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News Archive - January,
2007 |
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1-31 |
West Virginia Festival Sets
Contemporary Plays For Summer 07
The
Contemporary American Theater Festival has announced
this summer's crop of plays at
Shepherd University
in West Virginia. The festival will offer plays by Lee
Blessing, Richard Dresser, Jason Grote and an adaptation
by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner of the writings of a
woman from Washington State who was killed in Gaza.
Tickets for the festival will go on sale on March 1.
Click here to
see the line up. |
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1-30 |
Washington Shakespeare Company To Mount Stage Version Of
Lucrece
Callie Kimball has prepared a stage version of William
Shakespeare's epic poem The
Rape of Lucrece which will receive its world
premiere at the Clark Street Playhouse in a production
by the Washington Shakespeare Company, February 9 -
March 11. It takes the slot on the company's schedule
that was to be a production of King Lear. That
production was pulled due to a health problem involving
one of the cast members. |
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1-29 |
Has Catalyst Started Something With Its $10 Tickets?
With its $10 Tickets, could it be that
Catalyst Theater has started
something of a trend? True, Catalyst’s policy is that
all tickets to all performances are $10, a policy few
have tried to emulate. But Ford’s
Theatre now offers $10 tickets to Tuesday night
performances of Jitney.
Catalyst’s new show, We Are
Not These Hands doesn’t open until this
Wednesday, so tonight we can’t think of a better way to
spend $10 than on a seat to see the Potomac Stages pick,
Jitney. |
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1-26 |
Theater J Offers Free Concert
Reading of New Musical This Afternoon
David in Shadow and Light, a musical
commissioned by Theater J
from Yehuda Hyman whose
The Mad Dancers played here in 2003, and Daniel
Hoffman who was the assistant musical director of last
fall's very enjoyable klezmer musical
Shlemiel the First, will be performed in a
concert reading this afternoon at 3 o'clock. Nick Olcott
directs a cast including Billy Bustamante, Evan Casey,
Erin Driscoll, Kate Kiley, Rob McQuay, Dan Manning and
Bobby Smith. Admission is free. |
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1-25 |
Quotidian Sets Free Reading Of Cefaly's
Mill Town Girls
Mill Town Girls,
Audrey Cefaly's prequel to her play
Fin and Euba, will be presented in a free reading this
Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Cedar Lane
Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda. Cefaly is the
writer in residence at the Quotidian Theatre Company,
which is producing the reading. The cast includes
Veronica del Cerro, Robert Herbertson, Carol Randolph
and Maura Stadem. The play is slated for full production
by Quotidian in April. |
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1-24 |
Woolly's Kevin Moore Leaves For Cleveland
Kevin Moore,
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Managing
Director and the current president of the Washington
League of Theatres, has accepted the post of Managing
Director of the Cleveland Play House effective April 1, a theater that
traces its lineage back to 1915. Moore has been Woolly
Mammoth's Managing Director for nine years, guiding the
company through the transition into its new home on D
Street NW. Woolly has announced that a search committee
will be formed to find a replacement. No announcement
has been made by the League of Theatres. The Potomac
Region theater community will miss Moore's energy and
positive attitude. |
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1-23 |
White House Honors For Shakespeare
Theatre Company's ShakesPEERS Program
Yesterday, First Lady Laura Bush honored 17 youth arts
organizations at the White House. Among them was the ShakesPEERS program of the
Shakespeare Theatre Company which received a $10,000 award grant from
the Coming Up Taller Award program recognizing programs
that help teens build confidence and make positive life
choices. The awards program is an initiative of the
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. ShakesPEERS is a program that provides 250 students in
grades four through twelve with the opportunity to
rehearse and perform classic text of the bard as an
exercise that stimulates critical thinking, creativity
and forging connections with peers. |
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1-22 |
Young Playwrights Present Work At Busboys And Poets
Tonight
Each month, new works by student playwrights are given
staged readings in the Langston Room at the Busboys and
Poets restaurant and bar on 14th Street NW. This month's
event will begin tonight at 6 o'clock and features
Monster by Daisy Zuniga, Dreams Attract Danger
by Mario De Leon and Vanessa's Family Reunion
by Reginald Hardy, all participants in the
Young Playwrights Theater. |
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1-19 |
Hexagoners Open Their Own Musical Comedy Review This
Weekend
Nicholas Zill and Howard Bennett, who have contributed
such zingers as a toe tapping critique of Northern
Virginia's traffic problems called "Glebe Road" to the
annual benefit shows of Hexagon, have written an evening
of original songs and sketches under the title Persons
of Interest which will have its premiere performances
this afternoon, tonight and tomorrow evening at the Arts
Club in Washington, 2017 I Street NW. Billed as a comedy
review, the show features a cast of six plus
accompaniment by Barbara and Kirt Vener. Tickets are
$25. Performances are at 1 this afternoon, 8 this
evening and again at 8 tomorrow. For information, call
301-421-4844. |
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1-18 |
Avenue Q Team Writes Songs For Tonight's
Scrubs - The Musical
The half-hour situation comedy show set in a hospital,
Scrubs, will have a musical score for this
evening's episode - a score by none other than the Tony
Award winning team of Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx whose
songs for the Broadway musical
Avenue Q
lampooned the best of the Sesame Street and
The Muppets brand of television songs. The episode,
which finds the entire staff of the hospital singing and
dancing due to one patient's brain injury that causes
her to hear everything musically, airs tonight at 9
o'clock on NBC.
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1-17 |
Baltimore Group Gives Its Own Awards
A group of dedicated theatergoers in Baltimore have banded
together to give out "Greater Baltimore Theater Awards" to
recognize outstanding work and to say "thanks" for the enjoyment
they derive from that work. They consider Baltimore City,
Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County and Howard County to be
"Greater Baltimore." The group gives three awards in each of
four categories plus one award in each of three others. Here are
the awards for 2006:
- Outstanding Play:
Opus at Everyman Theatre, King Lear at
Chesapeake Shakespeare, Faith Healer at
Performance Workshop Theatre
- Outstanding Actress:
Megan Anderson in The Cripple of Inishmaan at
Everyman Theatre, Nancy Asendorf in Ragtime at
Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore, Kathrine Lyons in
Faith Healer at the Performance Workshop
Theatre
- Outstanding Actor:
James Denvil in Candida at Everyman Theatre, BJ
Gailey in Taming of the Shrew at Chesapeake
Shakespeare, Bruce Nelson in School for Scandal
at Everyman Theatre
- Outstanding Direction:
Vincent M. Lancisi for School for Scandal at
Everyman Theatre, John Vreeke for Opus at
Everyman Theatre, Alex Willis for The Goat at
Mobtown Players
- Outstanding Scene
Design: Daniel Ettinger for TinTypes Rep Stage
- Outstanding Costume
Design: Gail Stewart Beach for School for Scandal
at Everyman Theatre
- Outstanding
Experimental Production: Variations on Fear at
Run of the Mill.
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1-16 |
Nominations For WATCH Awards Announced
The nominations for the Washington Area Theater
Community Honors (WATCH) awards were announced at a
ceremony at the Birchmere in Alexandria on Sunday. The
program honors outstanding work in community theater
with twenty-six theater companies participating for
2006. There were 96 productions judged (25 musicals and
71 non-musical plays) in 28 categories. Among the
companies with the most nominations were the Port
Tobacco Players with 24, The Arlington Players (21),
Kensington Arts Theatre (20), Elden Street Players (19),
Silver Spring Stage (14), The Little Theatre of
Alexandria (13) and the Vienna Theatre Company (10). The
awards will be announced at a gala dinner at the
Birchmere on Sunday, March 4 starting at 7 pm.
Click here to view the
full list of nominees. |
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1-15 |
Two Great Readings Tonight
Potomac Stages does not normally publish on holidays.
However, there are two readings tonight that our readers
may want to consider for their evening's activity, so we
have posted this news item. Thomas Adrian Simpson reads
the part of Abraham Lincoln in the Playwrights Forum of
Washington's staged reading of Anthony E. Gallo's
Lincoln and God tonight at 7 o'clock at St. John's
Episcopal Church/Chevy Chase at the corner of Bradley
Lane and Wisconsin Ave. (Reservations: 202 544-6973.)
An hour later, The Washington Shakespeare Theatre will
present a reading of H. Lee Gable and Gaurav Gopalan's
stage adaptation of Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman's
screenplay, Shakespeare in Love with Bruce Alan
Rauscher leading the cast which includes John C. Bailey,
Kim Curtis, John Jeoffrion, Tell Monks, Brandon Thane
Wilson and Cam Magee as Queen Elizabeth. It is a
pay-what-you-can performance at the Clark Street
Playhouse just north of Crystal City.
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1-12 |
Signature Offers Free Events For This Weekend's Open
House
This is opening weekend for the new Signature Theatre facility
in the Village of Shirlington and a number of free events have
been slated. Here's the schedule:
Saturday -
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11:30 am - Tickets become available for the day's
concerts by Euan Morton, Tony Award Nominee (Taboo)
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Noon - First of two concerts by Euan Morton in The Max
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Noon - Karma Camp conducts a master class in dance
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1:00 pm - Eric Schaeffer conducts a master class in
auditioning
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2:00 pm - Terrence P. Currier and Sally Murphy perform
a reading of Dear Liar, based on letters of
George Bernard Shaw and actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell
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2:30 pm - Second of two concerts by Euan Morton in The
Max
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4:30 pm - James Kronzer and Anne Kennedy conduct a
master class in design
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5:30 pm - Judy Simmons performs a concert of songs by
Stephen Sondheim. Alex Tang accompanies on the piano.
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5:30 pm - Matt Conner conducts a master class in
musical composition
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6:00 pm - Jacquelyn Piro performs a concert of songs
from musicals
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8:30 pm - Josh Lefkowitz performs some of his new
monologue material.
Sunday -
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11:30 am - Tickets become available for the day's
concert by Emily Skinner and the preview of Into
The Woods
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Noon - Emily Skinner in concert
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12:30 pm - Eric Schaeffer conducts a master class in
auditioning
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1:00 pm - Emerging Voices Cabaret - a sampling of
musicals in development at Signature
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1:30 pm - Jane Pesci Townsend conducts a master class in
vocal performance
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2:30 pm - An open rehearsal for Into The Woods
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2:30 pm - Robert Perdziola conducts a master class in
design
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3:00 pm - Something Old, Something New:
Terrence P. Currier and Beverly Cosham in concert
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4:00 pm - Holding Pattern - Joe Calarco directs
a reading of his play featuring Nancy Robinette
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4:30 pm - Overtures graduates in concert featuring
performances by the graduates of the summer institute
at the Kennedy Center
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5:00 pm - Emily Skinner in concert
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7:00 pm - Into The Woods a free preview
performance of the entire show
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10:00 pm - Little River Turnpike - a set of
songs with Amy and Stephen McWilliams with Stephen
Gregory Smith.
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1-11 |
Bulletin - Skidmore To Step
Down At Theater Alliance
At the end of the 2006-07 season Jeremy Skidmore will
step down from the post of Artistic Director of
Theater Alliance in
order to pursue opportunities nation-wide while
remaining a DC-based director. The company will begin a
search for a permanent Artistic Director, but in the
interim, founding Artistic Director Paul-Douglas Michnewicz will step back into his old job for the
2007-08 season. Skidmore and Michnewicz will jointly
select the program for that season with each of them
directing one of the four show that will be offered at
the H Street Playhouse where Theater Alliance is the
resident professional theater company. |
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1-11 |
Maryland Community Theatre One-Act Play Festival Set For
This Weekend
Frederick will host the One-Act Play Festival of the
Maryland Community Theatre Association this Friday
through Sunday. The winners will advance to the Region
II Festival of the Eastern States Theatre Association
next April, leading to the national competition in
Charlotte, North Carolina, in June. Tickets to this
weekend's performances at the Cultural Arts Center on
West Patrick Street are $12 for a session or $35 for
admission to all four sessions. Here's the schedule:
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1-10 |
Olney Adds Children's Theater Series
The
Olney Theatre Center for the Arts
will launch a new series of children's shows with the
appearance of storyteller Queen Nur later this month
. She
will perform her Sweet
Potato Pie, designed specifically for children
ages 6 to 12, at 10 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. on
Saturday, January 27. In March the series will host the
Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's
Swimmy, Frederick and Inch by
Inch, which is aimed at children between 4 and 7. The
theater expects to add other shows to the series and has
already scheduled one for next fall, the Arts Power
National Touring Theatre's production of
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs.
Basil E. Frankweiler.
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1-9 |
Arena's She Loves Me Named Ushers' Favorite Show of
December '06
The
theater enthusiasts
who usher in the region's theaters and participate
in Potomac Stages Ushers' Favorite Show Award
program have named the Arena Stage production of the
musical
She Loves
Me their favorites out of all the shows they saw
in December.
The production, directed by Kyle Donnelly, ran from
November 17 to December 31. Later this month, the
participating ushers will be asked to select their
favorite show from all the shows that won the monthly
awards during 2006.
To be eligible
to participate in the Ushers' Favorite Show
Award program, a theater lover must
regularly volunteer 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. |
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1-8 |
Actors' Center Teams With Library of Congress On Free
Reading of Newly Discovered Bolton Play Today & Tonight
Mammon, an unpublished play by Guy Bolton
discovered in the Library of Congress's collection, will
be given a free reading in the Library's 64-seat Mary
Pickford Theater under the direction of Michael Kinghorn.
The comedy, about a young man whose inheritance is
conditioned on wise spending habits which complicates
his efforts to woo a wealthy woman, was submitted to the
Library under the copyright deposit procedures in effect
in 1914, long before Bolton teamed up with P. G.
Wodehouse on musicals such as Jerome Kern's Oh, Boy!,
George and Ira Gershwin's Oh, Kay! and Cole
Porter's Anything Goes. An abridged version will
be read at 12:30 pm and a complete reading will be given
at 7 pm. No tickets or reservations are required but
seating may be at a premium for the Pickford Theater in
the Library's Madison Building on Independence Avenue
holds only 64 seats. |
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1-5 |
Kennedy Center Kicks Off
Shakespeare Festival With Free
Twelfth Night Tomorrow Night
As tomorrow happens to be the twelfth day of Christmas, the city-wide
Shakespeare in Washington festival will start with a free staged reading of
the bard's Twelfth Night under the direction of festival curator
Michael Kahn, with a cast of notables from many of the theater companies
participating in the festival. The performance starts at 6 pm as part of the
Center's Millennium Stage program, which means the show will be webcast live
on the Kennedy Center's website and will be available for delayed viewing in
the archive. The cast includes Regina Aquinap, Vianne Cox, Valerie Fenton,
Brian Hemmingsen, Floyd King, Scott McCormick, David Sabin, Howard Shalwitz
and Craig Wallace. |
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1-4 |
Potomac Stages Restates
Standards For Coverage of Theater In The New Year
As a new year begins, Potomac Stages believes it would
serve us all well if we re-state our standards for the
reviews we publish so that all of our readers will be
reminded of what our goals are. While we publish these
on the
About Potomac Stages page on the website, a periodic
re-statement is a good idea. Here's what our page says:
"We believe that our
function is to provide you, the interested theatergoer,
with the information you need to decide whether any
particular show is one on which you want to spend your
time and your money. Therefore, our reviews are
neither literary criticism nor analysis of how the show
might be done differently. Nor, for that matter, do we
think our readers care much about whether we liked the
show. We try to place our emphasis on describing the
play and the production, so that you will know what is
being offered for your attention.
The standard we apply
is not 'is this the best possible approach to the
subject?' and we certainly don’t adopt the posture that
'if it’s not the best it can be, then it is bad.'
Rather, we ask 'is this a satisfying production?'
In the process we try to assess how well the production
accomplishes what it set out to do. If we err, it is on
the side of being positive. This is in part because we
are aware of how very hard the creators of the shows
have worked, in part because we are in awe of their
willingness to put their work out for public
consideration and – well, because we love live theater."
We continue to believe that these are the proper
standards to maintain as we strive to give you the most
comprehensive coverage of the incredibly vibrant theater
community in the Potomac Region. |
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1-03 |
2006 - A Look Back
As the new year gets underway, we looked back at the
shows we covered in 2006 in this incredibly vibrant
theater community. We published reviews of 260
productions - 175 professional local productions in
theaters within the region, 25 community theater
offerings, 19 national touring company productions
visiting the region, and 6 dinner theater shows, at a
total if 40 venues within the Washington, Maryland and
Virginia area we call the Potomac Region. We also
reviewed 35 productions outside the region including 15
Broadway shows.
These numbers demonstrate
the volume of work being done within the region, but
can't come close to reflecting the quality.
Seventy-Seven productions
were designated "A Potomac Stages Pick," which
represented some 35 percent of the shows we reviewed
within the region. |
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Click here for the news archive for
December, 2006 |
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