Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: week of Nov. 19
Events through Thanksgiving day
DJ Paul Oakenfold spins at Club 9:30 Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of Paul Oakenfold)
Friday, Nov. 19
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) will be holding an opening reception today for Body Scapes, an art exhibit by local artist, Bill Travis from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit will be on display through Jan. 5.
Lace Lounge (2214 Rhode Island Ave., N.E.) will be celebrating its two year anniversary this weekend. Tonight is Pink Friday. There will be a “crazy shoe game” contest, painted body models, surprise open bars and more. Visit lacedc.com for more information.
The 23rd annual Washington Craft Show opens today at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 10 a.m to 8 p.m. This events features 190 of the nation’s top craft artists. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $13 for senior, $8 for students and children under 12 are admitted for free. Kelly Conway, curator of glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art will be leading a panel discussion with Matthew Fine, Charles Savoie and Tim Tate at 1 p.m. Libby Mijanovich will present “Transformation: Creating Contemporary ‘Green’ Art from Vintage Clothing” at 3 p.m.
Erotica Productions and Breeze of “Sex is a Breeze” present “Sexxxhibition: the Medical Fetish Edition” at the Warehouse Loft (411 New York Ave., N.E.) from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Advance tickets are $20 and can be purchased at sexxxhibition6.eventbrite.com. Tickets at the door are $25 for those in costume/fetish wear and $30 for those in street clothes before 1 a.m.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) will be holding a workshop for those who have experienced the death of a loved one in the past year today from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The workshop will include discussions of strategies for coping with grief and loss during the holiday season.
The blog True Genius Requires Insanity is hosting “All Girl Everything: A Happy Hour to Support Rock D.C.” at the U Street Music Hall (1115 U St., N.W.) today from 5 to 10 p.m. All proceeds from the bar will go directly to the organization. DJs Natty Boom and vAnniety Kills will be spinning hits by female artists. To find out more about the organization, visit girlsrockdc.org.
DJs K La Rock and Junebullet will be providing music at Wet Girls at Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club (1103 Bladensburg Rd., N.E.) from 9:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. This is a free event for those 21 and over.
Women is their 30s will be holding a discussion meeting tonight at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) from 8 to 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 20
Unity Fellowship Church, D.C. will be having its annual gospel concert, “Sounds of Zion Choir” tonight from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Luther Place Memorial Church (1226 Vermont Ave., N.W.). The choir will be under the direction of Professor David Rogers and will feature a special presentation by Johnny Sabbat. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by contacting the church at 202-246-6299 or e-mailing [email protected].
Balls returns to Velvet Lounge (915 U St., N.W.) tonight with Troll Tax, the Coolots, Tayisha Busay and DJs Junebullet of She.Rex, Zack Rosen of Homo/Sonic and Joshua of Gay Bash. Doors open at 9 p.m. and there is a $8 cover. This is a 21-and-older event.
The 23rd annual Washington Craft Show continues today at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. This events features 190 of the nation’s top craft artists. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $13 for senior, $8 for students and children under 12 are admitted for free. Bob Devers from the ceramics department at the Corcoran School of Arts will lead a panel discussion with leading experts in the field of American fine craft at 1 p.m. Nancy Kubale will present “The Human Condition in Clay” at 3 p.m.
Lace Lounge’s (2214 Rhode Island Ave., N.E.) two year anniversary celebration continues tonight with the “All Black Everything” Affair. There will be complimentary champagne fountains and dinner buffet. All black attire highly recommended. This event starts at 9 p.m. Visit lacedc.com for more information.
MIXTAPE D.C. is tonight at the old EFN Lounge space (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 danceable. $5 cover for 21 and over.
Sunday, Nov. 21
Lace Lounge’s two year anniversary celebration ends tonight with “Lyrics and Lace,” an open mic, live entertainment exhibition. Appetizers will be half off and there will be drink specials. The Coolats band will be performing an the show starts at 8 p.m. E-mail [email protected] to perform. Visit lacedc.com for more information.
Cherry Blossom Bombshells and the Scare Force One will be competing today at the D.C. Armory (2001 E. Capitol St., S.E.). Tickets are $12 for general admission, $6 for children 6 through 11, and children under 6 will be admitted free. Tickets are available at the door or can be purchased in advanced. Doors open at 3 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit dcrollergirls.com.
Alvin Jackson, pastor of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City, will be a guest preacher at Michigan Park Christian Church (1600 Taylor St., N.E.) today for the 10 a.m. morning worship service.
Monday, Nov. 22
The 2010 annual Electronic Media and Film Fall Film Series presents films about the relationship between math, sciences and storytelling. This week’s film is “Good Will Hunting” starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the Van Bokklen Hall Auditorium at Towson University at 7:30 p.m. This is a free event.
Tuesday, Nov. 23
Paul Oakenfold will be at 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight with Chuckie and Nervo. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at 930.com.
Nellie’s will be having its weekly “Glee” watch party on the roof deck tonight at 8 p.m. featuring $3 Nellie Beer all night.
Wednesday, Nov. 24
Omega will hosts its weekly pool tournament tonight. First place wins a $50 bar tab and second place wins a $25 bar tab. Shirtless men drink free on both floors from 10 to 11 p.m. The Men of Omega perform at 10 p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) will be hosting its weekly karaoke party tonight at 9 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 25
Burgundy Crescent Volunteers will be having its eighth annual “Clear OUT Your Closets” Thanksgiving clothing drive for the homeless and needy. Clothing drop-off is from 10 a.m. to noon today at Rosemary’s Thyme restaurant’s patio (1801 18th St., N.W.). Clothing distribution will be from noon to 2 p.m.
The film “Burlesque” starring Cher, Christina Aguilera and Alan Cumming opens nationwide today.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
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