Washington DC

Washington Bach Consort’s Noontime Cantata Series: A DC Tradition in the Making

For thirty years, the Washington Bach Consort has offered its Noontime Cantata Series to Washingtonians seeking a free musical escape in the middle of the workday, something District officials have...

Playwright Michael Hollinger to Visit Quotidian Theatre for ‘Ghost-Writer’ Talkback

Quotidian Theatre Company will have VIP guests, “Ghost-Writer” playwright Michael Hollinger and his wife, Megan Bellwoar (who originated the role of Myra), in house for a performance and after-show...

Director and Playwright Psalmayene 24 Discusses ‘Native Son’ and ‘Les Deux Noirs’

DC Theater Arts caught up with Director and Playwright Psalmayene 24 to discuss Native Son and Les Deux Noirs: Notes on Notes of a Native Son, which play in rep at the Mosaic Theater this month....

DCMTA Exclusive: Helen Hayes Award Winner Iyona Blake Announces Upcoming EP ‘Timeless’

On a recent warm Monday evening, Helen Hayes Award recipient Iyona Blake announced her next musical venture, an EP (extended play) of some of her favorite songs. The album will be called “Timeless.”...

Artistic Director Matt Bassett Discusses Hub Theatre’s DC Premiere of ‘The Burn’

In the Hub Theatre’s first full production under Artistic Director Matt Bassett, the company will be producing The Burn by playwright Philip Dawkins. The Burn will be the first Hub production in its...

Review: ‘Bus Stop’ at Aldersgate Church Community Theater

Aldersgate Church Community Theater presents Bus Stop, by William Inge. Written in 1955, this production follows a group of strangers who find themselves stranded together overnight after being hit by...

Review: ‘Native Son’ at Mosaic Theater

We usually think of a rat as a detestable lowlife animal that we dread. It slinks in dark corners of the floor, hiding itself from being seen. It nervously darts and runs when spotted and can fit...

Review: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by Aquila Theatre at George Mason University

Last night, Aquila Theatre performed a wonderful version of the classic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at George Mason University’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts. All of the actors (of whom...

Review: ‘columbinus’ at 1st Stage

There’s a lot that’s shocking and disturbing in this show, as well there should be—it’s based on the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. That massacre—during...

Review: ‘August: Osage County’ by Providence Players of Fairfax

Providence Players of Fairfax presents Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best New Play. Michael Donahue directs a strong, searing...

Review: ‘DEMO: Now’ at the Kennedy Center

As Director and Curator of DEMO: Now, Damian Woetzel brings together artists of different disciplines. The idea is simple: put artists together in a room and see what develops, what is created that is...

Review: ‘Women’s Works’ at George Washington University

Director and playwright Leslie Jacobson concludes her final year as a full-time professor at George Washington University with excerpts from plays she has written, directed or adapted. The works draw...

The Kennedy Center Announces Its 2019-2020 Theater Season

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced its 2019–2020 theater season, with more than 15 productions from New York, London, and across the globe, plus original Kennedy Center...

Cynthia Erivo Brings ‘Legendary Women’s Voices’ to the Kennedy Center

Cynthia Erivo may as well call the Kennedy Center home. Having previously performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the intimacy between Erivo and the musicians is strong. For her upcoming...

Review: ‘A Bronx Tale’ at the National Theatre

Chazz Palminteri is one cool dude. Imagine having your own life story play to sold-out houses on and off Broadway, and be made into a classic film directed by none other than Robert De Niro. And De...

Annapolis Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Sally Boyett Discusses ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ASC’s Current Season

Sally Boyett is the Artistic Director of Annapolis Shakespeare Company, which is making a name for itself with its clever productions of Shakespeare and the classics. She has directed many ASC shows,...

Review: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ at Creative Cauldron

Full of high-spirited playfulness, flights of adorable fancy and some verbal gymnastics that children and adults can savor, Creative Cauldron’s Alice in Wonderland is family entertainment that will...

Review: ‘Resolving Hedda’ by Washington Stage Guild

What if your favorite dramatic heroine could – just for once – alter her tragic fate? That’s the question posed by playwright Jon Klein in the Washington Stage Guild’s production of Resolving Hedda....

Synetic Theater Hires Jason Najjoum as Managing Director

Synetic Theater is pleased to announce the hiring of Jason Najjoum as Managing Director. Mr. Najjoum comes to Synetic with over a decade of experience in the arts and culture space and valuable...

Review: ‘La Paloma at the Wall’ by The In Series

The In Series at GALA Theatre has succeeded in brilliantly breathing life into a treasured zarzuela – a blend of song and dance – which was written in 1894 and originally titled La Verbena de la...

Review: ‘The Viennese Classics’ by the National Chamber Ensemble

By Ross Heath Of the National Chamber Ensemble’s roster of exceptional musicians, three artists, Leonid Sushansky (violin and artistic director), Sean Neidlinger (cello), and Carlos Cesar Rodriguez...

Review: ‘Dead Dog’s Bone: A Birthday Play’ by Nu Sass Productions

There is indeed a dog in this play, aptly named Dog, wryly performed by Karen Lange wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, and neck bandana. At the top of Act One, Dog sings a country-westernish song, “[Taking...

Review: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ at Annapolis Shakespeare Company

Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s Pride and Prejudice is an impeccable dance, an elegant minuet from start to finish. Every element works gracefully with every other, producing a pleasing, harmonious...

Review: ‘Spills’ by Who What Where Theater Collective

We are seated on folding chairs in the living room of an actual house where two women and a man in their mid-twenties have agreed to meet up for a three-way. There’s a modest playing area for them and...

Adventure Theatre MTC Announces Departure of Artistic Director Michael J. Bobbitt

Adventure Theatre MTC (ATMTC) today announced that Michael J. Bobbitt, who has served as the organization’s artistic director since 2007, will be stepping down on July 1, 2019. Bobbitt, an...

“The Puppets Help Tell the Story”: World Puppetry Day Interview with ‘Vanity Fair’ Creative Team

In honor of World Puppetry Day celebrated on March 21st, it was time to learn more about the puppetry used in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Vanity Fair, now...

Review: ‘Topdog/Underdog’ by Avant Bard

“Watch me close, watch me now!” As I watched Avant Bard’s production of Topdog/Underdog, I knew that it is a production for the ages. Under the visceral, athletic direction of DeMone Seraphin,...

Review: ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’ by The Second City at Wolf Trap

By Andy Arnold The Second City: It’s Not You, It’s Me gets laughs. Sort of like the laughs an adult might give a naughty, inappropriate child. The show – a re-envisioning of sketches by the Canadian...

Review: ‘Into the Woods’ at Ford’s Theatre

I have loved Sondheim’s Into the Woods since seeing its original Broadway production. Three decades on, Ford’s Theatre’s current version carries the tradition forward proudly. For anyone unfamiliar...

Photo Feature: The Washington Chorus Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day

The Washington Chorus (TWC) celebrated St. Patrick’s Day 2019 with a concert at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, followed by its annual Gala dinner at the Watergate Hotel. The concert featured a...

Wolf Pack Theatre Company Has Found a Home

Wolf Pack Theatre Company has found a new home at the Cora B. Woods Center in Brentwood Maryland. After almost five years of being nomads, Wolf Pack Theatre Company will be moving into the Cora B....

Review: ‘The Jewish Queen Lear’ by Theater J

Valerie Leonard’s engrossing performance as a powerful matriarch lifts the Theater J premiere of the English-language The Jewish Queen Lear beyond a nostalgia-laden look back to a once highly...

Review: ‘The Comedy of Errors’ by Britches and Hose Theatre Company

By Daniel Rinehart Britches and Hose Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors begins with a boisterous crowd scene. Then suddenly a great lord and a prisoner enter....

DC Playwright Collective The Welders Announce Third Generation Playwrights

A new generation of playwrights is taking over The Welders – Washington DC’s only playwrights’ collective devoted exclusively to developing and producing new work. Starting in January 2020, the Welder...

Theater J to Welcome Home Audiences for its 2019-2020 Season

Theater J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr and Managing Director Jojo Ruf announce Theater J’s 2019-2020 season, welcoming home audiences to a beautiful and refreshed theater located in the newly...

Review: ‘The Color Purple’ at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts

Magic. Magnificent. Marvelous. There are only so many superlatives I can muster in such a small space, but The Color Purple, now running at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, is phenomenal....

Review: ‘Fallen Angels’ at NextStop Theatre Company

If there could be a single word to describe NextStop Theatre Company’s production of Noel Coward’s 1925 comedy, Fallen Angels, it would be symmetry. Emily Lotz’s delightfully realized period set,...

Magic Time!: ‘Queen of Basel’ at Studio Theatre

Queen of Basel by Hilary Bettis, now on the boards at Studio, is scathingly brilliant. One walks out gobsmacked. (I completely concur with my colleague Bob Ashby’s astute review.) But watching Queen...

Yiddish Translator Nahma Sandrow Talks About Bringing a 19th-Century Masterpiece to a Modern English-Speaking Audience

It took a little over 120 years. But—thanks to Theater J—Jacob Gordin’s wildly popular Yiddish drama, celebrated as The Jewish Queen Lear, has made it onto the English-language stage. The play, whose...

Report: ‘Les Misérables in Concert’ by Young Artists of America at Strathmore

Young Artists of America presented its annual concert on Saturday, March 16, performing a semi-staged concert version of Les Misérables that featured a large ensemble of performers, chorus members and...

Christian Sands Brings ‘Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour’ to Strathmore March 21

The East Coast has the Newport and DC jazz festivals. The Midwest claims the world’s largest free jazz extravaganza, the Detroit Jazz Festival. The South showcases jazz and R&B talent at the New...

Review: ‘The Explorers Club’ at Workhouse Arts Center

If you have not yet visited the intimate Workhouse Theatre in Lorton, Virginia, Frank Shutts is currently directing a screwball comedy full of inappropriate giggles. Attitudes are purposefully dated...

2019 WATCH Award Winners and Ceremony Recap

The 19th Annual WATCH Awards recipients were announced tonight at a ceremony at The Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia. The ceremony was notable for two touching moments. Charles Hall, father of Leta...

Review: ‘Faust’ by Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center

It’s been a quarter of a century since Satan came to call on the Kennedy Center, but the Washington National Opera’s production of Faust (with music by Charles Gounod and libretto by Jules Barbier and...

The 2019 WATCH AWARDS Ceremony Takes Place Tonight

The 19th Annual WATCH Awards winners will be announced tonight at a ceremony at the Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia. DC Theater Arts will be at the ceremony to bring you updates on social media...

Review: ‘JQA’ at Arena Stage

Leaving Arena Stage’s world premiere of JQA, the fictionalized account of John Quincy Adams as imagined by playwright/director Aaron Posner, I’m feeling this: Adams was a sour, stiff-necked, rigid man...

Review: ‘Hexagon 2019: Romp in the Swamp’

Hexagon has been around for 64 years and never seems to age. Since 1956 the musical comedy theater group has been turning out original political satire that’s as of-the-moment as the news. Its latest...

Magic Time!: ‘Limits’ by Cirkus Cirkör at The Kennedy Center

The circus I fell in love with as a kid is gone. It was touted at the time as the greatest show on earth: a three-ring tented extravaganza that smelled of roasted peanuts, sawdust, and manure and...

Review: ‘The Seagull’ at The Wheel Theatre Company

An aspiring playwright and son loves an aspiring actress and ingenue. A famous actress and mother loves a famous writer and inconstant. Life doesn’t often provide neat parallels between generations...

Arena Stage Voices of Now Artists Return from Trip to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

(Washington, D.C.) Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia and the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, sent four Arena...