Arts & Entertainment

Calendar: events through Dec. 23

Published

13 years ago

December 16, 2010

Friday, Dec. 17

The Gay Men’s Chorus production “Men in Tights: A Pink Nutcracker” opens tonight at 8 p.m. at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. See page 27 for ticket prices and times.

The Roches will be performing at the Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave.) in Alexandria tonight at 7:30 p.m. Lucy Wainwright Roche will be opening. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at birchmere.com.

Brightest Young Gays will have a happy hour at the U St. Music Hall (1115 U St., N.W.) tonight from 5 to 10 p.m. DJs Shea Van Horn, vAnniety Kills and Bradley will be providing music. For more information, visit brightestyoungthings.com.

Lianna Carrera will be performing a stand up comedy routine at Phase 1 (525 8th St., S.E.) tonight from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Carrera is the gay daughter of a Southern Baptist minister and deaf mother. Cover is $5. For more information visit phase1dc.com or liannacarrera.com.

Apex presents “A Very Merry Caliente Grande” with DJ Michael Brandon in the main hall and special performances by Jamaica Rouge and friends. Attendees can get their photo taken with a shirtless Santa. Drink specials include $4 margaritas. There’s a $10 cover charge.

Liz Phair will be performing at 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) tonight. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at 930.com.

Team D.C. and 28 other gay sports groups will be hosting the third annual Holiday Extravaganza for D.C. Gay Sports tonight at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There will be free holiday appetizers, drink specials, raffle prizes and surprises.

Saturday, Dec. 18

MIXTAPE D.C. is tonight at the old Rock & Roll Hotel (1353 H St., N.E.) from 10 p.m. to 3:00 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.

The D.C. DemonCats will take on Scare Force One in a “Happy Brawlidays Bout” today at 4 p.m. at the D.C. Armory (2001 E. Capitol St., N.E.). Tickets are $12 for ages 12 and up, $10 with a valid military I.D., $6 for children 6 to 11 and free for kids 5 and under. Doors open at 3 p.m.

Dan Noel will be celebrating his 5oth birthday and has chosen Mautner Project as a beneficiary for his birthday benefit at Cloud 9 (234 Rehoboth Ave.) in Rehoboth tonight at 9 p.m. There is a suggested donation of $10 and the proceeds will go to Mautner Project and AIDS Delaware.

The Fez and Moustache Party returns to DC9 (1940 9th St., N.W.) tonight from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. featuring Romani rock, Klezmer, Slavic soul and Balkan beats. For more information, visit dcnine.com.

DJ Smudge presents Rock and Rule dance party featuring DJ vAnniety Kills tonight at the Rock and Roll Hotel (1353 H St., N.E.) from 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. The night will feature rock jams, guilty pleasures, indie, hiphop, R&B, disco, house and dance hits. This is a free event. Attendees must be 21 or older.

Ziegfeld’s presents its annual Christmas show hosted by Ella Fitzgerald tonight at 11:15 p.m.

Apex (1415 22nd St., N.W.) presents “The Showdown: House vs. Hip Hop” with DJ Melissa spinning the house musch and DJ Gigi spinning the hip hop beats. Kristina Kelly and her Girls of Glamour will perform at 11 p.m. DJ Michael Brandon will be spinning Latin sounds in the east wing dance lounge.

The Ladies of LURe present Bare featuring DJ Rosie tonight at 10 p.m. at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.). Cover is $5 before midnight and $8 after.

Have the Grindr app? Show the box office and get into Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) for free for the Grindr party tonight at 10 p.m. featuring DJ Billy Carroll from New York as part of his farewell tour. Drag show starts at 10:30 p.m. Cover is $8 before 11 p.m. and $12 after.

Sunday, Dec. 19

Eatonville Restaurant (2121 14th St., N.W.) will be holding another installation of its monthly series, Food and Folklore, which intertwines storytelling and food, tonight at 6:30 p.m. This month is Gullah with Charlotte Jenkins, author of “Gullah Cuisine.” To purchase tickets, visit eatonvillerestaurant.com

Lambda Divers will be having its monthly happy hour at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. $1 from every Nellie beer sold goes to Lambda Divers.

The Community Triangle LGBTQ Book Club will meet today at 3 p.m. at Cage Izmir (44 Frederick Rd.) in Funkstown. The book will be “The Story of Edgar Sawfelle” by David Wroblewski and will be available instore for members for $15.99.

Monday, Dec. 20

The American City Diner (5532 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) will be showing the film “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” tonight. The movie starts at 8 p.m. The full menu will be available. Admission is free. For more information, visit americancitydiner.com.

Tuesday, Dec. 21

The Choral Arts Society of Washington presents “Christmas Music: the Treasured Holiday Tradition” at the Kennedy Center concert hall (2700 F St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $15 to $65 and can be purchased at kennedy-center.org.

River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation (6301 River Rd.) in Bethesda, will hold a Multigenerational Winter Solstice Celebration beginning at 7 p.m. All ages are invited.

The D.C. Metro Area Gay Male Witches Coven will hold a yule ritual and social tonight at 7 p.m. For more information call 240-314-9020 or visit the group’s Facebook page.

Wednesday, Dec. 22

Secrets (1824 Half St., S.W.) is holdings it monthly amateur dance contest tonight beginning at 11 p.m. Contests must sign up at the main bar between 10 and 10:45 p.m.

The Lincoln Center Theater presents Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific today at the Kennedy Center opera house (2700 F St., N.W.) with two showings at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $39 to $150 and can be purchased at kennedy-center.org.

Thursday, Dec. 23

The Washington Chorus presents “A Candlelight Christmas” at the Kennedy Center concert hall (2700 F St., N.W.) tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $15 to $65 and can be purchased at kennedy-center.org.

The American City Diner (5532 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) will be showing the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” tonight. The movie starts at 8 p.m. The full menu will be available. Admission is free. For more information, visit americancitydiner.com.

Christmas services — looking ahead

Christmas Eve

Foundry United Methodist Church (16th and P streets, N.W.) has a family-oriented service at 6:30 p.m. tonight and a Christmas concert at 8 as a prelude to the “lessons and carols” candle-light service at 8:30.

Metropolitan Community Church of Washington (474 Ridge St., N.W.) will be holding Christmas Eve worship tonight at 8. MCC-D.C. is the region’s largest mostly LGBT church.

Washington National Cathedral (3101 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) will have its Christmas Eve Festival Holy Eucharist at 6 and 10 p.m.

Covenant Baptist Church (3845 S. Capitol St.) will be holding its Christmas Eve Service at 7 p.m. tonight.

National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle, N.W.) will be holding its Christmas Eve service today at 7 p.m., starting with a festive prelude followed by a candlelight communion.

The Christ Church on Capitol Hill (620 G St., S.E.) will be holding a Christmas Pageant and Holy Eucharist at 5:30 p.m. It will also have a choral prelude at 10 p.m., the Holy Eucharist at 10:30 followed by coffee hour.

Saint John’s Episcopal Church (3240 O St., N.W.) will be holding its Holy Eucharist along with a Christmas Pageant at 4 p.m. A Feast of Carols and Noels will begin at 8:30, followed by the Festival Holy Eucharist at 9 p.m.

Seekers Church (276 Carroll St., N.W.) will be holding its Christmas Eve worship tonight at 7.

First Trinity Lutheran Church (309 E St., N.W.) will have its Christmas Eve service at 7:30 p.m. following a pre-service of Christmas music that starts at 7 p.m.

Church of the Pilgrims (2201 P St., N.W.) will have its Christmas Eve service tonight at 7 p.m.

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (1725 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) will be holding a vigil at 4:30 p.m. following a prelude at 4, Vigilia at 6:30 p.m. following a concerto at 6, and the main service at 10 p.m. with Cardinal Wuerl presiding.

Christmas Day

Washington National Cathedral (3101 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) will have its Christmas Day Festival Holy Eucharist at 9 a.m. today. Its Christmas Day Holy Eucharist, Rite II will start at noon. There will also be a Christmas Day organ recital at 5:15 p.m.

Christ Church on Capitol Hill (620 G St., S.E.) will be holding its Holy Eucharist today at 10 a.m.

Saint John’s Episcopal Church (3240 O St., N.W.) will be holding its Holy Eucharist with traditional carols today at 10 a.m.

Dignity Washington will hold its Christmas Mass tonight at 6 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Church (1820 Connecticut Ave., N.W.)

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (1725 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.) will have multiple services today starting at 8:30 a.m. The other services are at 10 and 11:30 a.m. and a service in Spanish at 1 p.m.

Theater

Round House explores serious issues related to privilege

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

Published

1 hour 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

4 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

5 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.