Arts & Entertainment
Don’t look in the basement
Odd but endearing play explores pregnant teen’s isolation
‘Holly Down In Heaven’
Through Oct. 20
Forum Theatre
Round House Theatre Silver Spring
8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring
$15-$25
240-644-1100
Maya Jackson as Holly in Kara Lee Corthron’s ‘Holly Down in Heaven.’ (Photo courtesy Round House Theatre)
Holly keeps counsel with dolls. When you’re a teenager marking time in your basement far from the world, it gets lonely. So she talks to them. And they talk back. Occasionally she even gets some good advice.
Emerging playwright Kara Lee Corthron writes thoughtfully about young women. In her funny and oddly heartwarming “Holly Down In Heaven” (currently making its world premiere at Forum Theatre in a fresh production ably staged by the company’s artistic director Michael Dove), Corthron explores a chaotic childhood journey.
After learning she’s pregnant, 15-year-old honor student Holly (Maya Jackson) sentences herself to nine months downstairs, vowing not to come up again until the baby is born. There, surrounded by her vast doll collection, she waits. Her indulgent widowed father (KenYatta Rogers) however has different ideas. From upstairs he keeps a close eye on his only child, gently encouraging her to consider alternatives to keeping the baby. For born again Christian Holly, abortion is out. She’s adamant: her intention is to remain underground, see no doctors and become a mother.
Tucked away, Holly seeks comfort from her dolls. Displayed on shelves around the perimeter of the open room, they’re arranged singly and in groups. The black contingent headed by a sassy Cabbage Patch baby includes a tiny, diplomatic Kofi Annan; next to them is a ponderously earnest Native American; then there are the Victorian dolls, most notably Queen Victoria herself; and across the basement in a spot lit place of honor stands a graceful Geisha girl (voiced by KyoSin).
Increasingly, conversation between Holly and the dolls centers on their reluctance to share her with a living, breathing baby. Sometimes these talks (actually just Holly talking to herself) become overly heated; and when it does, she quells the mayhem with threats of putting certain dolls in storage or even striking a match. (Like the “Wizard of Oz’s” scarecrow, these chatty collectibles are acutely aware of their flammability.)
For more serious chats, Holly goes one-on-one with her prized psychiatrist doll that bears a resemblance to Carol Channing in appearance and voice. The straight talking, potty-mouthed shrink (expertly handled and hilariously voiced by Vanessa Strickland) encourages her adolescent patient to become less closed off from the humans in her life.
Yes, non-dolls occasionally do make the subterranean scene: In addition to her father, Holly’s tutor Mia (Dawn Thomas), an agreeably neurotic grad student with father issues comes three times a week; and Yager (Parker Drown), the gamer next door pays brief unsolicited visits entering and exiting via a basement window.
Holly is at turns charming and charmless. A bundle of teenage hormones (and pregnant to boot), she is changeable and bratty as she explores notions of independence, relationships and faith. In the title role, Jackson perfectly places her character between little girl and young woman.
As Holly’s inept but well-meaning ex-boyfriend Yager, Drown (who’s gay) gives a terrifically understated performance, securing his growing reputation as a versatile local actor. He’s unrecognizable from his Helen Hayes Award-winning performance as Angel, the drum beating drag queen in Keegan Theatre’s production of “Rent.”
Sometimes the longish “Holly Down In Heaven” doesn’t seem sure what kind of play it is, veering from thoughtful comedy to sticky sitcom, but its general quirkiness make it worth a go.
Celebrity News
Fashion icon Bob Mackie dead at 87
Designing legend to all the divas, gone but not forgotten
To those still reeling from the loss of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, we have another queer icon to add to the In Memoriam of 2026: Bob Mackie. A designer known for being extra, before that was even a thing, has left us with a legacy of looks and an indelible mark on fashion.
The news broke on his Instagram account Monday, Sept. 14, with the message:
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today. He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a fashion and costume designer, which is all he ever wanted to do. His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world.” According to People magazine, he passed away in Palm Springs, Calif., due to pneumonia.
At 87, Mackie is the definitive designer for divas. Mackie has literally dressed them all, including Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand, Dolly Parton, Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, and even RuPaul. He’s dressed film and television icons like Raquel Welch, Lynda Carter, Goldie Hawn, and Jennifer Lopez. It’s not just female divas; he’s also done many of Elton John’s famous costumes as well as David Bowie’s.
His first major mark was drawing the first design of Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress. Next, he was an assistant to costume designer Ray Aghayan on “The Judy Garland Show.” The two would carry on a professional and romantic partnership for 50 years until Aghayan’s passing in 2011.
Mackie then went on to do all of the costumes for “The Carol Burnett Show,” creating an estimated 17,000 costumes for her show’s 11-year run. This gave him much critical acclaim and notoriety, making him a permanent fixture in the variety show market.
He became a frequent collaborator of Cher, having made her famous midriff-revealing Oscar gown, her “If I Could Turn Back Time” costume, and being her designer for her various television shows, including “The Sonny and Cher Show.” He even designed costumes for her Farewell Tour. The two are synonymous with him having lent his artistic sensibilities to give her a distinct look. Cher even said in 2024, “He helped me create a different me.”
Mackie has left his mark on fashion with a distinct style of glamorous, over-the-top looks. He received the monikers the “Sultan of Sequins,” the “Rajah of Rhinestones,” and the “Guru of Glitter” for challenging the line between costume and fashion with lots of fringe, flash, and over-the-top eye-catching elements. He’s managed to retain a presence not just in entertainment but in the fashion industry for decades. Most recently, one of his outfits was a major plot point for the final season of “Hacks.”
Mackie has received his share of awards and acknowledgments. In addition to dressing many people for the Oscars, he received three nominations, including dressing Diana Ross for “Lady Sings the Blues.” He won a Tony Award for “The Cher Show.” He won nine Emmy Awards and received 30 nominations for his prolific television work.
Luckily, Mackie’s life was celebrated before his passing, receiving various Lifetime achievement awards including the Geoffrey Beene CFDA Lifetime Achievement Award, being honored by the Television Hall of Fame, and receiving “RuPaul’s Drag Race”‘s Giving Us Life-time Achievement Award. He was the first guest judge on the popular series.
It’s clear that not only was Mackie talented, he was magical. He gave a bit of stardust to countless celebrities, luminaries, and public figures with looks that not only defied expectations but managed to be truly spectacular. He’s part of the glitz we think of when we think of Hollywood, and while often elaborate costumes, the shrewd fashion sense and elegance cannot be denied. Mackie will be missed, but his work lives on in the countless pieces still in circulation and forever captured on film and in media.
The 29th annual SMYAL Fall Brunch was held at the Marriott Marquis on Sunday, Sept. 13.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Books
Dolly Parton biography puts her hardships into context
‘Ain’t Nobody’s Fool’ a highly researched tome not to be missed
‘Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton’
By Martha Ackmann
c.2026, St. Martin’s Press
$30/304 pages
Not too bright.
That’s what people once thought about you. Your language didn’t conform, you had your own sense of style, and you were ignorant about modern things and places and foods. But you were no dummy. You were different, and you had a secret: as in the new biography, “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton” by Martha Ackmann, you knew exactly where you were going.
When Avie Lee Owens and Lee Parton first married, they had the very basics: “two knives, two forks, two spoons, a skillet, a butcher knife, and an old iron kettle.” He was 17; she was 15. Babies came quick. The fourth one was named Dolly, after two great-aunts.
Almost from the time she could walk, Dolly sang. Before she was old enough to attend school, she wrote poetry, and she’d begun to notice rhythms and beats she could make with her fingers. As a schoolchild, she created her own musical instruments out of scraps, and she was eager to perform whenever anyone asked her – and they asked often, because Dolly Parton was a nice girl, and her sense of humor conveyed a warmth that drew people in.
Growing up in the Tennessee mountains, Parton was independent, shunning marriage and child-raising, instead focusing on a dream of being a star. By the time she was in high school, she’d had a regular gig on local television but she recognized that there were few opportunities for fame in the mountains, so she left for Nashville the day after high school graduation, with the snickers of naysayers ringing in her ears.
She stayed with an aunt and uncle there, and she beat the streets, dined on grocery store samples to get by, and missed her family and friends. And they worried about her, but they knew nothing would derail her plans. They knew Dolly would be fine.
As a friend said, “’She had her head on pretty good.’”
Chances are that if you’ve listened to music any time in the last 60 years, you’ve heard Dolly Parton through her words or her music or both. Now you need to learn more about her, and “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool” is where to do it.
Here’s a biography that grabs you on the first page with the tiniest bit of family tree, but not so much that you get bored with it. Author Martha Ackmann writes about Dolly Parton’s early life, putting hardships and experiences in context, both personally and historically. There are name-drops, but not overly so, as Ackmann takes you through Parton’s career, her heartbreaks, her marriage, and her years with Porter Wagoner, in detail but not dramatically embellished or outrageously told. It’s a biography that’s just right, sourced well and written with a fresh take that, like its subject, tells a good story.
Fans, of course, will want this highly researched book but music lovers of any age or type will eat it up. That means you, so use up that Christmas gift certificate. “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool” just shines.
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