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When the Kids' Post section of the Washington Post ran a profile of Michael Bunting who is playing Young Prince Edward in the current Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Christopher Marlowe's history play, Edward II, it included an "If You Go" box on how to get tickets to see the show and even included information on discounts. It should have included a caution about the staging of the execution scene, which would be disturbing to many including children. Director Gale Edwards does not go overboard in staging the scene and, in fact, manages to block the audience's view of the actual wounding. But the history of Edward II and the drama of his life and death involve a highly disturbing method of execution and Edwards does not shy away from making the act clear. We did not dwell on the scene in our review but we did include the caution "v Includes a disturbing execution scene too strong for young children." It should be noted that the Shakespeare Theatre Company is not offering discounts specifically for "children" but, rather, has a student discount program.

The Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association is launching a series of readings from dramatic works in their 156 year old Greek Revival style building at 201 Prince Street in Alexandria. The first offering will be this Thursday as part of their Thursdays at the Athenaeum programming. "Scenes and Monologues of the American Stage" will be directed by Cheryl Felicia Rhoades and will include selections from The Spoon River Anthology and Talley's Folley as well as material by Neil Simon. Admission is $10.

Theater J will have staged readings on both Monday and Tuesday evenings next week. On Monday, Rebecca Bayla Taichman directs a reading of Kathleen Tolan's new play What To Listen For in which a woman travels back in time to consult with composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, pianist Glenn Gould and psychiatry pioneer Sigmund Freud in a search for help for her daughter who wants to be a musician. The reading will feature piano accompaniment by Alvin Smithson and the talents of Regina Aquino, Louis Butelli, Kathryn Kelley, Jesse Lenat, Michael Milligan, Adrienne Nelson, Fred Shiffman and Danton Stone. Stone will also appear in the Tuesday evening reading along with his cast mates from the current show at Theater J, Speed The Plow. He and Peter Birkenhead and Meghan Grady will be joined by Kimberly Schraff in a reading of a new revision of Artistic Director Ari Roth's 2001 comedy Love and Yearning in the Not for Profits. Both readings begin at 7:30. Admission Monday night is $15 while the reading on Tuesday is free.

The African Continuum Theatre Company has announced that Benny Sato Ambush, who was to assume the leadership of the company as Artistic Director, will not be taking over the company after all. The company's previously announced fall production of George C. Woolfe's musical adaptation of the stories of Zora Neale Hurston, Spunk, was dropped, and will instead be produced by Tribute Productions. It opens next week in the Sprenger Theatre of the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street, NE. There is no word right now of the plans for the rest of the 2007-08 season for African Continuum Theatre Company.

The Helen Hayes Awards Organization is seeking well-versed and knowledgeable theater lovers to serve as Helen Hayes Awards judges to serve three-year terms beginning with the 2008 judging cycle. This is a volunteer position requiring enormous time, consideration, and dedication which provides a theater lover with an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the Washington theater community. Applications are reviewed by a Selection Committee comprised of, among others, three Artistic Directors from participating theatres.  The deadline to apply is Monday, November 19. For information, or to download an application, log on to http://www.helenhayes.org/sub/hw.cfm.

The Reel Portraits program of the National Gallery will screen a rarely seen movie starring Paul Robeson, the singer/actor who is still remembered for his roles in Show Boat, The Emperor Jones and Porgy. The 1937 film Jericho starred Robeson as an American Army corporal in France during World War I who is convicted of killing one of his officers and escapes to Africa where he rises to a post of leadership in a nomadic sheikdom. The film will be shown tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock and will be followed by a conversation with Robesons' son. The event is free and no reservations are required.

For the second month in a row, Studio Theatre's production of Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa! was selected by the theater lovers who usher in Potomac Region theaters and who participate in the Ushers' Favorite Show Award sponsored by Potomac Stages as one of their favorite shows of the month. This time, the production shares the honor with Signature Theatre's hip-hop tinged slam poetry program on the power of words, The Word Begins. This is the sixth show of Studio Theatre's to earn the monthly award. Their production of The Syringa Tree earned the first ever-annual award as the Ushers' Favorite Show of 2004. As for Signature, this is the ninth show to win the monthly award. Their productions of Assassins and Urinetown won the annual awards for 2005 and 2006.

Forum Theatre & Dance, a professional company that has been presenting striking productions since 2003, has set a three-show season for 2007-08. They begin with their Artistic Director, Michael Dove, directing Sophocles’ tragedy, Antigone in December. Next April they open Adly Guirgis' play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot under the direction of John Vreeke. The season will end next summer with Peter Weiss' The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade with new music by Jesse Terrill. The company presents its productions at the H Street Playhouse in NE.

The Downstairs New Play Reading Series of Arena Stage has picked up again for the 2007-08 season. Next Monday there will be the reading of a play about a forensic anthropologist by the winner of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Prize, Steve Spotswood. The Aaronsville Woman will be performed in the Kreeger in Arena's Southwest Washington campus, as will the December 3 reading of Resurrection, a play by Daniel Beaty (Emergence-See!) that tells the stories of six black males from different backgrounds. The final four plays in the series will be performed in Arena's new temporary space, Arena Stage in Crystal City, while the renovation and expansion of the Southwest campus into the Mead Center for American Theater is ongoing. The entire series is under the leadership of Senior Dramaturg Mark Bly. Admission will be $8.