a woman to direct and choreograph a musical. Dodge’s production of Ragtime met with great success and transferred to Broadway, where it received several Tony Award nominations, including a best direction nomination for Dodge.

    Here are excerpts from our conversation about Beauty and the Beast. The conversation has been edited for clarity.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me!

    Anything for my fabulous little show. I’m so proud of it!

    I saw it with my ten-year-old daughter a few weeks ago and we had a great time. I think it’s just what people need right now. It’s such a release.

    A release with a little more “there” there. I saw so many little Black girls in the audience just scream and lose their minds when they saw Jade. It was so thrilling to me that we are able to “smuggle in some deeper meaning.” I heard Don Cheadle say that once about a caper movie he was doing and since then I’ve always thought that’s what I like to do with my direction: smuggle in some deeper meaning.

    Jade Jones as Belle and Evan Ruggiero as the Beast in the Olney Theatre Center production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

    I like that! How did you smuggle deeper meaning into this production?

    Adding those remarkable performances expands the definition of beauty in all its forms. And that was really what I set out to do. Figure out my way into it and also make it extremely meaningful for the audience that’s seeing the show today. I can’t do replicas. If someone wants a replica, they should hire someone else. That’s just not what I do. I dig. I wrestle with the text. I try to find a reason to make the story palpable for an audience today. And I couldn’t do that in this show without casting outside of the box. Now that we’ve done it this way, I hope we let people know that there is opportunity for people of all sizes, colors, shapes, abilities to wear a princess gown or be the Beast. Evan says that when he was a kid, he used to run around his house pretending to be the Beast but never in his wildest dreams did he think he would play this role.

    What has changed and what hasn’t changed in this production?

    Well, I didn’t change a word of text. I was working inside of a very specific structure. In bringing a modern lens to a classic like this you have to dig into the relationship between Belle and all the male characters in the show. In doing that, you honor the original work but also expand it. That expands the definition of beauty in all its forms. And the way that we cast the show challenges assumptions. Asking the audience to use their imagination challenges assumptions. In stretching the characterization a little bit to allow for someone like Jade Jones to assay that role, I don’t think we did anything but make it more exciting.

    When you were initially talking about doing this with Olney, at what point did the idea for the casting come in?

    Right away. I told Jason [Jason Loewith, Olney Artistic Director] that if he hires me to do Beauty and the Beast it’s not going to be your mother’s Beauty and the Beast. He was fine with that. I had worked with Jade before on 110 in the Shade at Ford’s Theatre. When I told my husband that Olney wanted me to do Beauty and the Beast he said, “Jade Jones.” I said, “I’m already on it.” So we invited her to audition for Belle. I don’t think she understood what was going on. She was like “what?” I knew her voice but I wanted to hear her sing the Beauty and the Beast songs. I heard her sing “Home” and that was it. Now she’s blowing up social media with her version of that song. Even Susan Egan [the original Belle in the Broadway production] commented on it.

    Jade Jones as Belle and Evan Ruggiero as the Beast in the Olney Theatre Center production of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

    In what other ways have you updated the Belle character?

    Jade and I were very determined to make Belle heroic. When Linda Wolverton wrote the animated Disney movie in the 1990s, she gave Belle a skill set [reading]. Which most princesses didn’t really have. I mean, Cinderella is the one who had the most skill set of all the princesses because she actually has to scrub and clean. But none of the other princesses do anything. Snow White lies in bed and sort of looks beautiful. There are not a lot of objectives other than let’s get a prince. I think our Belle is a feminist. She is transparent in the way she responds to the advances by Gaston. She is caring and understanding about her dad. We’ve even discussed that her dad might be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, which in the fairy tale wouldn’t be explored but if you look underneath, you can certainly see that with a more modern lens. She is more than just a woman who loves her dad and then marries a prince. She is feisty. When she meets the Beast and realizes that this is a being that is affecting her, it’s complicated and life is messy. I give actors permission to be messy.

    What about Evan?

    The thing that I love about Evan is that he has this petulant arrested development approach to the Beast. He told me later that he was going through the lines with his girlfriend and she said, “Why are you being so petulant?” and he said “I think that’s how he is. I’m just going to go for it.” It was a new choice but also such a good choice. Because think about it: the Beast stopped growing up just when his body would have gone through puberty. He became an animal at age ten so what does he know about manners and respect? Because now he is an animal living with no parents.

    The production begins with a prologue, where we see the prince as a child before he becomes the Beast.

    The first thing I did was read the script and ask why is this prince such an angry little boy in the opening scene? And why is he being raised by a teapot and a candelabra? I saw the prince as being ten years old before he is turned into the Beast. He spends about ten years as the beast but those are the crucial years when he would have gone through puberty and learned social graces. He never had that. Where are the parents? Where did they go? So Evan and I talked about it and decided that maybe there was some sort of tragedy in which his parents perished and he lost his leg and he’s left with a lot of anger. From there, we invite the audience’s imagination because I want them to fill in those blanks. Having Evan in the role really allowed me to go in and dig deeper into the Beast’s background and then incorporate that into who he is. When he’s transformed back into a human at the end of the show, what Belle sees is that he’s still the same person. He wouldn’t look like a storybook Prince. He’s been in the same clothes for ten years. He’s in pants that are too small and his shirt’s a mess and he’s got stubble. It’s like puberty happened during the transformation.

    What are some ways that you observed Evan and Jade make these roles their own?

    One of my favorite things that Jade and Evan do together is after the wolf chase scene when he saves her, and she is trying to nurse his injuries. They have this little fight and they both growl at each other. That was all Jade. She just did it one day in rehearsal and then she was like, “Wait, can I do that?” and I said, “of course!” Because they are connecting in their own unique way. Only these two characters, played by these two actors, living truthfully in this moment can connect in this particular way. It’s wonderful and real and authentic. And then it becomes essential. Now I can’t imagine that little moment in that scene without that. They have rebranded that relationship.

    Why do you think the production is resonating so deeply right now? You’ve got a lot of national press coverage.

    We have and it’s thrilling. I want to create theater for people to see themselves on stage, and I think we are giving them a smorgasbord. We have a Latinx Cogsworth, a Black Mrs. Potts and Chip, a very diverse company. The show begins with a nonbinary actor as the enchantress. We have women playing little boys. I think we have presented a world where diversity thrives, and if that is the takeaway then wonderful because what I set out to do was truly make an inclusive company. Picking up those conversations today is essential.

    Jade Jones as Belle and the ensemble of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge at Olney Theatre Center. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

    It’s also a beautiful fairy tale with wonderful music and lyrics, and it’s being produced during the holidays when we are struggling through this pandemic. People are coming to the theater knowing they are taking a calculated risk but coming because they need that sense of community and to be in that dark space sharing that sense of adventure together. There is something beautiful about that. Seeing Jade Jones come downstage center to sing Belle. Audiences are being jolted in a good way to say, wow, I never imagined Belle this way, and now I can’t imagine her any other way. That to me is the validation. That says to me that the choices we made are resonating because they are right. Jade will tell you, she is good at her job. Why can’t she play a princess? Just because she doesn’t look like the little teeny tiny animated character? I want to dig underneath and look for that true sense of community and authenticity. What is happily ever after? In our world now, and in this show, it is acceptance and kindness.

    Running Time: Two hours 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.

    Disney’s Beauty and the Beast plays through January 1, 2023, at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD. Tickets ($42–$99) can be purchased online or by calling 301-924-3400. Discounts are available for groups, seniors, military, and students.

    The paperless program is here.

    The November 22, 2022, opening night souvenir program is here.

    COVID Safety: Olney Theatre offers both mask-required and mask-recommended performances for patrons in the Mainstage Theatre and 1938 Original Theatre: For performances on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, face masks are recommended but not required. For performances on Wednesdays and Sundays, face masks are required. Olney’s Health and Safety page is here.

    SEE ALSO:
    Olney elevates ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to new and exciting heights (review by Darby DeJarnette, November 12, 2021)
    Fresh and fun ‘Beauty and the Beast’ returns to Olney Theatre Center (review by Julia Amis, November 15, 2022)

  • ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Kennedy Center is everything a musical should be

    ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Kennedy Center is everything a musical should be

    Frothy as a coupe of champagne and brimming with beloved tunes, Guys and Dolls is almost always a crowd-pleaser. Layer on the stellar cast and awesome production values of the Kennedy Center’s current offering and you’ve got a near-perfect musical.

    The show’s only problem may be that it sold out before it even opened.

    James Monroe Iglehart and Company in ‘Guys and Dolls.’ Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

    Guys and Dolls opens the fourth season of the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage program, which brings top-tier Broadway talent to Washington, DC, for short-run revivals of classic musicals. While previous Broadway Center Stage productions were billed as “semi-staged” productions, Guys and Dolls ups the ante as the first fully staged musical in the series. Indeed, this production is so streamlined and slick — featuring a 22-piece onstage band, intricate dance numbers, and floor-to-ceiling projections — it is hard to fathom that it was brought to life after a mere two weeks of rehearsals.

    Guys and Dolls famously tells the overlapping stories of loveable gambler Nathan Detroit, who gets cold feet every time he’s near an altar, and suave Sky Masterson, who insists he will never fall in love. Sure, we could complain that the plot is antiquated (Miss Adelaide’s sole ambition is to marry Nathan, to whom she has been engaged for 14 years, while the slick Sky starts courting Sarah Brown as part of a bet) or we could just sit back and enjoy the brilliance of Frank Loesser’s score in the hands of Broadway’s best and brightest. I vote for the latter.

    Let’s begin with the ladies, because while the entire cast is brilliant, Jessie Mueller, as Hot Box dancer Miss Adelaide, and Phillipa Soo, as Christian mission worker Sarah Brown, are the pillars of talent that everything else in this production radiates from.

    While Mueller’s performance as Miss Adelaide is notable for her stellar vocals on crowd-pleasing numbers including “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Adelaide’s Lament,” what sealed the deal for me was the nuance Mueller brought to what could have been a one-dimensional comic character. In Mueller’s hands, Miss Adelaide goes through a bevy of emotions. She is one tough cookie and, by golly, we want her to have her happily ever after. And what a treat to see Mueller, who earned great acclaim for playing dramatic leads in Beautiful and Waitress, fully unleash her comedic side. (Guys and Dolls director Marc Bruni, incidentally, also directed Mueller in the Broadway production of Beautiful.)

    Jessie Mueller and Phillipa Soo in ‘Guys and Dolls.’ Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

    Soo brought similar nuance to the role of mission worker Sarah Brown. Soo’s easy, lilting soprano is a joy in the classic tunes “I’ll Know” and “If I Were a Bell,” and she gracefully shifts from prim churchgoer (Mara Blumenfeld’s missionary costumes help keep her buttoned up) to young woman experiencing her first love — and her first taste of Bacardi — in the “Havana” scene.

    Soo and Pasquale — who are married in real life — display palpable chemistry in their dialogue and their duets, especially the ballad “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” which brought down the Act I curtain to thunderous applause. As the smooth-talking Sky Masteron, Pasquale is irresistible with a noir-esque fedora and sardonic delivery of lines laced with gambling metaphors. His rumbling tenor seems tailor-made for wooing Miss Sarah and for Sky Masterson’s signature tune “Luck Be a Lady.”

    James Monroe Iglehart rounds out the quartet as Adelaide’s perpetual fiance Nathan Detroit. While Iglehart’s performance was technically flawless and his “Sue Me” duet with Mueller divine, his character seemed to be the least developed of the four, and I missed the comedic swagger that won him a Tony for his performance as the Genie in Aladdin. (Fun fact: the lead role of Nathan Detroit has only one song (“Sue Me”) in the show. Why? Because when show creators were working on the original 1950 musical, the role of Nathan Detroit had already been assigned to Same Levene, who was considered perfect for the role… except for the fact that he couldn’t sing.)

    Of the supporting cast (and boy, what a supporting cast!), Kevin Chamberlin wins my vote for best featured actor as Nicely Nicely Johnson, the cheerful gambler. He is priceless in every scene and one of those character actors who can elicit laughter simply through a well-timed bulge of his eyes or quiver of his jowls. At the performance I attended, Chamberlain (and the rest of the cast) received a spontaneous mid-show standing ovation after performing the barn-burning 11 o’clock number “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.”

    Kevin Chamberlin and the cast of ‘Guys and Dolls.’ Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

    And speaking of character actors, Rachel Dratch will no doubt have her own throng of fans in the audience. The diminutive Saturday Night Live alumn, fresh off her first Tony nomination for Broadway’s POTUS, plays hilariously against type as the gambler-to-intimidate-all-gamblers Big Jule. Sporting a pencil mustache and a black-and-white striped zoot suit, Dratch doesn’t even need to speak to elicit laughter. The arch of her eyebrow is enough. Her role is small through much of Act I, but she enjoys one hilarious scene in Act II and joins the other gangsters in several glorious ensemble numbers.

    Choreographer Denis Jones has put together some truly stunning dance sequences for the production’s large and talented ensemble. “The Crapshooters Dance,” the most intricately choreographed number in the show, was such a showstopper that it threatened to overshadow “Luck Be a Lady,” one of the show’s most well-known songs, which has the misfortune to come in the wake of the outsized dance number.

    Director Marc Bruni wisely chose to work with the orchestrations (by Michael Starobin) created for the 1992 Tony Award-winning revival of Guys and Dolls, which revised elements of the 1950 original. The band, conducted by Kevin Stites, brought the orchestrations to glorious life from two bandstands placed just behind the action.

    All that to say: wow. If you have already scored a ticket to this all-too-brief revival, count yourself lucky. If not, well, there are two other productions planned for this season’s Broadway Center Stage series (Sunset Boulevard and Kiss of the Spiderwoman). It’s a sure bet that they will be winners too.

    Running Time: Two hours 30 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.

    Broadway Center Stage: Guys and Dolls plays through October 16, 2022, at The Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($59–$299) are available at the box office, online, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

    The Guys and Dolls program is online here.

    COVID Safety: Masks are required for all patrons inside all theaters during performances at the Kennedy Center unless actively eating or drinking for events through October 17, 2022. Beginning October 18, 2022 masks are optional. If you prefer to wear a mask, you are welcome to do so. Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan is here.

  • ‘Dance Nation’ steps in pre-teen angst at Olney Theatre Center

    ‘Dance Nation’ steps in pre-teen angst at Olney Theatre Center

    I have a lot of experience with adolescent girls. I used to be one — for several years, in fact. And I currently live with three. Three girls in their teens and pre-teens who exude emotion, drama, and insecurity on the daily. It’s a lot. And coming-of-age tales are some of my favorite kinds of stories, so I was eager to see Playwright Clare Barron’s take on the adolescent experience, Dance Nation, now making its regional debut at Olney Theatre.

    The cast of ‘Dance Nation’ at Olney Theatre Center. L-R; Louis E. Davis, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Jasmine Joy, Ashley D. Nguyen, Megan Graves, Marybeth Wise, Brigid Cleary. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

    I arrived at Olney knowing that Dance Nation had been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2019, and the main question on my mind was: why? How did this story about a team of pre-teen dance competitors from Ohio translate into material impactful and searing enough to warrant a Pulitzer Prize mention? I expected something like The Wolves or John Proctor Is the Villain, both of which had successful DC runs recently and both of which dig deep into the internal lives of teenage girls.

    Dance Nation did that too, but in an unconventional way that some will find fresh, and others… just weird. The play’s very loose storyline focuses on a team of eight aspiring dancers aged 11 to 13 who are participating in regional dance competitions with the goal of making it to nationals. Throughout the play, the characters break into inner monologues that offer glimpses into their thoughts, goals, and insecurities. Conversations between the adolescents and their moms provide insight into the pressures the young girls face: living with a dance mom who pushes her lost dreams onto you, or getting your first period right before you are supposed to go onstage. By juxtaposing everyday interactions with internal self-reflections, Dance Nation is here to remind us that puberty is a time of deep anxiety and that though they be but little, tweenage girls are hella fierce. The way we process these feelings, and the circumstances that trigger them, is what shapes us into the adults we become.

    But, for me, Dance Nation fails to hit the deep emotional spot that The Wolves or John Proctor touched. Although it skillfully bounces between scenes of humor and drama, the show lacks much of a narrative arc. It follows the tweens (seven girls and one brave dance boy) through two dance competitions in a loose trajectory of scenes that seem to meander more than lead to a satisfying conclusion. Some of the scenes are purposefully provocative, like one in which an insecure dancer suddenly develops vampire teeth and draws blood on her own arm. Or another where the entire cast starts chanting about the perfection of their p*ssies. Both scenes left me scratching my head and wondering what I was meant to be taking away from what I was seeing. Sure, it was provocative and envelope-pushing, but to borrow an expression I learned from my own teen, these extra scenes seemed “just so extra.”

    There are many people who love this show. And maybe you will be one of those people. People I respect deeply (including NYT critic Ben Brantley) have described it as urgent and necessary. In opening remarks the night I attended the show, Artistic Director Jason Loewith said that Dance Nation was “one of the gutsiest shows we’ve programmed here” and that is probably true. This show will not be for everyone. It is certainly not for the crowd that will come to Olney for Beauty and the Beast later this year. So kudos to Loewith for continuing to take risks and expand the experiences Olney offers as he has done throughout his tenure at the theater. Olney Theatre Center truly has something for everyone in its community.

    Brigid Cleary, Louis E. Davis, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Michael Wood, Jasmine Joy, Ashley D. Nguyen, MaryBeth Wise, and Megan Graves in ‘Dance Nation’ at Olney Theatre Center. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

    For anyone interested in highly nontraditional and at times lewd theatrical experience, Olney’s production is great. Director Jenna Place grabs the material by its cojones and wrests vulnerability and angst from each member of the cast, which (at the playwright’s instruction) is made up entirely of adults of varying ages playing 12- and 13-year-olds. Set Designer Paige Hathaway’s two-tier set is versatile and clever.

    The ensemble cast of nine turns out uniformly compelling performances. Standouts include Brigid Cleary as Ashlee. Cleary gives one of the show’s most memorable monologues in a speech that starts with the superficial musings adults expect from teenage girls and crescendos into a vitriolic manifesto on Ashlee’s goals, of which she has many.

    The primary drama in a show full of so. much. teen. drama. revolves around the characters of Amina, the troupe’s star dancer, and Zuzu, a less successful dancer who faces immense pressure from her mom and coach. As Amina and Zuzu, Jasmine Joy, and Ashley D. Nguyen turn out deeply emotional performances, imbuing their characters with believable earnestness as they grapple with decisions that will impact their lives well into adulthood.

    Special mention goes to Michael Wood as Dance Teacher Pat, possibly Ohio’s most overzealous dance teacher. For a time during the show, I was worried that Pat’s storyline would veer into the realm of sexual predation, but the fact that Dance Teacher Pat never intentionally abuses the girls whispers one of the play’s great truths: that the pressure tweens face by going through the ordinary act of growing up are often enough to scar us forever. Also, Michael Wood’s over-the-top portrayal and his costumes (by Moyenda Kulemeka) are downright hilarious.

    A tip of my hat to Sound Designer Kenny Neal for the high-intensity pop tunes that permeate the show. Listen for the epic mashup of Missy Elliot’s “Get Your Freak On” and Marvin Hamlish’s opening number from A Chorus Line, “I Hope I Get It,” which weaves through the pop tune like an old friend waving to the theater lovers in the audience.

    The rest of the cast each contributes to the warmth of the production in their own way, most entertainingly in the group dance numbers that look as fun to perform as they are to watch (choreography by Nikki Mirza). And it’s always a good day when you can see Louis E. Davis, Megan Graves, Yesenia Iglesias, Shubhangi Kuchibhola, and Marybeth Wise onstage together.

    Dance Nation is a strong addition to the growing category of plays exploring the drama of growing up. It didn’t quite work for me, but there is definitely an audience out there for this Pulitzer-finalist play, and I’m glad DC audiences are getting the chance to see it.

    Running Time: 100 minutes with no intermission.

    Dance Nation plays through October 30, 2022, in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney Sandy Spring Road in Olney, MD. Tickets start at $54. Discounts are available for groups, seniors, active military, and students. To purchase, call the box office at (301) 924-3400 or go online.

    Recommended for ages 13 and older.

    The Dance Nation program is online here.

    COVID Safety: Patrons with tickets to in-person performances are required to wear face masks during all mainstage performances. Ticket holders who do not comply with these policies will not be admitted.

    Dance Nation by Clare Barron

    CAST
    Brigid Cleary: Ashlee
    Louis Davis: Luke
    Megan Graves: Sophia
    Yesenia Iglesias: Moms/Vanessa
    Jasmine Joy: Amina
    Shubhangi Kuchibhotla: Connie
    Ashley Nguyen: Zuzu
    MaryBeth Wise: Maeve
    Michael Wood: Dance Teacher Pat

    CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION
    Director: Jenna Place
    Choreographer/Assistant Director: Nikki Mirza
    Production Director: Josiane M. Jones
    Scenic Designer: Paige Hathaway
    Costume Designer: Moyenda Kulemeka
    Lighting Designer: Sarah Tundermann
    Sound Designer: Kenny Neal
    Intimacy and Violence Director: Mallory Shear
    Production Stage Manager: Bailey Howard

  • Superstar Norm Lewis on his coming solo show at Hylton Performing Arts Center

    Superstar Norm Lewis on his coming solo show at Hylton Performing Arts Center

    When Broadway superstar Norm Lewis made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall this year, it felt like the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. He had been part of Carnegie Hall events before, but to headline his own concert there? That made an impression on even this seasoned performer.

    “It felt like an out-of-body experience,” Lewis says.

    Norm Lewis. Photo by Peter Hurley.

    Now Lewis, who is known for his starring Broadway performances in Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Porgy and Bess, Once on This Island, and more, is bringing his solo show An Evening with Norm Lewis to the DC region for an intimate concert at George Mason’s Hylton Performing Arts Center September 18.

    Lewis promises that his Virginia concert will feature what he describes as “Norm’s greatest hits,” major songs from the musicals he has starred in over the years. But Lewis also promises “a deep dive into the American songbook” and possibly a few songs inspired by his recent screen roles, including his first major motion picture, Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods.

    “I don’t call my shows concerts or cabarets but An Evening with Norm,” he says. “I like my audiences to get to know me. I talk to them, and hopefully, they talk back. It should feel like a party where I invite you into my living room.”

    One song Lewis says he never tires of singing is “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera. Lewis made history in 2014 when he became the first Black performer to play the role of the Phantom on Broadway, and audiences still thrill to hear him sing “Music of the Night.” At the Kennedy Center’s 50 Years of Broadway anniversary concert last February, Lewis received a spontaneous five-minute standing ovation after performing the number.

    Norm Lewis in ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ Photo by Matthew Murphy.

    “I cannot tell you how much fun we had at that Kennedy Center concert,” Lewis recalls of the three-day extravaganza that brought many of Broadway’s leading performers to DC. “It felt like being at camp with all your best friends.”

    Lewis has become a frequent visitor to the DC region in recent years. In addition to the 50th-anniversary concert, Lewis played Harold Hill in the Kennedy Center’s The Music Man alongside co-star Jessie Mueller as Marian. “You can fall in love with Jessie Mueller every day of the week!” Lewis enthuses about the experience. Lewis will be back at the Kennedy Center this December in director Kenny Leon’s production of A Soldier’s Play.

    Surprisingly, A Soldier’s Play will only be Lewis’ second time performing in a nonmusical play. Although Lewis has been performing in musicals on Broadway since 1993, he had never been in a Broadway play. That changed last year when playwright Douglas Lyons invited Lewis to join the cast of Chicken and Biscuits, one of the first plays to open on Broadway after the 18-month closure.

    “It felt amazing to be back with people again,” Lewis says of returning to Broadway for the first time after COVID. “Theater is our church. It’s where we gather with ideology and purpose, trying to bring truth to this art.”

    Lewis has to fit concerts around an otherwise busy performance schedule. In addition to his work on the Great White Way, Lewis has played many roles on both large and small screens in recent years. A guest-starring role on the FX TV series Pose included a love scene with fellow Broadway legend, and Lewis’ good friend, Billy Porter. “We’ve known each other for over 30 years,” Lewis laughs when recalling the now-viral Pose kiss scene with Porter. “We had to film that scene several times and every time Billy was like ‘I feel like I’m kissing my brother!’”

    Norm Lewis sings ‘Stars’ from ‘Les Misérables’ at the 50 Years of Broadway at the Kennedy Center concert. Photo by Scott Suchman.

    In addition to performing, Lewis has been busy in recent years as one of the founding members of Black Theatre United, a group formed in 2020 by America’s leading Black theatermakers to combat systemic racism in the theater industry. Lewis says the group was born in 2020 when he and 19 other Black theater veterans including LaChanze and Audra McDonald met on Zoom. “We saw how angry the younger generation of Black artists was. It felt like they were looking to us as the older generation so we started asking ourselves what we could do.” The organization now advocates for equity, diversity, and inclusion in the theater industry, working to make small changes like ensuring theaters have someone who knows how to do Black hair onstage and larger, systemic changes like offering mentoring opportunities to younger artists. (Lewis encourages anyone in New York on October 3 to attend the group’s first gala at the South Street Seaport.)

    But between all of these experiences, Lewis loves the opportunity to connect with audiences in intimate concerts like the one coming up at the Hylton Center. “It’s an opportunity to take your mind off your troubles for 80 or 90 minutes,” Lewis says. “The world is going nuts right now so let’s get together and sing some songs and tell some stories.”

    An Evening with Norm Lewis plays one night only on September 18, 2022, at 7:00 pm at the Hylton Performing Arts Center at George Mason Unversity – 10960 George Mason Circle, in Manassas, VA. For tickets ($40–$70; half-price for students through grade 12), call the box office at 703-993-7550 or go online.

    Running Time: 75–90 minutes with no intermission.

    COVID Safety: Face coverings are recommended for indoor events at the Hylton Center. Current protocols can be found here.

    RELATED:
    15 Questions in 15 Minutes with Broadway’s Norm Lewis (interview by Deb Miller)

  • Adventure Theatre staff allege unfair pay and unsafe working conditions

    Adventure Theatre staff allege unfair pay and unsafe working conditions

    The staff of Adventure Theatre Company has issued an unsigned letter alleging that the Glen Echo, Maryland-based children’s theater has engaged in a series of harmful employment practices since reopening after COVID.

    Complaints in the letter (which states that it comes from “The Adventure Theatre MTC staff”) include a lack of internal staff protocols, regularly expecting staff to work overtime hours without compensation, and staging back-to-back productions at an unsafe speed that has resulted in physical injuries to cast members.

    Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo Park, Maryland.

    According to the letter, these practices resulted in widespread staff resignations in October of 2021. Three complaints have been lodged with Not In Our House DC, the collective of volunteers that helps theater professionals navigate workplace difficulties. The complete text of the letter can be found here.

    Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC) is currently led by a governing board, Artistic Director Chil Kong, and Interim Executive Director Jeanne Ellinport, who was appointed when Executive Director Leon Seemann left the theater in February.

    Many of the complaints in the letter are directed specifically at Ellinport. According to the complainants:

    The 21-22 Production season at Adventure, previously helmed by Executive Director Leon Seemann, has been a case study in mismanagement, which was further exacerbated at the end of February 2022 by the arrival of Jeanne Ellinport as Interim Executive Director, who has no professional theatre or arts management experience and is ignorant of EDI [Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion] practices. Jeanne Ellinport, former Board Treasurer, may have non-profit management experience, however the performing arts industry requires robust, specialized knowledge, experience, and skills to effectively lead, especially during a pandemic and the industry-wide movement to eliminate racial inequities. Jeanne Ellinport’s mismanagement over the past 4 months has left the staff and contractors confused over the Board of Director’s choice to appoint her as Interim Executive Director, and frustrated with their failure to appoint a capable Executive Director. To date, the Board has not even begun the search for a permanent, experienced Executive Director.

    DC Theater Arts spoke to Ellinport about the letter. Ellinport agrees that ATMTC needs to put in place better operating procedures and increase staff pay. “Change can’t happen overnight,” Ellinport told DCTA. “But the board and myself are committed to making it happen.” She notes that pay increases are already on the books for the 2022–2023 season and that staff was informed of this at a recent meeting.

    Ellinport told DCTA that she has over 30 years of experience in nonprofits, most recently stepping into interim roles in nonprofit organizations to “get them on the right path” before a full-time executive director is appointed. She points to difficult events of the past few years as exacerbating factors that led the theater to become understaffed. Specifically, Ellinport mentions the 18-month COVID closure, the departure of former Artistic Director Michael Bobbitt, and the fire that destroyed part of ATMTC’s Glen Echo Park facility in 2017. These events have left the theater in what Ellinport describes as “a rebuilding phase.” She notes that the theater has not had a strategic plan in five years. “It would have been wrong for the theater to bring on a new executive director now,” Ellinport says. “There is too much that is unsteady or unknown. Additionally, we are working on rebranding but culture change takes time.”

    Another item on the extensive list of staff complaints states,

    Leadership has consistently over scheduled seasons with no breaks in between productions for ATMTC staff, creating overlaps of duties and no opportunity for time off; leadership consistently creates inhumane performance schedules without adequate breaks that overextend actors/crew and put undue stress on their bodies and voices, potentially leading to lasting health issues.

    Ellinport says that ATMTC leadership is looking into ways to decrease the burden on staff. For this reason, the theater has not yet announced its 2022–2023 season. “We are trying to get creative to balance an overworked schedule. Do we shorten schedules and not have eight-week runs? Are there things we can do in between that aren’t taxing on our staff?” Ellinport notes that she has been talking to other children’s theaters across the country to see how they approach things.

    One stressor that ATMTC deals with is its lease at Glen Echo Park, which stipulates that the theater’s doors be open a certain number of days per year.

    The letter states that current Adventure Theatre MTC staff members have tried numerous times over recent months to present their concerns about unfair compensation and an unsafe work environment to company leadership. It specifically refers to a June 12, 2022, meeting in which staff members raised safety concerns. According to the letter, Kong and Ellinport failed to offer any solutions and instead referred to the profit-centered business plan created by Adventure’s board of directors.

    DCTA spoke to one of the authors of the letter of complaint, who wishes to remain anonymous. “I feel very disposable,” said this staff member, who has worked full-time at ATMTC since early 2022. “Despite the fact that this is what I went to college for and have done for years, it feels like she [Ellinport] doesn’t care about the labor that we do. She treats us like unskilled laborers but this isn’t just something you can pick up and do.”

    Artistic Director Chil Kong acknowledges that mistakes have been made at ATMTC in recent years. “The key to mistakes is learning and improving,” Kong says. “I hope we are given some grace as we put into practice what we have learned. I know we have all worked beyond our job descriptions since the theater reopened. Nothing is more important now than rebuilding trust with staff.”

    The letter concludes by calling on ATMTC to cease production of its 2022–2023 season until it can correct harmful labor practices by hiring additional staff to fill vacant positions, and implement fair labor and safety practices.

    The full text of the letter of complaint by the staff of Adventure Theatre MTC can be found here.

    Links included in the letter as “Relevant Industry Information”:

    “Boards Are Broken, So Let’s Break and Remake Them” by Michael Bobbitt for American Theatre Magazine

    “Victory Gardens Theater’s Resident Artists Resign Citing Grievances With the Chicago Theatre’s Board of Directors” by Playbill

    ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION SUPPORTS VICTORY GARDENS THEATER WORKERS

  • Wildwood Summer Theatre’s ‘The Lightning Thief’ proves the kids are alright

    Wildwood Summer Theatre’s ‘The Lightning Thief’ proves the kids are alright

    The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is a great choice for a student production. And you will not find a more enthusiastic group of young performers than the team that put together Wildwood Summer Theatre’s current production of The Lightning Thief.

    The cast of Wildwood Summer Theatre’s ‘The Lightning Thief.’ Photo courtesy of Wildwood Summer Theatre.

    Based on the best-selling book by Rick Riordon, The Lightning Thief tells the story of a group of adolescent demi-gods (children whose parents include one Greek God and one human) who are training at a place called Camp Half-Blood where they prepare to defend the Gods against various enemies. The Lightning Thief is the first book in a five-book series that features Percy Jackson (son of Poseiden) going on a series of quests with his good friends Annabeth (daughter of Athena) and Grover (a satyr, or “goat boy” if you will).

    The show’s heavy rock score is perfect for choreographing fun group numbers, and the show has a large ensemble cast so plenty of performers get a chance in the spotlight. Thematically, the show deals with a lot of the issues that adolescents and young adults grapple with. Percy is famously dyslexic while Annabeth feels unwelcome at home by her stepmother.

    Wildwood Summer Theatre is a nonprofit and the oldest theater in the region that is run completely by students and young adults. The performers, designers, directors and musicians in Wildwood’s productions must be between ages 14 and 25. Once you pass 25 you age out. Only the company’s board members, who all have an arts background, are around to provide an “older” perspective.

    With that in mind, The Lightning Thief‘s team did an impressive job of crafting a full-length musical. Director Mercedes Blankenship put together a cohesive show that moved energetically. Choreographer Kate Quinn put together some first-rate dance numbers on the show’s big ensemble numbers, and music director Ginny Moses led an energetic six-piece band.

    In the lead role of Percy Jackson, recent high school graduate Noah Haren’s performance was physical and full of humor. His lively gestures and facial expressions resulted in great comedic timing. As Grover, KT Aylesworth also showed off their comedic side and a strong alto voice. Rounding out the trio was Caleigh Davis as Annabeth. Davis’ strong vocals were a highlight of the show.

    One of the great things about The Lightning Thief is that it has many cameo roles that give ensemble members a moment in the spotlight. One of the funniest of these was Scott Armiger as Mr. D. This part lends itself to great comedy, as Mr. D (that’s short for Dionysus, the disgruntled God of Wine who is stuck at Camp Half-Blood for 100 years as punishment from Zeus). Armiger appears onstage in an exaggerated fake mustache, comical outfit and tap shoes which he put to good use in the number “Another Terrible Day”.

    Other songs in the show gave performers the chance to showcase their impressive vocals. The perfectly cast Julia Link in the role of Clarisse (daughter of Zeus) impressed with her strong belting voice in the song “Put You in Your Place”. Chiron (Sam Intrater) showed off his lovely tenor in the tune “Their Sign” and Luke (Jacob Pelzman-Kern) displayed a great singing voice (and an entertaining sense of rage) in the song “The Last Day of Summer”. All three performers had great voices and I wished they had more opportunities to show them off.

    This was a production that was carried out with very few bells and whistles. But the lack of elaborate sets or costumes showcased the creativity of the designers on the team. The set (scenic designer Mairead Canning) was a simple Greek building facade made of little more than cardboard and plywood. But it conveyed the essence of Camp Half-Blood and made for seamless and easy scene changes.

    The costumes and props were similarly simple, and yet effective. Taking place in a world populated by magic and mythical creatures, staging The Lightning Thief presents a challenge in that it could call for elaborate designs. But the Wildwood team was right to embrace simplicity. For example, the character of Chiron (half man, half horse) was played by an actor (Sam Intrater) who clearly had only two legs, but his humorous exaggerated horse stride made the audience chuckle each time he came onstage and clearly conveyed that he was part horse.

    The handmade special effects (props designer Kelly Gentilo) were produced with no frills but plenty of ingenuity. One scene calls for Percy to make a toilet overflow and douse Clarisse with water. No water? No problem. The Wildwood team simulated the effect of water with a can of silly string. A similar effect was achieved later in the play by using blue streamers when Percy causes the ocean to rise up against the God Ares (Ross Bollinger)

    One thing that impressed me about the Wildwood program is its commitment to providing training opportunities in all aspects of theater production. The Lightning Thief team included a fight choreographer (Kiefer Cure) to help the actors safely and realistically engage in sword fights, a large team of designers and engineers to craft the technical elements of the production, and most impressively a dramaturg AND assistant dramaturg (Ileana Blustein and Daniella Ignacio). For anyone not familiar with a dramaturg, their job is to research the background of the play and to share their knowledge with the performers who benefit from these insights and create a more engaging depiction of the material. In this production, the dramaturgs spent time discussing the history of Greek mythology, dyslexia and ADHD with the cast to gain an understanding of what challenges Percy Jackson dealt with as he grew up.

    Wildwood Summer Theater is a great program for training young performers in all aspects of theater creation. I enjoyed this production and I wish these creators all the best in their future endeavors.

    Running Time: Two and a half hours including a 15-minute intermission

    Wildwood Summer Theater’s The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical played July 15 – 23, 2022 at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center – 7995 Georgia Avenue, in Silver Spring, MD. For more information about Wildwood Summer Theater go online.

    Covid Protocol: Proof of vaccination and masks are required.

    Percy Jackson: Noah Haren
    Annabeth Chase: Caleigh Davis
    Grover Underwood: KT Aylesworth
    Luke Castellan: Jacob Pelzman-Kern
    Chiron: Sam Intrater
    Sally Jackson: Abby Ehrenstein
    Clarisse/Mrs. Dodds: Julia Link
    Mr. D/Hades: Scott Armiger
    Oracle/Charon: Susanna Hubacker
    Ares/Gabe: Ross Bollinger
    Katie/Squirrel: Delaney Gregg
    Silena/Aunty Em: Maggie Rocha
    Poseidon/Ensemble: Judah Canizares

    ENSEMBLE:
    Alyssa Taylor (u/s Silena/Auntie Em)
    Bash House (u/s Percy)
    Carolina Tomasi (u/s Clarisse/Mrs. Dodds)
    Hanna Biedron (u/s Grover)
    Maddie Sebastian (u/s Annabeth)

    Producer: Katie Peacock
    Director of PR: Siena Maxwell
    Production Manager: Val McFatter
    Production SM: Ellen Mitchell
    Rehearsal SM: Emily Shpiece
    Assistant SM: Annie Guo
    Director: Mercedes Blankenship
    Music Director: Ginny Moses
    Assistant MD: Zoe Fischthal
    Choreographer: Katie Quinn
    Fight Choreographer: Kiefer Cure

    Dramaturg: Ileana Blustein
    Associate Dramaturg: Daniella Ignacio
    Technical Director: Andrew McMichael
    Scenic Designer: Mairead Canning
    Asst. Scenic Designer: Anna Ryabova
    Costume Designer: Delaney Gregg
    Asst. Costume Designer: Josie Danckaert
    Props Designer: Kelly Gentilo
    Asst. Props Designer: Luisa Pasturel
    Lighting Designer: Erin Sanders
    Sound Designer Michael Roll

    Music Director: Ginny Moses
    Assistant MDs: Zoe Fischthal, Katie Stauderman
    Guitar 1: Carter Grimes
    Guitar 2:     Daniel Wilson
    Bass:     Tyler Jackson
    Drums:     Daniel Czyz
    Melodica:     Bethany Fuss

  • 2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Sheboygan’ by novelist Louis Bayard

    2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Sheboygan’ by novelist Louis Bayard

    If it weren’t ripped from the headlines, it would be hard to believe. Yet novelist Louis Bayard’s debut play, Sheboygan, is indeed based on recent true events.

    In 2020, when writer H.G. Carrillo passed away, the Washington Post noted his influence as a Cuban American author. Carrillo had made a name for himself based on this Latin origin story. Only none of it was true. Carrillo was born in Detroit and his real name was Herman Glenn Carroll, facts that came to light only after his death when his mother corrected his Washington Post obituary.

    Bayard’s excellent debut play presents the hypothetical fallout of this discovery. Bayard’s script raises questions about identity and cultural appropriation. But it wins hearts by delving deep into the fallout of this deception for those who loved him, particularly his mother and husband who meet only after his death.

    Anyone familiar with DC theater will appreciate this opportunity to see the work of some of DC’s finest theater artists in an intimate setting. DC superstar Craig Wallace directs Sheboygan. Wallace’s professional touch could be felt in every aspect of the play, from the intimate feel of the show to the streamlined scene changes.

    The three-person cast was led by the brilliant Kimberly Schraf, one of DC’s finest performers, playing the role of the deceased writer’s mother. Schraf’s commanding onstage presence was a joy to behold as she guided her deceased son’s husband (an excellent Zack Powell) through the grief process. Jonathan Atkinson plays the deceased writer who reappears in a series of flashbacks giving us insight into the couple’s relationship as his husband comes to terms with his deception.

    The title of the play comes from the town where Bayard’s fictionalized writer grew up, and Schraf’s impeccable Wisconsin accent plays in stark contrast to her son’s assumed Latino intonations.

    Sheboygan will leave you wanting to hug those closest to you. Don’t miss your chance to see these top-notch DC artists at work.

     

    Running Time: 70 minutes with no intermission.

    Sheboygan plays two more times — July 21, 2022, at 9:45 pm and July 22 at 9:30 pm — at W. Washington, formerly Forever 21 Georgetown, 3222 M St NW, Washington, DC. For performance schedule and to purchase tickets go online.

    COVID Safety: The audience is to remain masked for the show. The mask needs to cover your mouth and nose the whole time. Proof of vaccination and ID are checked before entry.

    Genre: Drama
    Age appropriateness: Recommended for children age 13+ or older

    Performers
    Jonathan Atkinson, Zack Powell, Kimberly Schraf

    Creative/Production Team
    Playwright: Louis Bayard (For more information on Bayard’s novels and fiction, visit his website.)

  • 2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Motherload’ by Jenna Hall and Justine Hipsky

    2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Motherload’ by Jenna Hall and Justine Hipsky

    Sometimes laughter really is the best medicine. That is certainly the case in Motherload, the new play by Washington Improv Theater veterans Jenna Hall and Justine Hipsky.

    Hall and Hipsky wrote, directed, and performed the semi-autobiographical show now making its debut at Capital Fringe. The show is based on the women’s childhood relationships with their mothers and it is by turns hilarious, heartfelt, and heartbreaking.

    Let’s address the humor first. Hall and Hipsky’s improv credentials shine through as they imbue their onstage personas with comfortable, low-brow humor reminiscent of screen duos like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler or Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. They exhibit an endearing camaraderie and their ribbing and gossiping instantly made me want to call my college bestie and give her a big hug.

    The show starts as a full-on comedy. The pair discuss their plans to write a play about their mothers while engaging in the kind of small talk that close-knit girlfriends revel in: a guy from Tinder who looks like a toe, or a retail therapy trip to Marshalls. Slowly, though, the conversation turns to less-than-funny events from their family lives. It is the nuanced blend of comedy and vulnerability that gives Motherload its poignancy.

    In the funniest scenes in the play, the actors morph into their mothers, giving us a glimpse into their pasts and treating us to some great character acting. Hall and Hipsky go all in on the comedy, morality police be damned.

    In future productions, the scene changes could be streamlined. In its current form, Motherload is produced as a series of scenes, each scene followed by a musical interlude and dimmed lights while the set is moved around for a good 60 to 90 seconds. These long scene changes broke up the continuity of the show and gave me the impression it didn’t know if it wanted to be a series of comedy sketches or one continuous play.

    But that is a minor detail in an otherwise praiseworthy endeavor. The climactic final scene, in particular, drew spontaneous applause from the audience. Hall and Hipsky have created something intensely personal and yet very relatable in Motherload. The result is a moving theater experience that may be as cathartic for viewers as it is for the writers. Bring your tissues.

     

    Running Time: 75 minutes

    Motherload plays two more times — July 23, 2022, at 2:15 pm and July 24 at 8:00 pm — at W. Washington – former Forever 21 Georgetown, 3222 M Street NW, Washington, DC. To see the performance schedule and purchase tickets ($15), go online.

    COVID Safety: The audience is to remain masked for the show. The mask needs to cover your mouth and nose the whole time. Proof of vaccination and ID are checked before entry.

    Genre: Comedy
    Age appropriateness: Appropriate for Adults Only

  • 2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Mary’ by Jo Williamson

    2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Mary’ by Jo Williamson

    Here is the thing about solo shows: they are incredibly hard to pull off. It requires a lot of charisma to keep an audience’s attention focused on you — and only you — for the duration.

    If Jo Williamson had been telling me her story over drinks at a bar, I would have been all in. But told from the stage, it lacked both the zestful performance and the compelling narrative arc to keep me invested.

    Williamson’s one-woman personal narrative, titled Mary, was a mildly interesting story of a woman who considers herself an atheist. She develops relationships with two different men who wanted to marry her, each with the caveat that she embrace their religion, one a Christian and one a Muslim. Each time, Mary took the proposal seriously and did a deep dive into both the Bible and the Koran before making her decision.

    The story is well-told for the most part but it lacked any punch at the end. Was there a moral? A lesson? A great realization? If there was, I missed it. Probably because Williamson’s telling of the story had a somewhat soporific effect on me as it neared its conclusion. Williamson could remedy this by cranking up the drama in her storytelling. In particular, she missed many chances to bring to life the various side characters she portrayed in the course of her story.

    The show was punctuated by audio excerpts of several people discussing the role of religion in their lives and how their dedication to their faith forced them to make a major life decision. While these audio clips and Williamson’s monologue both focused on religion, I was unclear what the connection was and what I was supposed to take away from the audio clips.

    A more animated performance and a clearer message at the end would do wonders for this show in future iterations.

     

    Running Time: 60 minutes, with no intermission.

    Mary plays two more times — July 23, 2022, at 9:15 PM and July 24 at 6:00 PM — at W. WASHINGTON – Formerly Forever 21 Georgetown, 3222 M Street NW, Washington, DC. To see the performance schedule and purchase tickets ($15), go online.

    COVID Safety: The audience is to remain masked for the show. The mask needs to cover your mouth and nose the whole time. Proof of vaccination and ID are checked before entry.

    Genre: Drama
    Age appropriateness: Appropriate for adults and children age 13+

    SEE ALSO:
    2022 Capital Fringe Preview: ‘Mary’ by Jo Williamson

  • 2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Body Show’ by Mikala Jamison

    2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Body Show’ by Mikala Jamison

    To be totally honest, I went into The Body Show with pretty low expectations. Spoken word was fine when The Moth Radio Show played on NPR while I was running errands, but it wasn’t something I had ever gone out of my way to see.

    Silly, silly me.

    Mikala Jamison’s The Body Show, now playing at Capital Fringe, was as entertaining as any traditional play and more intimate than many plays since each of the spoken-word show’s first-rate storytellers was sharing incredibly personal stories through well-crafted monologues that they performed with zest, charisma, and a touching vulnerability.

    Jamison herself started off the show with a hilarious tale about the time her father confused her uvula with her vulva (I was in stitches). Jamison then served as emcee, introducing seven other talented storytellers who each told a seven-minute story involving their relationship to their body.

    The stories ranged from incredibly poignant — Kelly Mack enthralled us with an account of trying to get a taxi in DC as a person who uses a wheelchair — to hilarious — Rajesh Mirchandani’s story of the dread he felt over aging.

    Other standout performances on the night I attended included Ronald Young Jr. with a hilarious story about intimidating his co-workers during a game of bubble soccer, Ansa Edim (a 2022 MothSLAM Champion Storyteller) discussing the trauma of getting an IUD, and Kate Symes on deciding whether or not to have a baby.

    Each storyteller had a unique voice and each was a consummate pro. This is a very pedigreed bunch, and together their résumés include stints on some of the nation’s top storytelling venues… including the Moth Radio Hour which I will now listen to with more respect while I’m out running errands.

    Don’t miss this chance to see these pros at work.

     

    Running Time: 60 minutes with no intermission.

    The Body Show plays two more times — July 23, 2022, at 7:00 PM and July 24 at noon — at 23rd Amendment – Formerly Washington Sports Club, 3270 M St. NW, Washington, DC. To see the performance schedule and purchase tickets ($15), go online.

    COVID Safety: The audience is to remain masked for the show. The mask needs to cover your mouth and nose the whole time. Proof of vaccination and ID are checked before entry.

    Genre: Comedy
    Age appropriateness: Appropriate for Adults Only

    SEE ALSO:
    2022 Capital Fringe Preview: ‘The Body Show’ by Mikala Jamison

  • ‘Babel’ by Jacqueline Goldfinger at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival

    ‘Babel’ by Jacqueline Goldfinger at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival

    Playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger’s latest play, Babel, imagines a time in the near future in which pregnancies are regulated in an attempt to control overpopulation in a world experiencing climate crisis and dwindling resources.

    The ramifications of this draconian policy are brought to life through two couples, each of which is expecting a baby.

    Carlo Alban, Lori Vega, Karen Li, and Kate MacCluggage in the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of ‘Babel’ by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Photo by Seth Freeman.

    Any pregnancy comes with its share of stressors, but imagine if you had to worry not only about the health of your baby but also whether or not the government would “certify” it? In Babel, tests are given in utero to determine if a fetus meets the physical, emotional, and behavioral criteria to join society. Babies who pass the tests are “certified” and can live a normal life. If a baby fails any of these tests, parents have two options: abort or give birth to a child who will be considered “uncertifiable” and be forced to live in a penal colony.

    Goldfinger does a great job of making this scenario feel plausible. The play raises many ethical questions about choices societies make in times of crisis and the dialogue introduces the concepts very naturally. The team of four actors all turn out engaging performances.

    Unfortunately, the play feels longer than its 100 minutes with several scenes seeming repetitive. Renee and Dani have had a long history of pregnancy troubles, while their friends Jamie and Ann find themselves expecting without even trying. The stresses that pregnancy — and pregnancy envy — can put on relationships are thoughtfully explored, but the play could do without so many heart-to-heart conversations. Strong acting from the four-member ensemble and direction by Sharifa Yasmin keeps the show moving at a brisk pace, but that was not enough to keep my mind from wandering as I watched.

    Standout performances include Kate MacCluggage as Dani, a tightly-wound executive who is used to getting her own way. Dani’s crisp white suit (costume design by Yao Chen) matches her domineering personality and complements Jesse Dreikosen’s minimalist in-the-round set. Featuring a teak wood plank stage flanked by a circular iron staircase on one end and an iron sculpture on the other, the set lent a sophisticated, minimalist tone to the show. Working less well was the choice to insert rigid musical interludes between scenes. David Remedios’ sound design worked with the minimalist ambiance, but the stylized, robot-like movements of the actors in between scenes only distracted from the story.

    Carlo Alban and Karen Li in the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of ‘Babel’ by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Photo by Seth Freeman.

    Carlo Alban is entertaining as Jamie, the only male character in the show, and one of the most nuanced. Alban does double duty as the stork, a surprise character designed to inject comedy into the show. CATF describes Babel as a “dark comedy” but the story felt more dark than funny and left me wondering what the show would feel like without this supernatural element.

    Babel does reach a satisfying conclusion with an interesting plot twist near the end that nicely illustrates the impact of stress and lack of autonomy on the human psyche. The play just takes a little too long to get there.

    Babel was originally scheduled to be produced in 2020, long before the recent reversal of Roe v. Wade. Seeing the play now in the wake of that Supreme Court decision gives the play added poignancy. While Babel postulates a different type of limitation on reproductive rights — one in which abortions are encouraged rather than forbidden — it raises thought-provoking questions about bodily autonomy.

    Running Time: 100 minutes with no intermission.

    Babel is playing in repertory at the Contemporary American Theater Festival through July 31, 2022, at Marinoff Theater 62 W Campus Drive at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. The performance schedule is online here. Tickets ($68 regular, $58 senior, or $38 for Sunday evening performances) are available online.

    The Contemporary American Theater Festival program guide is online here and downloadable here.

    COVID Safety: Masks must be properly worn (covering the nose and mouth) while inside any building for all CATF performances and events. You will be asked to provide proof of vaccination and a photo ID. The CATF complete COVID Safety Policies are here.

  • 2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Static: Noise of a New Musical’ by Tess Rowan

    2022 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Static: Noise of a New Musical’ by Tess Rowan

    The first thing you should know about Static: Noise of a New Musical is that the author, Tess Rowan, is a mere 17 years old. As such, the fact that she wrote the book, the music, and the lyrics for the show and also directed and starred in it is nothing less than astounding.

    That said, this musical has a lot of growing to do. There is a kernel of a good musical here, but if it is going to find a life beyond Fringe, it’s going to need a lot of work.

    In Static, Rowan crafted a story about a family that has been living in the Pennsylvania woods for five years since their father disappeared while the family was hiking the Appalachian Trail. The show is being advertised as “an acoustic campfire musical mixed with a true crime podcast” and while both of those elements are present, they both need to be fleshed out, especially the true crime aspect of the story. Future iterations would benefit from songs that move the plot along more quickly (the main characters, Maine and Charlie, should meet way earlier in the story) and more clearly (when the big plot twist occurred near the end of the show, there were several missed opportunities to give us insight into why and how the crime occurred.)

    The production also suffers from some design flaws. The action of the show takes place across five different locations in the woods and much of the time on stage was spent moving furniture on and off stage to indicate location changes. A future production should avoid so many set changes. Finally, while Rowan is clearly a talented musician, composer, and singer, her voice did not carry well on stage. I think I only heard about a quarter of the lyrics she sang. A body mic could rectify that problem.

    As director, Rowan assembled a talented cast. Standout performances include Nico Morandi-Zerpa as Charlie and Carolyn Fox Darville as the mother of the family. Both performers did a great job with the songs.

    Static could be of interest to anyone interested in seeing a new musical in development from a talented young songwriter. But be warned that it is very much a work in progress.

     

    Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

    Static: Noise of a New Musical has two more performances, on July 22 and 24, 2022, at 3 Stars – Formerly DSW Georgetown, 3270 M St. NW, Washington, DC. To see the performance schedule and purchase tickets ($15), go online.

    COVID Safety: The audience is to remain masked for the show. The mask needs to cover your mouth and nose the whole time. Proof of vaccination and ID are checked before entry.

    Genre: Musical
    Age appropriateness: 13+

  • ‘Whitelisted’ by Chisa Hutchinson at the Contemporary American Theater Festival

    ‘Whitelisted’ by Chisa Hutchinson at the Contemporary American Theater Festival

    You know that point in a movie when something scary is about to happen and you can’t help it, you shut your eyes tight, both excited and terrified for what will come next? That’s a hard effect to achieve in a play where wide-eyed closeups and quick edits aren’t an option, but in Whitelisted, a world premiere now playing at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, playwright Chisa Hutchinson and director Kristin Horton achieve that same heart-pounding sense of dread and anticipation.

    This show is spooky, y’all. I didn’t know “horror theater of the mind” was a genre, but apparently it is and this is it.

    Derek Long as Ryan and Kate MacCluggage as Rebecca in the world premiere of ‘Whitelisted’ by Chisa Hutchinson. Photo by Seth Freeman.

    The three shows I saw at CATF last weekend were all good, but Whitelisted was my favorite. There wasn’t a minute in the script that felt extraneous. This is one of those rare instances in theater where all the elements came together for me: good script, good acting, great direction, and seamless design elements.

    The show opens in the refined urban apartment of Rebecca Burgess (Kate MacCluggage), a young white woman who recently moved into a gentrifying, traditionally African American neighborhood in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Rebecca makes her living building dollhouses, so it’s a little unclear how she can afford such a swanky apartment… unless a trust fund is involved. Right off the bat, Rebecca comes across as a spoiled, swanky socialite. She brings home Ryan (Derek Long), a one-night stand who is as superficial as she is. They bond over their mutual love of VOSS bottled water. (All other water tastes like shit, we are told.)

    Another trait the white couple have in common is a quick inclination to brag about their “wokeness.” He once dated an Indian girl, he tells Rebecca, while she boasts that she isn’t racist because she voted for Obama “both times” and saw Black Panther. (Whitelisted is a very funny play.)

    Mysterious things start happening in Rebecca’s apartment. As audience members, we are privileged to observe the source of these spooky machinations, but to those interacting with Rebecca, she seems a spoiled pest crying out for attention. She has called the police 19 times already with frivolous accusations against her (nonwhite) neighbors so when something actually goes wrong in her apartment, she’s treated like the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

    But something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

    Rebecca hires Diego Morales, a security guard, to help her install cameras. Through his patient responses to her chaotic ramblings about racial stereotypes, Diego becomes the consciousness of the show. Carlo Alban plays Diego with down-to-earth detachment. The pregnant pauses and deadpan looks he gives Rebecca while processing her remarks are priceless, and a poignant example of the ways people of color have been historically forced to remain silent in the face of white privilege.

    Kate Maccluggage’s performance as the spoiled white gentrifier was nothing short of brilliant. The character, as written by Hutchinson, directed by Horton, and played by Maccluggage, is both deeply human and horribly cliche.

    I was even more impressed by Maccluggage’s skills when I realized that she was the same actor I had seen earlier in the day in Babel, playing in rep with Whitelisted. If I hadn’t seen her name in both programs, I would never have realized the same performer played both roles, that is how deeply she embodied each character. (Alban was also in Babel and quite good in both shows as well.)

    Kate MacCluggage, Derek Long, and Kirby Davis in the world premiere of ‘Whitelisted ‘by Chisa Hutchinson. Photo by Seth Freeman.

    The character of Rebecca brings up an important question: Can a show be likable when its lead character is clearly… not? As I eavesdropped in the lobby after the show, I could tell that Rebecca was a turnoff to some in the audience who found her to be “too unlikable.” But the production was just so solid and the story so compelling that it wasn’t a problem for me. As a white woman, did I see elements of myself in Rebecca that made me uncomfortable? Yes. Do I think that raising that awareness among audience members was a goal of the show? Also yes.

    I would be remiss to ignore the show’s stellar design elements because they — in particular the gripping suspenseful undertones of the sound design — greatly contributed to the success of this show as a suspenseful mystery. Sound designer Mark Van Hare must have put in long hours this month because he designed the sound for both Whitelisted and The Fifth Domain (another successful suspense story playing at this year’s CATF). David M. Barber’s scenic design, centered around the modern grey-toned interior of Rebecca’s apartment reminiscent of the styles currently favored in upper-middle-class homes, was a poignant statement about gentrification all on its own.

    As the show builds to its climax, we finally see the face behind the terror. But who is the real monster? Whitelisted is both a jarring reminder of the harmful impact of white privilege and also a really fun mystery. Two horror stories for the price of one.

    Running Time: 120 minutes with no intermission.

    Whitelisted is playing in repertory at the Contemporary American Theater Festival through July 31, 2022, at Frank Center 260 University Drive at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. The performance schedule is online here. Tickets ($68 regular, $58 senior, or $38 for Sunday evening performances) are available online.

    The Contemporary American Theater Festival program guide is online here and downloadable here.

    COVID Safety: Masks must be properly worn (covering the nose and mouth) while inside any building for all CATF performances and events. You will be asked to provide proof of vaccination and a photo ID. The CATF complete COVID Safety Policies are here.