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Return of IMusical Leads Washington Improv Spring Series

The Washington Improv Theater has announced its spring lineup of programs which will be performed weekends at the Mead Theatre lab at Flashpoint on G Street NW. The company will repeat last season's concept of an IMusical, a newly improvised musical made to the audience's order every Friday night at 8 pm. The late night Friday night slot (9:30) will offer F.I.S.T! - Fighting Improv Smackdown Tournament. Saturday's lineup will include the improvised interviews and improv routines by the troupes Jackie and Jinx.

Signature Offers Five-Session Seminar On Saving Aimee

As Signature Theatre prepares the world premiere of the bio-musical about Aimee Semple McPherson which opens in April, the theater is offering a five-session seminar, The Making of a Musical, in which participants can explore different aspects of the development process. Sessions include Kathy Lee Gifford, who is writing the book and lyrics, on the process of writing the musical, members of the cast on the process of bringing characters to life, and the designers reviewing their contributions to the package. Finally, the class will attend the first run through of the score with orchestra, and the final dress rehearsal. Enrollment is $150 and the class size is limited.

Three Readings To Chose From Tonight

There will be three reading programs of note tonight. The Washington Shakespeare Company continues its "Sort of Shakespeare" series of readings of works associated with the bard' at 8 o'clock at the Clark Street Playhouse in Arlington, with a play that Shakespeare may have collaborated on at the end of his career - The Two Noble Kinsmen. The play, based on material from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, will be read in a Pay-What-You-Can event. Half an hour earlier, Theatre J will launch its series of once a month readings of new works which it is calling "New-ish/Jew-ish" with a reading of Jason Grote's This Storm Is What We Call Progress. It will feature Karl Miller, Maia DeSanti, Cam Magee, Caren Anton and Michael Willis under the direction of Daniella Topol. The Young Playwrights' Theater offers three short plays by student authors at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th Street NW) on the theme of "what if?" Katherine Feliz asks "What if you fell in love with your worst enemy?" in Love and War: Changes of My Heart, Diego Pereira asks "What if the person you were talking to on Myspace wasn't who they seemed to be at all?" in Discover the Truth Behind the Curtains and Jasmine Hill asks "What if an Iraqi family met personally with the President to talk about the effects of the war?" for her play I'm Telling. Performers include Frank Britton, Tim Getman and Erika Rose. Admission is free.

Spooky Action Theater Gets New Home

The fledgling Spooky Action Theater which mounted Save The Leopard at Flashpoint on G Street NW in 2005 has reached an agreement with Montgomery College's Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus to perform its shows this year in the Black Box Theater on campus. The first show under this arrangement will be Romulus Linney's Holy Ghosts which will open on March 8. The college is in the midst of an $88 million expansion which will include a new Cultural Arts Center with a 500-seat music and dance theater and a 120-seat black box theater.

Twyford Q&A on Theater Design In National Building Museum's Magazine

The National Building Museum has included an interview with local actress Holly Twyford on "An Actor's Perspective on Theater Design" in the current issue of its magazine, Blueprints. It is one portion the magazine's coverage of the current exhibit "Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century." The entire issue is devoted to matters related to the exhibit and includes an interview with Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company and curator of the current Shakespeare in Washington festival. The magazine can be obtained at the museum in the old Pension Building across F street from the Judiciary Square Metro Station or can be viewed online at www.nbm.org. 

Take A Youngster To Theater Program Renewed For Ninth Year

The Stages for All Ages program of the League of Washington Theatres which offers a free ticket for a youth up to age seventeen with each full-price adult ticket purchased to selected performances between March and May will continue for its ninth season. Contact the theater for information on the specific performances and shows being offered through the program. The participating theater companies are:

• African Continuum Theatre Company

• American Century Theater

• Arena Stage

• Catalyst Theater

• Classika-Synetic Theater

• Discovery Theater

• Fords Theatre

• GALA Hispanic Theatre

• Imagination Stage

• The Keegan Theatre

• The Kennedy Center

• MetroStage

• The Olney Theatre Center

• Rep Stage

• Round House Theatre

• Scena Theatre

• Signature Theatre

• The Studio Theatre

• Teatro de la Luna

• Theater J

• The Washington Savoyards

• Washington Shakespeare Company

• The Washington Stage Guild

• Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Two Shakespeare Events Tomorrow

Two Shakespeare-related events are being offered tomorrow, one free at noon and one for a fee in the evening. At noon, Walter Zvonchenko of the Library of Congress' Music Division will discuss the library's collection of theater items related to the bard in the "American Treasures" exhibit in the southwest gallery of the Library's Great Hall on Capitol Hill. No reservations are required. In the evening, Erin C. Blake, the Folger Shakespeare Library's Curator of Art and Special Collections will review the depiction of Shakespeare himself as an icon over the centuries. The presentation, sponsored by the English Speaking Union of Washington will be delivered at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th Street NW at 7 o'clock. Admission is $20 and reservations can be made by calling 202-639-1770.

This Year's "Will Award" Goes To Shakespeare Theatre Company's Own

The Shakespeare Theatre Company has been giving out the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre ("The Will Award") every year since 1988. Recipients have been the great and famous from the world's classical stages including Kevin Kline, Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Patrick Stewart, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. This year the company turns its eye inward and recognizes its own core of performers who have been the foundation for the company's quality productions. In all, fifteen company members will share the award which will be presented at the 20th Annual Gala on Sunday March 4. The winners are:

• Emery Battis
• Avery Brooks
• Helen Carey
• Franchelle Stewart Dorn
• Edward Gero
• Philip Goodwin
• Tana Hicken
• Floyd King
• Clarie Lautier
• Andrew Long
• Patrick Page
• Nancy Robinette
• David Sabin
• Ted van Greithuysen
• Geraint Wyn Davies

Helen Hayes Award Nominations Announced

The full list of the Nominations for outstanding work in professional theater in the Washington area of the Potomac Region is now available on our Helen Hayes Awards page. (Click here.) The award ceremony this year will be held at the Warner Theatre on April 16 with a gala celebration to follow at the J. W. Marriot Hotel.

Potomac Stages Goes On Hiatus - Next News And New Reviews On February 15

The staff of Potomac Stages will be on vacation for the next week and the website will not be updated during the hiatus. Return on Thursday, February 15, for the resumption of the most comprehensive coverage of the incredibly vibrant theater community of the Potomac Region.

Matt Bogart, who appeared at ArtSpeak!, the free program that brings stars of theater before students, parents and the public at Poe Middle School in Annandale, VA, back in 2003, will be the first artist to return for a second appearance. This time he will bring his wife, Jessica Boevers. Bogart has been a frequent visitor to the Potomac Region with appearances at Arena Stage in Damn Yankees, Camelot and Orpheus Descending, at Signature Theatre in 110 in the Shade and at the Kennedy Center in Company. On Broadway he was in Miss Saigon, Aida, The Civil War and Smokey Joe's Cafe. Boevers' Broadway credits include Les Misérables, Rent, Beauty and the Beast, Oklahoma!, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and In My Life. Tonight's free program begins at 7 o'clock and no reservations are required.

The theater enthusiasts who usher in the region's theaters and participate in Potomac Stages Ushers' Favorite Show Award program have named the Bill Irwin / Kathleen Turner version of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which played the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater, their favorite out of all the shows they saw in January. The production was the fourth at the Kennedy Center to be selected for the honor, and the first featuring a script not by Tennessee Williams (previous Kennedy Center winners had been Five by Tenn which was a co-production with the Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. At the end of the year, the participating ushers will be asked to select their favorite show from all the shows that won the monthly awards during 2007. To be eligible to participate in the Ushers' Favorite Show Award program, a theater lover must regularly usher at live theater events and also regularly see shows at a number of theaters. To sign up to be an Ushers Judge, send an email message to Ushers@PotomacStages.com.

Television's Just Theater with Potomac Stages' Hathaway Available

The latest edition of Access Montgomery's cable channel 19 television program Just Theater, is now available online from Google Video. A streaming video version can be viewed by going to www.google.com/video and inserting the search term “Just Theater (January 2007)”. The show is available on demand -- you need not view it at any particular time. Those in Montgomery County can view the show on air tonight and every Friday night at 9:00 and again on Mondays at 5:30. Potomac Stages' Brad Hathaway and Montgomery Access Theatre Critic Faiga Levine discuss four shows: The Countess at the Washington Stage Guild, This Is How It Goes at Studio Theatre, Sleeping Arrangements at Theater J and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Kennedy Center.

On the first Thursday of every month, Signature Theatre will host a discussion program for anyone from the community who wants to bring a sandwich or salad for a casual Q&A. Today being the first Thursday of the first month after Signature opened its first show in its new facility in Shirlington, the topic will be that show - Into the Woods - and the participant will be Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer. In future months, there will be discussions of Crave in March, Saving Aimee in April, Nest in May and The Witches of Eastwick twice, once in June and once in July. There are no reservations required and there is no charge.