Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: events through Nov. 18

Art, concerts, music, movies and more slated for coming week

Published

13 years ago

November 11, 2010

Friday, Nov. 12

The Richard Montgomery High School Black Maskers Drama Club presents Moisés Kaufman’s “The Laramie Project,” a play based on interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyo., after the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, tonight at 7 p.m. in the Richard Montgomery Auditorium (250 Richard Montgomery Drive) in Rockville. Tickets may be purchased in advance at richardmontgomerydrama.ticketleap.net or at the door, and are $5 for students and $13 for adults.

Bethesda’s monthly art walk is tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. Ten local galleries will be staying open. Attendees are invited to view the artwork, enjoy free refreshments and to shop. The participating galleries and studios are the Blue House (7770 Woodmont Ave.), Fraser Gallery (7700E. Wisconsin Ave.),

Gallery 360 (4836 Rugby Ave.), Gallery Frame Avenue (4919 Cordell Ave.), Gallery St. Elmo (4938 St. Elmo Ave.), Orchard Gallery (7917 Norfolk Ave.), St. Elmo’s Fire Gallery (4828 St. Elmo Ave.), Upstairs Art Studios (4948 St. Elmo Ave.), Washington School of Photography (4850 Rugby Ave.) and Waverly Street Gallery (4600 East-West Highway.).

Towson University Dance Company presents “Grace and Flow,” an evening of dance tonight at 8 p.m. The program includes the second act of “Swan Lake,” the classical ballet restaged by Runqiao Du, the work of Tim Veach and the choreographed works of the Towson University dance faculty including Jaye Knutson, Nancy Romita, Nicole A. Martinell and Sandra Perez. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $10 for students.

Bookmen D.C., an informal group of men interested in gay literature, meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Charles Sumner School and Archives (1201 17th St., N.W.) to discuss selections from “Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS” edited by David Groff and Philip Clark. All are welcome.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (10 Art Museum Drive) is hosting “Warhol: the Last Decade,” an exhibit featuring over 50 large-scale works that marked Andy Warhol’s last decade. This is the last stop of a national tour. Some of the works shown include fright wig self-portraits and three variations on Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission ranges from free for children 5 and younger to $15 for adults. For more information, visit warhol.artbma.org.

Saturday, Nov. 13

Shi-Queeta-Lee will be celebrating her 46th birthday today with Cirque Du Soleil’s “Red Party” at Town featuring the release of her 2011 calendar from 6 to 10 p.m. There will be a $10 cover.

The Birchmere and AM Productions present Straight No Chase, a male a cappella group, performing at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1212 Cathedral St.) in Baltimore tonight at 8 p.m. For more information on the group, visit sncmusic.com. To purchase tickets, visit ticketmaster.com.

The D.C. Strokes Rowing Club will celebrate 20 years of rowing tonight at Casa Italiana Language School (595 1/2 3rd St., N.W.) from 7 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased by registering at dcstrokes.org.

Folding/Unfolding: Collider, a 3D modeling and interactive exhibit and workshop opens tonight at Artispehere (1101 Wilson Blvd.) in Arlington with an opening reception at 8 p.m. featuring burlesque figure drawing with Velvet Kensington and Private Tails and an after party at 11 p.m. with queer band Rad Pony, who has played at Phasefest the past two years, and DJs Natty Boom and Matt Bailer.

Blowoff, a dance party featuring gay DJs, will be at 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight. Doors opens at 11:30 p.m. Attendees must be 21 or older. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at 930.com.

Allie Wilson and Jacob Nathaniel Pring present Cotton Candy at Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) tonight at 10 p.m. upstairs featuring DJs David Merrill and Bryan Yamasaki. Attendees must be 18 or older to attend. There’s a $5 cover.

Sunday, Nov. 14

D.C. native actress and playwright Ellen McLaughlin, who originated the role of the angel in gay playwright Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” on Broadway in the early ’90s, will perform her play “Penelope” at the Writer’s Center (4508 Walsh St.) in Bethesda, tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for members and $10 for guests. For more information, call 301-654-8664 or visit writer.org.

GayParazzi will tour the National Arboretum (3501 New York Ave., N.E.) today meeting outside the visitor’s center at 10 a.m. There’s free admission and parking. Sign up at GayParazzi.com.

LAMBDA SCI-FI will have its monthly meeting and social of LGBT science fiction, fantasy and horror fans today at 1:30 p.m. at 1414 17th St., N.W. Call James at 202-232-3141 or e-mail to [email protected] to RSVP. For more information, visit the group’s website lambdascifi.org.

The Pocket Gays will be hosting “Spanksgiving” today on the enclosed and heated roof deck of Local 16 (1602 U St., N.W.) from 3 to 9 p.m. DJ vANNIEty KILLS will be providing the music. This is a free event.

Monday, Nov. 15

The 2010 WTT Smash Hits is tonight at Bender Arena at American University at 7 p.m. Billie Jean King and Sir Elton John will captain teams composed of Andre Agassi, James Blake, Stefanie Graf, Anna Kournikova, Martina Navratilova and more. This event will raise money for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and local D.C. area AIDS charities. Tickets range from $40 to $120. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit wtt.com.

The National Portrait Gallery is showing an exhibit that focuses on sexual differences in the making of modern American portraiture. “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” is the first major museum exhibit of its kind. The museum is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and admission is free.

Tuesday, Nov. 16

Rainbow History Project will celebrate its 10th anniversary tonight at the Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives (1201 17th St., N.W.) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The reception will feature a one-night-only exhibit of items from RHP’s archives including T-shirts from the collection of the late lesbian archivist Cheryl Spector. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit rainbowhistory.org.

Burgundy Crescent Volunteers needs help packing safer sex kits for FUK!T from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight at Green Lantern, 1335 Green Ct., N.W.

Wednesday, Nov. 17

Women’s Wednesday will be at Mixology tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Mixology is D.C. premier matchmaking service for gays and lesbians. Register at caglcc.org.

The Zenith Gallery (1111 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) opens “Universe” featuring artwork by Anne Marchand and Craig Schaffer tonight. Both artists deal with the abstract, Marchand through paintings and Schaffer through sculpture. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Food & Friends Slice of Life and Nellie’s will be hosting a pie-eating contest and bake sale tonight at 7 p.m. The contest is limited to 16 participants and is first come, first entered. For more information, including the rules of the contest, and to register for the event, visit nelliesdc.com.

Thursday, Nov. 18

The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) will be hosting a “theater look-in” for “Hair” today from 5 to 6 p.m. Attendees will get an insider’s look at the production and have the opportunity to ask the artists questions. This event will be in the Terrace Gallery and tickets are $12. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit kennedy-center.org.

There will be a special happy hour at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) to benefit the Trevor Project tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. A $10 donation at the door will go directly to the Trevor Project and Cobalt will honor the donation with a free drink ticket.

Theater

Round House explores serious issues related to privilege

‘A Jumping-Off Point’ is absorbing, timely, and funny

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Patrick Folliard

Cristina Pitter (Miriam) and Nikkole Salter (Leslie) in ‘A Jumping-Off Point’ at Round House Theatre. (Photo by Margot Schulman Photography)

‘A Jumping-Off Point’
Through May 5
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Md.
$46-$83
Roundhousetheatre.org

In Inda Craig-Galván’s new play “A Jumping-Off Point,” protagonist Leslie Wallace, a rising Black dramatist, believes strongly in writing about what you know. Clearly, Craig-Galván, a real-life successful Black playwright and television writer, adheres to the same maxim. Whether further details from the play are drawn from her life, is up for speculation.

Absorbing, timely, and often funny, the current Round House Theatre offering explores some serious issues surrounding privilege and who gets to write about what. Nimbly staged and acted by a pitch perfect cast, the play moves swiftly across what feels like familiar territory without being the least bit predictable.

After a tense wait, Leslie (Nikkole Salter) learns she’s been hired to be showrunner and head writer for a new HBO MAX prestige series. What ought to be a heady time for the ambitious young woman quickly goes sour when a white man bearing accusations shows up at her door.

The uninvited visitor is Andrew (Danny Gavigan), a fellow student from Leslie’s graduate playwriting program. The pair were never friends. In fact, he pressed all of her buttons without even trying. She views him as a lazy, advantaged guy destined to fail up, and finds his choosing to dramatize the African American Mississippi Delta experience especially annoying.

Since grad school, Leslie has had a play successfully produced in New York and now she’s on the cusp of making it big in Los Angeles while Andrew is bagging groceries at Ralph’s. (In fact, we’ll discover that he’s a held a series of wide-ranging temporary jobs, picking up a lot of information from each, a habit that will serve him later on, but I digress.)

Their conversation is awkward as Andrew’s demeanor shifts back and forth from stiltedly polite to borderline threatening. Eventually, he makes his point: Andrew claims that Leslie’s current success is entirely built on her having plagiarized his script.

This increasingly uncomfortable set-to is interrupted by Leslie’s wisecracking best friend and roommate Miriam who has a knack for making things worse before making them better. Deliciously played by Cristina Pitter (whose program bio describes them as “a queer multi-spirit Afro-indigenous artist, abolitionist, and alchemist”), Miriam is the perfect third character in Craig-Galván’s deftly balanced three-hander.

Cast members’ performances are layered. Salter’s Leslie is all charm, practicality, and controlled ambition, and Gavigan’s Andrew is an organic amalgam of vulnerable, goofy, and menacing. He’s terrific.

The 90-minute dramedy isn’t without some improbable narrative turns, but fortunately they lead to some interesting places where provoking questions are representation, entitlement, what constitutes plagiarism, etc. It’s all discussion-worthy topics, here pleasingly tempered with humor.

New York-based director Jade King Carroll skillfully helms the production. Scenes transition smoothly in large part due to a top-notch design team. Scenic designer Meghan Raham’s revolving set seamlessly goes from Leslie’s attractive apartment to smart cafes to an HBO writers’ room with the requisite long table and essential white board. Adding to the graceful storytelling are sound and lighting design by Michael Keck and Amith Chandrashaker, respectively.

The passage of time and circumstances are perceptively reflected in costume designer Moyenda Kulemeka’s sartorial choices: heels rise higher, baseball caps are doffed and jackets donned.

“A Jumping-Off Point” is the centerpiece of the third National Capital New Play Festival, an annual event celebrating new work by some of the country’s leading playwrights and newer voices.

Nightlife

Ed Bailey brings Secret Garden to Project GLOW festival

An LGBTQ-inclusive dance space at RFK this weekend

Published

10 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Evan Caplan

Ed Bailey's set at last year's Project Glow. (Photo courtesy Bailey)

When does a garden GLOW? When it’s run by famed local gay DJ Ed Bailey.

This weekend, music festival Project GLOW at RFK Festival Grounds will feature Bailey’s brainchild the Secret Garden, a unique space just for the LGBTQ community that he launched in 2023.

While Project GLOW, running April 27-28, is a stage for massive electronic DJ sets in a large outdoor space, Secret Garden is more intimate, though no less adrenaline-forward. He’s bringing the nightclub to the festival. The garden is a dance area that complements the larger stages, but also stands on its own as a draw for festival-goers. Its focus is on DJs that have a presence and following in the LGBTQ audience world.

“The Secret Garden is a showcase for what LGBTQ nightlife, and nightclubs in general, are all about,” he says. “True club DJs playing club music for people that want to dance in a fun environment that is high energy and low stress. It’s the cool party inside the bigger party.”

Project GLOW launched in 2022. Bailey connected with the operators after the first event, and they discussed Bailey curating his own space for 2023. “They were very clear that they wanted me to lean into the vibrant LGBTQ nightlife of D.C. and allow that community to be very visibly a part of this area.”

Last year, club icon Kevin Aviance headlined the Secret Garden. The GLOW festival organizers loved the its energy from last year, and so asked Bailey to bring it back again, with an entire year to plan.

This year, Bailey says, he is “bringing in more D.C. nightlife legends.” Among those are DJ Sedrick, “a DJ and entertainer legend. He was a pivotal part of Tracks nightclub and is such a dynamic force of entertainment,” says Bailey. “I am excited for a whole new audience to be able to experience his very special brand of DJing!”

Also, this year brings in Illustrious Blacks, a worldwide DJ duo with roots in D.C.; and “house music legends” DJs Derrick Carter and DJ Spen.

Bailey is focusing on D.C.’s local talent, with a lineup including Diyanna Monet, Strikestone!, Dvonne, Baronhawk Poitier, THABLACKGOD, Get Face, Franxx, Baby Weight, and Flower Factory DJs KS, Joann Fabrixx, and PWRPUFF.

Secret Garden also brings in performers who meld music with dance, theater, and audience interactions for a multi-sensory experience.

Bailey is an owner of Trade and Number Nine, and was previously an owner of Town Danceboutique. Over the last 35 years, Bailey owned and operated more than 10 bars and clubs in D.C. He has an impressive resume, too. Since starting in 1987, he’s DJ’d across the world for parties and nightclubs large and intimate. He says that he opened “in concert for Kylie Minogue, DJed with Junior Vasquez, played giant 10,000-person events, and small underground parties.” He’s also held residencies at clubs in Atlanta, Miami, and here in D.C. at Tracks, Nation, and Town.

With Secret Garden, Bailey and GLOW aim to bring queer performers into the space not just for LGBTQ audiences, but for the entire music community to meet, learn about, and enjoy. While they might enjoy fandom among queer nightlife, this Garden is a platform for them to meet the entirety of GLOW festival goers.

Weekend-long Project GLOW brings in headliners and artists from EDM and electronic music, with big names like ILLENIUM, Zedd, and Rezz. In all, more than 50 artists will take the three stages at the third edition of Project GLOW, presented by Insomniac (Electric Daisy Carnival) and Club Glow (Echostage, Soundcheck).

Out & About

Washington Improv Theatre hosts ‘The Queeries’

Event to celebrate queer DMV talent and pop culture camp

Published

11 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Tinashe Chingarande

The Washington Improv Theatre, along with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC, will team up to host “The Queeries!” on Friday, April 26 at 9:30 p.m. at Studio Theatre.

The event will celebrate Queer DMV talent and pop culture camp. With a mixture of audience-submitted nominations and blatantly undemocratically declared winners, “The Queeries!” mimics LGBTQ life itself: unfair, but far more fun than the alternative.

The event will be co-hosted by Birdie and Butchie, who have invited some of their favorite bent winos, D.C. “D-listers,” former Senate staffers, and other stars to sashay down the lavender carpet for the selfie-strewn party of the year.

Tickets are just $15 and can be purchased on WITV’s website.