Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Jan. 28
Evens through Feb. 4
'Common Ground' by Michele Cormier is part of the 'Color of Love' exhibition that will be on display from Feb. 4-27 at Touchstone Gallery on New York Ave. in Washington. (Image courtesy of Touchstone)
Friday, Jan. 28
The John Scofield and Joe Lovana Quartet will perform tonight at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Lane) in North Bethesda. Guitarist Scofield and saxophonist Lovano will be joined by drummer Bill Stewart and bassist Matt Penman. Tickets range from $35 to $65 and can be purchased online at strathmore.org.
The Lodge (21614 National Pike) in Boonsboro presents “Return of the Divas” starring drag queens Stephanie Michaels, Ashley Bannks and Nicole James tonight at 10:30 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. and cover is $5 from 8 to 11 p.m. and $8 after.
The Best of D.C. Shorts film festival “Rewind,” starts today at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St., N.E.) with events going on in two theaters. Theater one will open with a wine reception at 6 p.m. to welcome the filmmakers, a showing of the festival directors’ favorites at 7 p.m., another wine reception at 8:30 p.m. and end with Best of D.C. Shorts 2010, part one at 9:30 p.m. Theater two will start with a showing of films from the past seven years which celebrate diversity at 7:30 and Best of D.C. Shorts part two at 10 p.m. The festival continues through Saturday. For more information, visit rewind.dcshorts.com.
Jens Praet’s first solo U.S. exhibition, “Fossilized,” is on display at Industry Gallery (1358 Florida Ave., N.E.). Praet’s work is created from shredded magazines and documents. He used shredded and recycled copies of Art in America, Capitol File, Details, Fast Company and Robb Report mixed with clear resin to create his art. The gallery is open from noon to 6 p.m. For more information, visit industrygallerydc.com.
Lace Lounge (2214 Rhode Island Ave., N.E.) presents Social Climax from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. with free drinks before 11:30 p.m. Attendees must be 21 or older and there is a $10 cover. For more information, visit lacedc.com.
DJ Lil’ E hosts Lady Gaga vs. Madonna vs. M.I.A. with Lems at Rams Head Live (20 Market Place) in Baltimore tonight at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit ramsheadlive.com.
Saturday, Jan. 29
Special Agent Galactica returns with an all sung, live show, “The Only Gal in Town” tonight at 8 p.m. at Noi’s Nook in go mama go! (1809 14th St., N.W.). Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at ganymedearts.org or at the door. The show debuted on New Year’s Eve but is returning for an encore performance.
Suzanne Westenhoefer will be performing tonight at 8 p.m. at the Birchmere (3701 Mt. Vernon Ave.) in Alexandria. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased online at birchmere.com.
Apex (1415 22nd St., N.W.) presents “VIP (Video Interactive Playground)” tonight featuring DJ 45Z Music videos will e playing in the main room all night. Drag queen Kristina Kelly and her “Girls of Glamour” will perform at 11 p.m. Cover is $10 and attendees must be 18 or older.
Mautner Project presents its first meeting of SHE Circle, a wellness community by and for African-American lesbian and bisexual women, today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Metropolitan Community Church-D.C. (474 Ridge St., N.W.). For more information and to RSVP, e-mail [email protected] or [email protected].
Shift, a gay-themed indie rock/electro/pop dance party, presents the Winter Blue Ball tonight from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. at Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.). DJ vAnniety Kills will be spinning all night upstairs while DJ Shea Van Horn spins from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. down stairs and DJ Majr spins after him.
Merrifield Garden Center continues its series of free seminars today with three new topics. Mary Kirk Menefee, a landscape designer, will be at the Merrifield location (8104 Lee Highway) with a seminar on color and interest in winter gardens. Chuck Croft from the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society will be at the Fair Oaks location (12101 Lee Highway) in Fairfax, with a seminar on growing bonsai, and Regina Lanctot, a plant specialist, will be at the Gainesville location (6895 Wellington Rd.) talking about cacti, succulents and easy care houseplants.
Gross National Product returns with “The Sound of Palin” at Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St., N.E.) tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $20 and can be purchased at atlas arts.org.
The 15th anniversary Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge is today at 8 a.m. at Sandy Point Beach (1100 E. College Parkway) in Annapolis. Many different events will be going on throughout the day, including DJ Pauly D of MTV’s Jersey Shore as the featured performing inside the Rams Head Ice Lounge from 12:30 to 4 p.m. For more information and the complete schedule of events, visit plungemd.com.
Sunday, Jan. 30
Buddha-Bar D.C. (455 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.) begins its weekly “Somewhere Over the Rainbow Sundays” tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Drink specials will include $6 signature cocktails and $5 mixed drinks.
Mijail Tumanov, 22, will be performing piano works by Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov today at 3:30 p.m. at the Church of the Holy City as part of its Music with Angels concert series. This is a free event.
Monday, Jan. 31
The Helen Hayes Awards presents “Showtunes and Cocktails” tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Jefferson’s Quill Bar (1200 16th St., N.W.) featuring pianist Glenn Pearson and guests from Washington stages. Admission is free and 20 percent of the proceeds will be donated to support the Awards.
Professionals in the City will be hosting a seated speed dating for bisexual and lesbian women tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. at Chi-Cha Lounge (1624 U St., N.W.) The event is $20 if purchased by 5 p.m. on Friday. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit prosinthecity.com.
Tuesday, Feb. 1
The Shakespeare Theatre Company presents “Cymbeline,” directed by Rebecca Bayla Taichman, tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th St., N.W.). Tickets range from $37 to $70 and can be purchased online at shakespearetheatre.org.
Robyn will be performing tonight with Diamond Rings and Natalia Kills at 8 p.m. at Rams Head Live (20 Market Place) in Baltimore. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by visiting ramsheadlive.com.
Wednesday, Feb. 2
The Tom Davaron Social Bridge Club will meet at 7:30 tonight at the Dignity Center, 721 8th St., S.E., (across from Marine Barracks) for social bridge. No partner is needed. Visit lambdabridge.com and click on “Social Bridge in Washington” for more information.
The Human Rights Watch Film Festival will be screening “Out in the Silence” tonight at 7 p.m. at the West End Cinema (2301 M St., N.W.) as part of the traveling festival. The filmmakers and LGBT Festival acting director Boris Dittrich will be present to answer questions. Tickets can be purchased at westendcinema.com and are $11 for adults, $9 for seniors and students and $8 for military.
Thursday, Feb. 3
“The Face of Illusion,” a drag show, will be performed tonight at 10 p.m. at Alero Restaurant Columbia Heights (3345 14th St., N.W.).
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference features a queer reading, “3 Dollar Bill” tonight from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Human Rights Campaign Equality Forum (1640 Rhode Island Ave., N.W.). Some of the readers include Monica Carter, Reginald Harris, Charles Jensen, Eileen Myles and Justin Torres. Books will be available for purchase during intermission and after the event.
Friday, Feb. 4
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) is hosting an opening reception tonight from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for its newest exhibit, “Color of Love” featuring 50 artists. The exhibit will be on display through Feb. 27.
Celebrity News
Silky Nutmeg Ganache talks sex and dating, gender, politics, weight loss journey
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ semifinalist grew up in Bible Belt
Uncloseted Media published this interview on July 7.
By SPENCER MACNAUGHTON, ISABEL STOKES, and BELLA SAYEGH | After appearing on the 11th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the first season of “Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World,” the sixth season of “RuPaul’s All Stars” and now the 11th season of “All Stars,” Silky Nutmeg Ganache, known by many as the Reverend, is undoubtedly a legend.
Born and raised in Moss Point, Miss., Ganache bears all in this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton.” She speaks about her relationship with gender, her 100-pound weight loss, what it’s like living as a queer person of color in a red state and why she’s calling on allies to stand up for the trans community.
Patrons enjoyed a night out at the popular LGBTQ venue Crush Dance Bar on Friday, July 3.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Theater
‘My Favorite Sociopath’ debuts at Shepherdstown’s CATF
Gay playwright Aurin Squire’s take on D.C. journalism in the ‘90s
‘My Favorite Sociopath’
Contemporary American Theater Festival
July 10-Aug. 2
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Catf.org
Discernment. It’s a thing some people have, explains playwright Aurin Squire, especially when you’re gay or Black in America (Squire is both).
“You instinctively know when the mob is teaming up for the best interests of the powers that be. You can feel it in the air.”
In his sharp new satire “My Favorite Sociopath,” Squire writes about life experiences but set in a different time and place: It’s the 1990s, early days of the 24-hour news cycle, and three ambitious journalism students are pursuing success in D.C.
And now, Squire’s play, along with other new works, are making their world premieres at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.).
“All of my plays are queer in some way,” says Squire, 46. “This one touches on harmless and dangerous lies. The characters are on the spectrum sexually, and it’s interesting how all that falls out.”
And he’s given it a lot of thought.
“Already as a kid, it seemed to me that the rage against rap music and sex was coming from closeted people resisting their own urges and temptations. For me, it was interesting to see a witch hunt led by witches. Queer people can always call out a lie.”
Since September, Squire has also been working with a TV show about the tech industry set in Silicon Valley. He says, “It seems the general flow of the tech industry is that humanity and civilization is finished and it’s just about accumulating as many goods as possible before everything collapses. In fact, those who are profiting actually agree. But for those who disagree, they believe the solution is to build bigger gates, but activists believe we can stop this”
Yet, he’s learned from folks associated with the show. “Many say the quickest way to divorce yourself from any responsibility or regulations — smash and grab. Otherwise, you have to stop and think and regulate your desires for greed and power”
Squire possesses a penchant for pithy titles. He laughs, explaining the first thing he wrote as a student at Juilliard was “Obama-ology,” the comedy with contemporary message. While a lot of people liked the name, it didn’t necessarily vibe with the author. He concedes that he chooses names based on “easy to remember” and titles that won’t be easy to lose as a file.
Another is “Defacing Michael Jackson,” a coming-of-age dramedy set in rural Florida in 1984, specifically Squire’s native town Opa-locka, Miami, a fantastical place famed for its fanciful Moorish revival architecture.
Living in the shadow of exotic structures, he wasn’t particularly fazed. Squire says “It wasn’t until returning to visit after my freshman year at Northwestern University in Chicago that I realized how weird it was: When you grow up in a place, you take surroundings for granted no matter how over the top.”
Now based in New York (where for two happy years, 2017-2019, he shared digs with drag king Murry Hill), Squire returns frequently to Miami to be with family, but this summer has been filled with both work and travel.
Currently, he’s in Shepherdstown with CATF shaping up “My Favorite Sociopath.” Later this summer he will travel to South Africa for research, followed by a silent writing retreat in Santa Fe, N.M.
Much of Squire’s work reflects the Latino, African, Caribbean, African-American, and Jewish cultures he grew up around in South Florida.
When asked if today’s winds of anti-multiculturalism worry him, he replies, “No, because that’s going to pass. Most people don’t like, people are seeing the negative results of it, and the young people coming up despise it. White male gamers were tricked momentarily through the algorithms into voting against their own interests and they’re now seeing how it’s not working out for them.
“Conservatives always try to stop progress and eventually they always lose. It’s just a question of where we’ll be in the middle of the end of civilization before that happens. I’d like to hope we can turn the ship around before then.”
In addition to “My Favorite Sociopath,” CATF summer season features three other world premieres (Lisa D’Amour’s comedy “The Smoker,” “Refugee Rhapsody” by Yussef El Guindi, “Best Line Wins: A Play Inspired by the Improvised Lives of Elaine May & Mike Nichols” by Beth Kander) and “¡VOS!” by Christina Pumariega.
CATF runs from July 10-Aug. 2 in three venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112.
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