Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Oct. 15-21
Lesbian rocker Mara Levi has an album release party Friday at the Phase
Friday, Oct. 15
Heroes Latinos, the fifth annual Hispanic LGBT heritage month reception, is tonight at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. There will be light appetizers and refreshments as attendees view the Heroes Latinos photography exhibit and observe the annual Community Leaders Awards ceremony.
Enigma, a new monthly event for those who abstain from substances and their friends that are in recovery, is tonight at Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, N.W.) from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. There will be a separate entrance at the side door that goes directly to the second floor. DJs MAJR and John Thompson will be tag-teaming. Cover is $5.
The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery (1632 U St., N.W.) hosts an opening reception and meet the artist of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: Identity Writ Large featuring photography by Matthew Black tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. Black has documented the gay/drag social activist group since 2007. This show features portraits of the Seattle chapter of the group.
DC Women in their 30s, a new group for LGBT woman in their 30s, will have its kick-off event tonight at 8 at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.). For more info or to RSVP e-mail [email protected] or visit the Facebook Group, DCW30s.
Charm City Kitty Club presents Homo Rogue: Do Ask, Do Tell! tonight at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson (3134 Eastern Ave.) in Baltimore. There will be a cocktail hour at 7 p.m. and the show will being at 8. The event will feature Gina Carduci’s exploration of sex and violence in “All That Sheltering Emptiness”, D.C. band noon:30, drag artist Delicio Del Toro, the Baltimore Experimental Dance Collective and scenes from “Jay Dreams” by Baltimore filmmaker Catherine Pancake.
Mara Levi, local lesbian writer and performer, is holding a release party for her latest CD tonight at 8 p.m. at Phase 1 (525 8th St., S.E.). “We Listen to Fools” is Levi’s third solo album and the follow-up to 2008’s “What are You?.” Levi is a classically trained jazz musician. Levi describes the album as a compilation of “heartbreaking love songs that make you want to skip and sing along.”
The D.C. Capital Classic, a National Gay Basketball Association-sanctioned basketball tournament held in D.C., has its registration event tonight at Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) from 7 to 10 p.m. on the second floor. All players must register for the tournament at this event. There will be a captains meeting at the event at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 16
Get a head start on Halloween at the “Bowled and the Beautiful” drag show hosted by Barbara Bush tonight at 8 p.m. at Apex (1415 22nd Street, NW). Proceeds benefit the charities of the IGBO Midyear Bowling Tournament: Food & Friends, SMYAL and the Daniel Fissell Music Foundation. $5 suggested door donation.
The Organization of American States has organized a “Backpacks for Haiti’s Children” event tonight at the OAS Headquarters from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. OAS has joined with the Diplomatic Community and Staff Associations to collect and donate backpacks and school supplies to help Haiti’s children. Visit oas.org/en/member_states/haiti/backpack/default.html to make a donation.
MIXTAPE D.C. is tonight at EFN Lounge (1318 9th St., N.W.) from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. MIXTAPE is a dance party for queer music lovers and their pals that features DJs Shea Van Horn and Matt Bailer playing an eclectic mix of electro, alt-pop, indie rock, house, disco, new wave and anything else you danceable. $5 cover for 21 and over.
Reel Affirmations presents “Bear City” starring Gerald McCullouch from “CSI,” tonight at 7 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St., N.W.).
The D.C. Capital Classic dinner is tonight at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) from 6 to 9 p.m. This dinner is for players who signed up and paid for it at registration. The tournament itself starts earlier in the day and will be held at the Capital Sports Complex (6417 Marlboro Pike) in District Heights.
Sunday, Oct. 17
Burgundy Crescent Volunteers and D.C. Ice Breakers are co-hosting their second men’s singles part tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at ACKC Cocoa Bar (1529C 14th St., N.W.). Friends welcome but no dates.
The Academy of Washington, Inc., will be holding its annual show benefiting the Rainbow History Project today at Ziegfeld’s (1824 Half St., S.W.). Doors open at 2 p.m. and the show begins at 3. There is a $10 entry fee.
The D.C. Capital Classic will be having its closing happy hour tonight at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) from 7 to 10 p.m. on the roof deck. The closing party will be at Café Asia (1720 I St., N.W.) starting at 11 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 18
Hope Operas, whose founder is openly gay, has its third week of five new shows tonight to raise money for charity. The shows are at 8 p.m. at the Comedy Spot, in Ballston Mall (4238 Wilson, Blvd.), in Arlington. Each show benefits a different charity. Tickets are $12 per show. For more information call 323.788.8970 or e-mail [email protected].
Midnight Intrigue Events presents Intriguing Women’s Speed Dating tonight at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) from 7 to 10 p.m. Check in is at 6. There is a $15 cover. No-pressure dates and $3 drinks.
Tuesday, Oct. 19
Women Over 40, a new women’s social group to connect local women who are 40 or older, will be holding its first meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at the DC Center (1318 U St., N.W.)
A Glee watch parties will be at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) tonight at 9 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 20
BOOKMEN D.C., an informal group of men interested in gay literature, meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Charles Sumner School and Archives (1201 17th St. N.W.) to discuss selections from “A Casualty of War: the Arcadia Book of Gay Short Stories,” edited by Peter Burton. All are welcome. For more information visit bookmendc.blogspot.com.
GayParazzi, the new GLBT Photo Group, will meet at ACKC on 14th Street for a photo share and friendly critique. Sign up at meetup.com/GayParazzi.
SAGE Metro D.C. will be holding a senior educational seminar, Medicare and Social Security — policy and legal considerations in the absence of legal marriage today from 8 to 9:30 a.m. The event will be at the Residences at Thomas Circle (1330 Massachusetts. Ave., N.W.). Stop by the front desk to be directed to meeting room. Continental breakfast will be available.
The Tom Davaron Social Bridge Club will meet tonight at 7:30, at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for social bridge. No partner is needed. For more information, visit lambdabridge.com; click “Social Bridge in Washington, D.C.”
DCJCC is holding its annual literary festival and tonight features “Keep Your Wives Away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires” edited by Miryam Kabakov. Contributors Goldie Goldbloom and Elaine Chapnik will share personal stories of how their Judaism coexists with life in and out of the closet. This event will be at the Ina and Jack Kay Community Hall (1529 16th St., N.W.) from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $9 for discounted members, seniors, and those under 25 and $11 for everyone else.
Tonight marks the kick-off of the 12th International Drag King Extravaganza presented by the Baltimore Gender Justice Collective and Charm City Boys with a meet and greet at 7 p.m. at Grand Central Station (1001 N. Charles St.) in Baltimore. Visit idkexii.com for more information and to purchase tickets.
Thursday, Oct. 21
IDKE continues today with the first day of a three day art and film festival and workshops at 2640 Saint Paul St., in Baltimore. A three-day pass is $45. Ottobar (2549 N Howard St.) is also holding an event, Dragdom, at 8 p.m. Cover is $12. Visit idkexii.com for more information and to purchase tickets.
Thomas Middleton’s play “Women Beware Women,” in which “three couples engage in a dangerous game of strategy as they vie for the power and pursue their lust,” adapted by Jesse Berger and directed by Allison Arkell Stockman, will be performed by the Constellation Theatre Company at Source Theatre (1835 14th St., N.W.) tonight at 8 p.m. Jesse Terill, who’s openly gay, composed all the show’s music and Constellation company member Ashley Ivey, who’s openly gay, places the Cardinal.
PHOTO: Mara Levi (Blade file photo)
Theater
José Zayas brings ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ to GALA Hispanic Theatre
Gay Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca wrote masterpiece before 1936 execution
‘The House of Bernarda Alba’
Through March 1
GALA Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th St., N.W.
$27-$52
Galatheatre.org
In Federico García Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba,” now at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Columbia Heights, an impossibly oppressive domestic situation serves, in short, as an allegory for the repressive, patriarchal, and fascist atmosphere of 1930s Spain
The gay playwright completed his final and arguably best work in 1936, just months before he was executed by a right-wing firing squad. “Bernarda Alba” is set in the same year, sometime during a hot summer in rural Andalusia, the heart of “España profunda” (the deep Spain), where traditions are deeply rooted and mores seldom challenged.
At Bernarda’s house, the atmosphere, already stifling, is about to get worse.
On the day of her second husband’s funeral, Bernarda Alba (superbly played by Luz Nicolás), a sixtyish woman accustomed to calling the shots, gathers her five unmarried daughters (ages ranging from 20 to 39) and matter-of-factly explain what’s to happen next.
She says, “Through the eight years of mourning not a breeze shall enter this house. Consider the doors and windows as sealed with bricks. That’s how it was in my father’s house and my grandfather’s. Meanwhile, you can embroider your trousseaux.”
It’s not an altogether sunny plan. While Angustias (María del Mar Rodríguez), Bernarda’s daughter from her first marriage and heiress to a fortune, is betrothed to a much younger catch, Pepe el Romano, who never appears on stage, the remaining four stand little chance of finding suitable matches. Not only are they dowry-less, but no men, eligible or otherwise, are admitted into their mother’s house.
Lorca is a literary hero known for his mastery of both lyrical poetry and visceral drama; still, “Bernarda Alba’s” plotline might suit a telenovela. Despotic mother heads a house of adult daughters. Said daughters are churning with passions and jealousies. When sneaky Martirio (Giselle Gonzáles) steals the photo of Angustias’s fiancé all heck kicks off. Lots of infighting and high drama ensue. There’s even a batty grandmother (Alicia Kaplan) in the wings for bleak comic relief.
At GALA, the modern classic is lovingly staged by José Zayas. The New York-based out director has assembled a committed cast and creative team who’ve manifested an extraordinarily timely 90-minute production performed in Spanish with English subtitles easily ready seen on multiple screens.
In Lorca’s stage directions, he describes the set as an inner room in Bernarda’s house; it’s bright white with thick walls. At GALA, scenic designer Grisele Gonzáles continues the one-color theme with bright red walls and floor and closed doors. There are no props.
In the airless room, women sit on straight back chairs sewing. They think of men, still. Two are fixated on their oldest siter’s hunky betrothed. Only Magdelena (Anna Malavé), the one sister who truly mourns their dead father, has given up on marriage entirely.
The severity of the place is alleviated by men’s distant voices, Koki Lortkipanidze’s original music, movement (stir crazy sisters scratching walls), and even a precisely executed beatdown choreographed by Lorraine Ressegger-Slone.
In a short yet telling scene, Bernarda’s youngest daughter Adela (María Coral) proves she will serve as the rebellion to Bernarda’s dictatorship. Reluctant to mourn, Adela admires her reflection. She has traded her black togs for a seafoam green party dress. It’s a dreamily lit moment (compliments of lighting designer Hailey Laroe.)
But there’s no mistaking who’s in charge. Dressed in unflattering widow weeds, her face locked in a disapproving sneer, Bernarda rules with an iron fist; and despite ramrod posture, she uses a cane (though mostly as a weapon during one of her frequent rages.)
Bernarda’s countenance softens only when sharing a bit of gossip with Poncia, her longtime servant convincingly played by Evelyn Rosario Vega.
Nicolás has appeared in “Bernarda Alba” before, first as daughter Martirio in Madrid, and recently as the mother in an English language production at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh. And now in D.C. where her Bernarda is dictatorial, prone to violence, and scarily pro-patriarchy.
Words and phrases echo throughout Lorca’s play, all likely to signal a tightening oppression: “mourning,” “my house,” “honor,” and finally “silence.”
As a queer artist sympathetic to left wing causes, Lorca knew of what he wrote. He understood the provinces, the dangers of tyranny, and the dimming of democracy. Early in Spain’s Civil War, Lorca was dragged to the the woods and murdered by Franco’s thugs. Presumably buried in a mass grave, his remains have never been found.
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(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Sweat DC is officially expanding to Shaw, opening a new location at 1818 7th St., N.W., on Saturday, March 28 — and they’re kicking things off with a high-energy, community-first launch event.
To celebrate, Sweat DC is hosting Sweat Fest, a free community workout and social on Saturday, March 14, at 10 a.m. at the historic Howard Theatre. The event features a group fitness class, live DJ, local food and wellness partners, and a mission-driven partnership with the Open Goal Project, which works to expand access to youth soccer for players from marginalized communities.
For more details, visit Sweat DC’s website and reserve a spot on Eventbrite.
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