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Round House Announces 08-09 Season

The year at Round House will bring two world premieres by local playwrights, a familiar title from Dale Wasserman, a relatively new work by Sarah Ruhl and an even newer one on the topic of insomnia. The 2008-09 season will start with the two premieres, Karen Zacarías' How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and Mary Hall Surface's new adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland titled just Alice. 2009 will see Sarah Ruh's well-received Eurydice, the often produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in a production directed by Jerry Whiddon, and Melanie Marnich's comedy A Sleeping Country.

Smaller Companies Score Well In Helen Hayes Nominations

This year's crop of Helen Hayes Award nominations includes recognition of the work of a number of smaller theater companies in addition to the big power houses that often dominate the awards. Yes, "The Four Ss" (Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature, Studio and Synetic - a formerly small company with a very large reputation) and well known establishments from A (Arena) to at least W (Woolly Mammoth) still garner a great deal of attention, as well they should with the quality of the work they often do. But the news this year is the number of nominations for smaller companies whose names aren't as familiar to the general population, companies who often work on slender budgets. MetroStage in Alexandria pulled 3 nominations (Dan Kazemi as musical director as well as stars Bobby Smith and Donna Migliaccio for The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)) as did Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia (co-directors Toby Orenstein and Lawrence B. Munsey, music director Christopher Youstra for Titanic which was also nominated for outstanding resident musical). The Theatre Alliance drew two nominations (Timothy Douglas for director and the cast of Insurrection: Holding History for ensemble work) and Rorschach Theatre earned two (director Shirley Serotsky and actress Gabriela Fernandez Coffey for References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot). The Keegan Theatre also garnered two nominations (Eric and Kerry Lucas for choreography and the entire cast of Alone it Stands for its ensemble work). That other company with Irish roots, Solas Nua, drew one (the cast of Scenes from the Big Picture for ensemble work) and Tribute Productions shared one with the African Continuum Theatre Company for their rescue of Spunk from the budgetary problems of the African Continuum Theatre Company's transition. It was actress Jessica Dukes who was nominated for that production.

Teller Talks ... With Posner - About Macbeth

The normally silent Teller, best known for his work as the quiet one of the team of Penn and Teller, breaks the stillness tonight at the Folger with a conversation as part of the Words on Will series. Teller is co-directing the production of Macbeth that opens tomorrow night at the Folger with Aaron Posner. The two will discuss that production tonight starting at 6 o'clock. Tickets are $25.

Helen Hayes Award Nominations Announced

The nominations for the Helen Hayes Awards recognizing outstanding work on professional stages in 2007 have been announced. Vying for the Outstanding Musical award are Arena Stage's The Women of Brewster Place, Ford's Theatre's Meet John Doe, Signature Theatre's Into the Woods and The Witches of Eastwick, Studio Theatre Secondstage's Reefer Madness: The Musical and Toby's Dinner Theatre's Titanic, The Musical. The nominees for Outstanding Resident Play are the Shakespeare Theatre Company's The Taming of the Shrew, Signature Theatre's The Word Begins, Studio Theatre's Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, Synetic Theater's Hamlet … the rest is silence and Macbeth and Woolly Mammoth's Dead Man's Cell Phone and The Unmentionables. Nominees for Outstanding Non-Resident Production are Avenue Q, The Broadway Musical, Doubt, A Parable, Emergence-See!, My Fair Lady and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Theater maven Paul Gamble calculates that there were a total of 148 nominations for work on 48 productions at 22 theater companies. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony at the Warner Theatre on April 28. Click here to see the full list of nominees.

Ziemba and Dossett Bring The Lincolns To Life Tonight At The Portrait Gallery

Tony-Award winner (Contact) Karen Ziemba and Helen Hayes Award nominee (Elmer Gantry) John Dossett team up as Abraham and Mary Lincoln in a presentation of the National Portrait Gallery's Cultures in Motion program, co-sponsored by Ford's Theatre. The Lincoln's years together will be told through letters, pictures and their personal White House photo album with narration by historian Harold Holzer in the auditorium of the National Portrait Gallery at Eighth and G Streets NW. The program begins at 7 pm this evening and admission is free. Reservations can be made by calling 202-633-8520.

American Indian Museum Hosts Spiderwoman Theater

A one-woman show presented by Spiderwoman Theater, will be performed in the Rasmuson Theater of the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall tonight and tomorrow night. It will be the Potomac Region premiere of Red Mother, a play about the persistence of generational memory. It will be performed by Muriel Miguel, one of three founders of the theater. Formed in 1975 in Brooklyn NY by three women of Kuna and Rappahannock decent, the theater is named, its founders say, for the Hopi goddess Spiderwoman, who taught the people to weave and said "You must make a mistake in every tapestry so that my spirit may come and go at will." They call their technique "story weaving" with interlocking stories. Tickets are $25 and can be ordered by calling 202-633-3030 between 9 am and 5 pm today.

Selections from Chris Stezin's New Play Will Be "Explored" Friday Night At The Atlas

A new group, called Artists' Block, is beginning a series of evenings exploring new works in a variety of genres at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE. Each evening's program is called 12x6 because up to six artists will be given 12 minutes each to present all or part of a new piece they are working on. The piece may be music, dance, spoken word, theater - whatever. At the end of each piece the audience will be asked to give critical feedback. The first 12x6 program will be held this Friday and Saturday. Friday's program includes a section of Chris Stezin's play This Perfect World, which will be directed by John Vreeke. A $10 donation is suggested.

Wayside Cancels Thursday Night's Performance of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming

Wayside Theatre cancelled two performances of the bluegrass/gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, last Sunday and tomorrow evening, due to the death of a cast member's husband. Smoke on the Mountain is being performed in the Royal Phoenix Theatre in Front Royal while Wayside's home theater in Middletown is undergoing expansion and renovation. Actress Pam Pendleton had to leave the cast when her husband died unexpectedly early Sunday morning. The theater has hired Rhonda Wallace of West Virginia who has played the character Pendleton played in previous productions of the show. She will step into the role beginning on Friday.

Arthur Miller Festival Cast Announced

Arena Stage has announced the cast for their repertory presentation of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and A View From The Bridge running at their Crystal City location from March through May. The cast of the repertory will include Rick Foucheux (Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Marco in A View From The Bridge) Nancy Robinette (Linda in Salesman, Mrs. Lipari in View) Jeremy S. Holm (Biff in Salesman and Tony/1st in View) Tim Getman (Happy in Salesman, Mike in View) Louis Cancelmi (Bernard in Salesman, Marco in View) Stephen F. Schmidt (Howard in Salesman, 1st Immigration officer in View) J. Fred Shiffman (Uncle Ben in Salesman, Mr. Lipari in View) and Noble Shropshire (Charley in Salesman, Alfieri in View).

Theater of the First Amendment Sets Return To Production

The professional theater company in residence at George Mason University in Fairfax, Theater of the First Amendment, which announced a suspension of production operations in 2006, has now slated programming in June as part of this spring's Mason Festival of the Arts. The company will produce a new play by Karen Zacarías, Mariela in the Desert, which is billed as "a deadly mystery" set in the Mexican desert in the 1950s and Two-Bit Taj Mahal by Paul D'Andrea, based on a "cold case" from FBI files. During the festival, the company will also present two installments of their First Light Discovery program of readings of new plays, one for student plays and one for professional plays as well as a staged reading of the result of a collaboration between their senior citizen and young playwrights programs.

This Year's Free For All Will Be Jeffrey Carlson in Hamlet

The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Free For All at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre for 2008 will be a re-mounting of the production of Hamlet that Michael Kahn directed at the end of the 2006-07 season in the Lansburgh. Jeffrey Carlson will again play the title role. The Free For All will have ten performances of the show between May 22 and June 1 which will be, as the name implies, free for all attendees. Click here to read our review of the production in its initial run.

Reduced Shakespeare Company Casting Announced For Rep at Lansburgh

The cast has been announced for the Reduced Shakespeare Company's month long repertory of The Complete History of America (Abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) which will play the Lansburgh March 11 - April 13. A team of seven performers who will keep the two cast-of-three shows moving includes names familiar to fans of the company. Reed Martin who has been performing these shows since 1989 and Austin Tichenor who joined the troupe in 1991 will be joined by Dominic Conti, Michael Faulkner, Jerry Kernion, Mick Orfe and Brent Tubbs.

The Ushers Choose The Brothers Size As Favorite Show Of January

Studio Theater's highly theatrical three-character play, The Brothers Size, which starred Brian Tyree Henry, Gilbert Owuor, and Elliot Villar under the direction of Tea Alagic has been picked by the theater lovers who usher at theaters throughout the Potomac region and who participate in the Ushers' Favorite Show Award program sponsored by Potomac Stages, as their favorite show among all those they saw during January. The play, by Terell Alvin McCraney, explores sibling love and loyalty in rural Louisiana in a mixture of a contemporary story and the mythology of the Yoruba people of western Africa. At the end of December, the ushers will select their favorite show of the year from the winners of the monthly awards. Studio's production of The Syringa Tree won the first annual award in 2004 and The Brothers Size is the sixth production of Studio Theatre to win the monthly award. If you usher at local theaters and would like to participate in the Ushers' Favorite Show Award program, send an email message to Ushers@PotomacStages.com.

Not Yet Opened - But Folger Extends Teller/Posner Macbeth

Usually, shows that get great reviews and sell lots of tickets may announce an extension of the run after a few weeks. The Folger, on the other hand, has already extended the run of the new production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, which doesn’t even open until February 28. Jointly directed by Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) and Aaron Posner, Macbeth stars Ian Merrill Peakes and Kate Eastwood Norris. It is a joint production with the Two River Theater Co. of Red Bank, New Jersey, where it is currently playing with many performances sold out. In his review of the production in New Jersey, the Star-Ledger’s Peter Filichia said “To play around with one of the work’s most famous phrases, something wonderful this way has come.” With tickets to the Folger engagement selling at what the theatre calls an “unprecedented” rate, the run, which was originally announced as lasting through April 6, has been extended one week, through April 13. The $25 previews have already sold out, but tickets for regular performances are still available at $34 to $55.

Glen Echo's live children's theater, Adventure Theatre, teams with the Smithsonian Associates' Discovery Theater to host shows recommended for 2nd through 6th graders. On February 13, as part of the observance of Black History Month, the play How Old Is A Hero? will be performed and the patrons offered a tour of Glen Echo National Park by a U. S. Ranger. In March, the 45-minute play Clara Barton: The Courage Within will be performed, and those who reserve early will be offered a tour of the Clara Barton Home which is adjacent to the park. The shows are open to the public but school field trips are encouraged and the Smithsonian is preparing an online study guide for groups.

A word to the wise: If you are interested in trying to see a good deal of the Kennedy Center's "fully staged reading" series of August Wilson's ten-play cycle, you should consider acting quickly to pick which shows you want to see and which dates work for you. The schedule calls for four performances of each play - three each as they are produced in order of their subjects (one for each decade of the twentieth century) between March 4 and 29, and then a fourth performance of each play in an intensive week between March 30 and April 6. The Kennedy Center's website is already showing ten of the forty performances have sold out, including all of the performances of Fences. Only one of the performances of Radio Golf is still showing tickets available. Tickets are listed at $65 each.