The holiday season is a time of joy, unity, and celebration, and for many, it’s not complete without attending a performance by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington (GMCW). This December, anticipation was high as the chorus prepared for its renowned Holiday Show.
The Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Leopoldstadt, the latest work by renowned British playwright Tom Stoppard, is a tour de force of wit, intellectualism, and raw, personal emotion. Given that the playwright is 87 years old, Leopoldstadt may be this master’s final work. If so, he is at the height of his genius.
DC is emerging as a hub for young artists and curators like Carter Wynne, a self-taught artist under the apprenticeship of independent curator and creative consultant, Fabiola R. Delgado. Wynne's groundbreaking exhibition, Intrinsic Tool, is the first to showcase her work at DC Arts Center. As part of the center's Curatorial Initiative, this exhibition celebrates the revolutionary potential of play.
The Comeuppance–on stage now at Woolly Mammoth Theatre–is a dark comedy with a simple premise that slowly builds tension, layers, and unexpected nuances. It is anything but simple, and the production kept surprising from beginning to end.
Before visiting Zsudayka Nzinga's Homecoming / Homegoing exhibition at Phillips@THEARC, I regarded fabrics merely as a collage component. The six artworks on display by Nzinga showcase the expressive power of textiles, where fabrics serve as frames, depict figures and vegetation, create landscape backdrops, and convey concepts of meaning like grief.
The New York Circus Project‘s HAMLET, a contemporary circus adaptation of the Shakespearean classic performed at Union Market Dock 5 in Washington, DC, this past month, took the flexibility of what is generally accepted as Shakespeare’s most successful story to a literal place, with several tricks up their sleeve
The Broccoli City Festival 2024 ignited D.C. with unity and celebration during the final weekend of July. This year's event marked a significant upgrade as it moved to the city's newest sports venue, Audi Field, home of D.C. United.
At Washington, DC’s Union Station passenger railway waiting area, you'll come across a series of murals spanning the upper walls from Gate A through L. The murals, entitled The Potomac Shen River Series, were created by local artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann. They’re the second installation of Art @ Amtrak at Union Station, part of Amtrak's initiative to revitalize the station and enhance the travel experience for its visitors.
The DC/DOX Documentary Film Festival returned to the district this June, once again providing a platform for emerging filmmakers innovating documentary storytelling. Held from June 13th to 16th, the festival showcased a diverse range of documentaries on big screens across the city. These films tackled critical topics like LGBTQ+ shelters and the controversial reinstatement of Arizona's abortion ban.
In a 1971 interview with Playboy magazine, celluloid cowboy John Wayne mused, “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life – comes into us at midnight very clean.” It’s not Wayne’s philosophical ponderings that weave him into The Kite Runner, a play based on author Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel of the same name.
Our lives are an amalgam of ordinary moments and significant events. Interior Lives, an exhibition featuring works by up-and-coming local artist Sydney Vernon at Philips@THEARC captures the subtleties and complexities of these experiences.
The Art of the Challenge part of the Alexandre Diop: Jooba, Jubba, L'Art du Defi, the Art of Challenge exhibit at the museum, showcases five potent works by the French-Senegalese artist. Diop tackles complex themes such as colonialism's lingering effects, violence, and suffering. While the themes he explores are timeless, his choice of found materials adds a fresh perspective, transforming them into a powerful commentary on the contemporary issues he grapples with
“Phone rings, door chimes, in comes… Company?” That refrain is one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest earworms (second only perhaps to “Bobby, Bobby baby, Bobby bubi, Robby,” etc. in the same song). And, in the shaky touring production of Marianne Elliott’s inventive reimagining of the beloved musical, playing at the Kennedy Center through March 31, it presents more like a cautious question than a confident declaration.
If Bravo had been spinning off franchises in the 12th century BC, one can only imagine that Penelope would be the wine-soaked breakout star of the Real Housewives of Ithaca.
“It’s certainly important to have these conversations in real life. But in real life, either emotions take over or, at the other extreme, people are too careful to really address the issues. There’s certainly a lot of anger expressed in The Niceties, but, for the most part, the characters stay on point,” says director Kevin O’Connell.
Playwright Marshall Pailet was captivated by Private Jones’ story and dreamed for many years of telling a First World War story through a unique lens—the true story of Private Jones, a deaf, Welsh sniper. Melding dramatic moments with comedy, music, and innovative sound design, Private Jones seeks to replicate Jones’ experience theatrically for both the hearing and hard-of-hearing audience.
Whether an indulgence of the market or a rebellion against it, Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy is undoubtedly a triumph. Since its translation into English by Mirella Cheeseman and its significant adaptation by playwright Ben Power, the play has carved out a generous space in the theater world, touring and transferring between theaters across Broadway, LA, and the West End for the past seven years.
Longing for a life beyond their exile, three Cuban sisters deal with loss and hope in GALA Theatre's Las Hermanas Palacios (The Palacios Sisters). Inspired by Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, this powerful production examines themes of longing and belonging in a vibrant 1980s Miami.
Public Obscenities, written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury was performed at Woolly Mammoth Theater until late this month.
Watching the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I kept leaning forward in my seat, grinning, as the Bard’s poetry …
It’s a rare comedy that manages to be witty, political, socially engaged, viciously smart, and so funny that you spend much of the show laughing out loud. And I mean, really loud laughter echoing through the theatre. Even joy.
The Washington Ballet’s 2023-2024 season was announced earlier this summer with some highly anticipated productions, including …
The Kennedy Center has never graced such glitz and glamour like that of the vibrant and eclectic, Parisian burlesque romance, adorned with covers of pop hits from then and now — Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The performance celebrates music and theatre design all in the name of love and runs through September 24, 2023.
Settling in my seat waiting for the curtain to rise, I didn’t expect to not only experience, but to participate in a riveting revision of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
As the cast took their final curtain calls on the Eisenhower Theater stage at The Kennedy Center in Northwest on Thursday night, I could barely hold back the tears that flowed freely from my eyes – and I was not alone.
Here There Are Blueberries, playing at The Shakespeare Theatre after its world premiere at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, is compelling, thought-provoking, and tightly written.
Few things are more thrilling than when Broadway leaves New York and lands in your city. Touring productions provide people, from all over, the opportunity to engage with high commercial theater close to home. They also encourage accessibility which can only promote further equity and diversity in theater spaces
As the saying goes, nothing is certain except death and taxes–and yet, one could assert that metamorphosis is inevitable. Metamorphosis or change is always upon us, whether we like it or not. That’s especially true at the Folger Shakespeare Library this season.