Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: Oct. 25

Parties, concerts, exhibits and more through Oct. 31

Published

11 years ago

October 24, 2013

British FTM transgender performer Lazlo Pearlman is Raven’s Night’s Master of Ceremonies at the Birchmere Saturday night. (Photo by Diaz Wichmann; courtesy Raven’s Night)

Friday, Oct. 25

Women in Their 20s, a social discussion group for lesbian, bisexual, transgender and all women interested in women, meets today at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) at 8 p.m. Come meet other queer women in a fun and friendly setting. All welcome to join. For details, visit thedccenter.org.

Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. There is no cover charge and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For more information, visit towndc.com.

Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts “JOCK” tonight from 9 p.m.-3 a.m. with DJ Jake Marx. Dress code is sports gear or just a jock. Dress code strictly enforced. There is an open bar from 9-10 p.m. Cover is $10. For details, visit greenlantendc.com.

Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts “Kickoff” featuring DJ Matt Bailer tonight from 10 p.m.-closing. For more information, visit nelliessportsbar.com.

Saturday, Oct. 26

The Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria Va.) hosts “Raven’s Night” tonight from 5:30-10 p.m. Enjoy a three-part event that includes “All Hallow’s Eve Exposition,” a carnival and sideshow with a mystical theme, “Salon Lunaire Concert” dinner and drinks accompanied by live music entertainment and “Villians” a cabaret belly dance show that pays homage to villains and villainesses. Lazlo Pearlman hosts the evening. Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 and include all three events. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit birchmere.com.

The Arlington Artists Alliance hosts its third annual studio tour today and Sunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The studios are located throughout Arlington County, the Crystal City Studios Underground and in private homes. Meet the artists and tour their studios while learning about their art, materials and process. For more details, visit arlingtonartistsalliance.org.

The Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) hosts “GAY/BASH,” a monthly dance party, tonight featuring rock and pop music. There will be performances by Rumor Millz, Dax Exclamationpont and Heidi Glüm featuring special guest Summer Camp. DJs Joshua and Dean spin tracks. Doors open at 10 p.m. Performances are at midnight and 1:30 a.m. Cover is $5. For details, visit blackcatdc.com.

Metropolitan Community Church of Washington D.C. (474 Ridge St., N.W.) hosts its monthly “Spanish Speaker Outreach Ministry” at 6:30 p.m. today. The theme is “Remembering Our Heroes and Family Members’ Contributions to Social Justice.” Come celebrate loved ones who have passed away and remember their struggles. Everyone is welcome to bring a picture or offering to place on the altar in their loved one’s memory. LGBT Latinos(as) and their friends are welcome. After enjoy an array of Latin-American appetizers and snacks. For more information, visit mccdc.com.

Historic Congressional Cemetery (1801 E St., S.E.) hosts “Ghosts and Goblets, Congressional Cemetery’s Fourth Annual Halloween Soirée” tonight from 8 p.m.- 1 a.m. Enjoy drinks, dancing, a heated tent and ghost tours. General admission tickets are $60 and include four drink tickets, a guided twilight tour of the cemetery, entry to the heated tent and live entertainment. VIP tickets are $80 and include a one-year membership to Historic Congressional Cemetry. Costumes are strongly encouraged. For more details and to purchase tickets visit congressionalcemetery.org.

Sunday, Oct. 27

Equality Maryland celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Historic Lord Baltimore Hotel (20 W Baltimore St., Baltimore) today from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr. will be honored for his contribution to LGBT equality in Maryland. The VIP cocktail reception and silent auction will be from 11 a.m.-noon. Brunch is from noon- 2 p.m. Entertainment includes Maryland LGBT performers. Tickets are $100. For details, visit equalitymaryland.org.

The OWN network presents “Bridegroom,” a documentary about a gay couple torn apart by tragedy, tonight at 10 p.m. It tells the emotional story of Tom Bridegroom’s accidental death and the repercussions having a relationship outside the legal protection of marriage had on his partner Shane Bitney Crone. Check local listings for channel.

The Washington Concert Opera presents an Italian-themed brunch in honor of composer Gisueppe Verdi’s 200thbirthday at the Josephine Butler Parks Center (2437 15th St., N.W.) today at 11 a.m. Enjoy Italian food and drink, a silent auction, an exhibition of Italian artwork and a live performance of Verdi’s opera arias directed by Maestro Antony Walker. Tickets range from $60-$200. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit concertopera.org.

Imagination Stage begins six-week fall classes in drama, musical theater and dance for ages 1-18. For details on the variety of classes offered and tuition prices visit imaginationstage.org.

The Foundry Gallery (1314 18th St., N.W.) holds a “Dialogue with Artist” with artist Linda Button today from 4-5 p.m. followed by a reception from 5-7 p.m. The dialogue closes out Button’s solo show “Becoming,” that explored the meaning of mannequins in her paintings, at Foundry Gallery. For more information, visit foundrygallery.org.

Monday, Oct. 28

The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) hosts happy hour from 5-7:30 p.m. today. All drinks are half price. Enjoy pool, video games and cards. Admission is free. For more details, visit bachelorsmill.com.

Tuesday, Oct 29

SMYAL (410 7th St., S.E.) provides free and confidential HIV testing drop-in hours today from 3-5 p.m. For more information, visit smyal.org.

JR.’s Bar and Grill (1519 17th St., N.W.) hosts the 27th annual 17th Street High Heel Race, a costumed drag race, from 7-10 p.m. tonight. Parade starts at 7 p.m and race starts at 9 p.m. The race begins at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) and ends at JR.’s. Mayor Vincent Gray is the grand marshal along with Birdie LaCage and Ba’Naka. For more details, visit cobaltc.com.

Cobalt hosts a High Heel Race after party tonight (corner of 17th and R streets, N.W.). DJ Keenan Orr will spin throwback R&B and hip-hop on the first floor. DJ Madscience will spin current pop and dance on the second floor with DJ Sean Morris spinning house on the third floor. It begins immediately after the race and runs until 2 a.m. For ages 18 and up. Cover is $5. Visit cobaltdc.com for details.

Wednesday, Oct. 30

The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and newcomers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703-407-6540.

SMYAL (410 7th St, S.E.) holds “Fall Brunch Pizza Party and Info Session” today from 5-6:30 p.m. Come eat pizza and sign up to be a guest at SMYAL’s Fall Brunch. Learn what the brunch is all about and what to expect. For more details, visit smyal.org.

The Human Rights Campaign hosts its second annual “Chefs for Equality” at the Ritz Carlton (1150 22nd St., N.W.) today from 6:30-9:30 p.m. D.C., Maryland and Virginia’s top chefs and mixologists serve up food and drink for a night dedicated to equality. Tickets are $150. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit action.hrc.org.

Thursday, Oct. 31

British singer-songwriter Jessie Ware performs at The Fillmore Silver Spring (8656 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, Md.) tonight at 8 p.m. Special guest Mikky Ekko also performs. Tickets are $30.50. Doors open at 7 p.m. For more details, visit fillmoresilverspring.com.

Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts “Haunt” tonight from 9 p.m.- 2 a.m. There is a Halloween costume contest at midnight. First place winner gets a $750 prize, second place winner gets a $150 prize and third place winner gets a $100 prize. DJs MadScience and Sean Morris spin tunes for the night. Cover is $5 after 10 p.m. Guests must be 18 and over. For more information, visit cobaltdc.com.

Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts its “2nd Annual MIXTAPE Halloween Party” tonight from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Come in costume. Cover is $10. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over.

First Baptist Church of Washington (1328 16th Street, N.W.) hosts a special Halloween-themed organ recital tonight from 7-8 p.m. featuring local organists Charles Miller, Sam Carabetta, Kevin Biggins, Paul Dolinsky, Irvin Peterson, Scott Matthias, Ted Gustin and Lon Schreiber, organist and choir master at the church. They will perform works on the church’s brand new Austin pipe organ. Attendees are asked to dress in costume to attend if possible. They will perform works of an especially gothic or “spooky” nature. Visit firstbaptistdc.org for details.

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Theater

Round House explores serious issues related to privilege

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

Published

10 mins 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

3 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

4 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.