Arts & Entertainment

Deep in Tennessee

Obscure one acts by gay playwright produced at Shakespeare

Published

15 years ago

June 9, 2011

Lynn Sharp Spears as Lucretia in ‘Portrait of a Madonna,’ Tennessee Williams’ one act precursor to ‘Streetcar Named Desire.’ (Photo courtesy Washington Shakespeare Company)

‘Tennessee Continuum: Two One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams’
Through July 3
Washington Shakespeare Company
Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA.
$25-$35; pay what you can for Saturday matinees
888-841-2787

Like the name suggests, Washington Shakespeare Company is a little Bard-centric, but the Rosslyn-based troupe successfully interprets modern playwrights too, particularly Tennessee Williams. Currently the company is presenting two rarely performed pieces from different phases of the gay playwright’s epic career.

Though ostensibly not a bit alike, “Portrait of a Madonna” and “The Gnädiges Fräulein” (together billed as “Tennessee Continuum: Two One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams), are both poignant and inhabited by tragic characters. They share some of the inescapable Williams’ themes of unrequited attachments and survival in an unkind world.

Written in 1940, “Madonna” is a precursor to Williams’ later, greater works. Set in a grim apartment in an unnamed city, it’s the story of Lucretia Collins, a kooky maiden lady who is haunted by an ill-fated romance from her genteel, small town southern past. Now poor and alone, the aging preacher’s daughter loses her mind: She believes the man she once loved invades her bedroom nightly to “indulge his senses” as she rather delicately puts it. When she calls the apartment management for help, they summon mental health professionals and not the cops.

Sensitively staged by Lynn Sharp Spears, the one act reeks with the stuff that made the young Williams famous: faded belles, gentleman callers and glimpses into madness — Annetta Dexter Sawyer’s Lucretia is certifiably nuts. Slice Hick’s empathetic, human porter and Bob Sheire as the mocking elevator operator give an idea of the variety of characters that a lady might encounter in the sometimes uncertain outside world.

In “Madonna’s” final scene, a kindly doctor (here played by Christopher Henley sporting a Tyrone Power-inspired haircut) comes to escort an increasingly disconnected Lucretia to a state asylum. Williams would rewrite this same situation a few years concerning another distressed lady — Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Interestingly, after seeing Jessica Tandy play Lucretia in a West Coast production of Madonna in 1947, he cast her as Blanche in the original production of “Streetcar.”

After intermission, it’s “The Gnädiges Fräulein,” a very funny paean to human survival written in 1966 when Williams was no longer the darling of critics. In fact, this one act (which translates from German as “Gracious Young Lady”) originally closed on Broadway in less than a week. Set in Williams’ beloved Florida Keys, the oddball comedy was his first foray into the absurd and, many say, an allegory of his own artistic life.

In search of a scoop, society reporter Polly (Mundy Spears) shows up at an unconventional guest house owned by no-nonsense Molly (Emily Webbe). It’s a strange place: The front porch is dripping with blood and a vicious Cocaloony bird (Karin Abromaitis) is circling the property intimidating everyone it meets. And the tenants are equally unusual. Wearing just a tiny loincloth, pulchritudinous and platinum blond Indian Joe (James Finley) struts about and says very little. The orange-haired title Fraulein (Karin Rosnizeck) was once a performer. Now deaf and blind in one eye, she earns her keep by battling increasingly fearsome Cocaloonies for fisherman’s castoff catch down at the docks. When not trading Williams’ gloriously crafted barbs, frenemies Polly and Molly smoke joints and engage in furious, highly sexualized synchronized rocking.

Gay director Jay Hardee elicits just right performances from an excellent cast. His inspired staging effortlessly coaxes the show’s many aspects — campy humor, menace, and melancholy — to the fore. Elizabeth Jenkins McFadden’s nonintrusive set cleverly morphs from tenement flat to seaside abode with very little fuss.

“Tennessee Continuum” is now running in repertory at Artisphere with a production of “Night and Day” by Tom Stoppard — another of the company’s favorite playwrights.

Related Topics:Out & About Washington Shakespeare Company

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FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Theater

Rorschach stages ‘Dragon Play’ in unlikely, raw space

Out sound designer Madeline ‘Mo’ Oslejsek notes ‘sound is my bag’

Published

1 hour ago

April 18, 2026

Patrick Folliard

Madeline 'Mo' Oslejsek (Photo courtesy of Oslejsek)

‘Dragon Play’
Through May 17
Rorschach Theatre
The Stacks @ Buzzard Point
101 V St., S.W.
$50 ($35 for students and seniors)
Rorschachtheatre.org

Celebrated for its site-specific, immersive productions, Rorschach Theatre puts on plays all over town. The unlikely spots have included greenhouses, church vestibules, closed retail spaces (including a vacant downtown big and tall men’s store) and historic locales like Rock Creek Cemetery’s Adams Memorial.

For its current offering “Dragon Play” (through May 17), a tale of love and longing, Rorschach is using a raw space in The Stacks at Buzzard Point, a new mixed-use neighborhood situated where the Anacostia and Potomac rivers meet.

Out sound designer Madeline ‘Mo’ Oslejsek considers all sites – whether traditional theatrical spaces or not – specific, particularly in terms of sound. She says, “Part of my practice is if you’re creating a soundscape for a theatrical production you’re also working with sound that already exists with the space.”

For instance, The Stacks space comes with its own unique qualities. It’s a large cement room that has a different reverberation, an echo.

“Some sounds (a car, dog bark) are planted or they might just happen. What starts as a live sound might be heard again as something recorded.”

Whip smart with a ready laugh, Oslejsek never set out to be a sound designer. She was going to direct. And now, the 2025 Helen Hayes Award nominee for Outstanding Sound Design (“Astro Boy and the God of Comics” at Flying V,) says, “Sound is my bag. Sometimes it seems that I’m the only one in the room thinking about it.”

As an undergrad studying theater at Ohio Wesleyan University, she was first exposed to sound design, but it didn’t make a big impression.

In grad school at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, she was interested in direction. But when students were offered a choice of three more specific tracks to choose from (performance, composition, and scenography, which includes sound design), Oslejsek was swayed.

“An introduction to scenography by the department head radically changed the course of my life,” she says.

What struck her most about sound was the subjectivity: “The core of my practice is that sound has no meaning until it’s experienced. All sound is noise. It’s just a pitch, active, or vocalization. It becomes real when you hear it and apply meaning to it. That’s very exciting to me.”

Today, Oslejsek and partner Caitlin Hooper, an actor and intimacy choreographer, are based in Baltimore but work primarily in D.C.

“It feels good to be in a place where art and queerness in art are celebrated. It’s not like that everywhere, and making that kind of work down the street from this White House where that’s not the vibe, is real resistance. That feels really meaningful.”

Also important to Oslejsek (who identifies alternately as queer and lesbian) is “queer as a practice,” a concept suggesting that a queer identity or practice does not seek to replace other identities but to encompass and bridge them.

“I’m queer because I like women, but the work is more about making room for what everyone in the room hears,” she says. “Never do I want to come into a space thinking I have all the answers. That’s no fun.”

As its title might suggest, Jenny Connell Davis’ play directed by Rorschach’s Randy Baker is filled with magic. “Dragon Play,” blurs the past and present; one world bleeds into the next; and, of course, there are dragons. At 80 minutes with no intermission, the play moves in and out of different timelines; increasingly things start to overlap.

And it’s also about the magic of relationships – all kinds. There’s a line where the dragon girl asks a Texas boy what he dreams about and he replies “you, always you.”

Oslejsek, 30, is touched by those words: “In my little gay heart, I cried. It makes me think of my partner. This play is about the idea of people who strike a match in your heart that never really goes away.”

In creating a layered soundscape, she brings her own brand of magic to the production. Her big goal was “not to play with how we think a dragon might sound, but rather with how does the world sound to a dragon.”

Sometimes sound design takes the lead, but in some productions, sound is purposely subtle or secondary, she says. Either way, sound can be monumental in shaping theater.

Calendar

Calendar: April 17-23

LGBTQ events in the days to come

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Tinashe Chingarande

Friday, April 17

Center Aging Monthly Luncheon With Yoga will be at 12 p.m. at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. Email Mac at [email protected] if you require ASL interpreter assistance, have any dietary restrictions, or questions about this event.

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Social in the City” at 7 p.m. at Hotel Zena. This is a chance to relax, make new friends, and enjoy happy hour specials at this classic retro venue. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Trans and Genderqueer Game Night will be at 7:00p.m. at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. This is a relaxing, laid-back evening of games and fun. All are welcome and there’ll be card and board games on hand. Feel free to bring your own games to share. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.

Saturday, April 18

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host “Sunday Supper on Saturday” at 2 p.m. It’s more than just an event; it’s an opportunity to step away from the busyness of life and invest in something meaningful, and enjoy delicious food, genuine laughter, and conversations that spark connection and inspiration. For more details, visit the Center’s website.

Sunday, April 19

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Lunch” at 11 a.m. at Federico Ristorante Italiano. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ+ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

Monday, April 20

“Center Aging: Monday Coffee Klatch” will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, contact Adam ([email protected]).

Tuesday, April 21

Center Bi+ Roundtable will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is an opportunity for people to gather in order to discuss issues related to bisexuality or as Bi individuals in a private setting.Visit Facebook or Meetup for more information.

Senior Self Defense Class with Avi Rome will be at 12:30 p.m. This inclusive and beginner-friendly class, led by Instructor Avi Rome, offers a light warm-up, stretching, and instruction in basic techniques, patterns, and striking padded targets. Each session is designed to be adaptable for all ability and mobility levels, creating a welcoming space for everyone to build strength, confidence, and community through martial arts. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.

Wednesday, April 22

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom upon request. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.

Asexual and Aromantic Group will meet at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a space where people who are questioning this aspect of their identity or those who identify as asexual and/or aromantic can come together, share stories and experiences, and discuss various topics. For more details, email [email protected].

Thursday, April 23

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5:00 pm if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245.

Virtual Yoga Class will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This free weekly class is a combination of yoga, breath work and meditation that allows LGBTQ+ community members to continue their healing journey with somatic and mindfulness practices. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.

Out & About

Team DC’s annual gala set for this weekend

LGBTQ sports organization to hold annual ‘Night of Champions’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Tinashe Chingarande

(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Team DC will host “Night of Champions Gala” on Saturday, April 18 at 6 p.m. at the Georgetown Marriott.

This will be an evening of celebration and inspiration as Team DC honors remarkable individuals and supports the next generation of LGBTQ student-athletes.

There will be opportunities to support Team DC through auctions. The Silent Auction items will offer an array of unique goods and experiences. Additionally, Team DC will feature an exclusive selection of live auction items for those looking to make a significant impact.

This year, Team DC will recognize six outstanding awardees who have made significant contributions to the LGBTQ community and sports: