Arts & Entertainment
Visit from an old friend
Studio’s ‘Habit’ spotlights Auden, Britten; features ‘Queer’ actor Harrison
Actor Randy Harrison, remembered fondly from ‘Queer as Folk,’ is in Studio’s current production, ‘The Habit of Art.’ (Photo courtesy Studio)
‘The Habit of Art’
Through Oct. 23 (extended)
The Studio Theatre
1501 14th St. NW
$35-$69
202-332-3300
With his most recent offering “The Habit of Art” (now making its U.S. premiere at The Studio Theatre), gay British playwright Alan Bennett puts the spotlight on a pair of 20th century gay cultural titans — poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten — in the last years of their long and celebrated careers. In doing so, Bennett gives an insider’s glimpse into the mad and maddening world of artistic collaboration and gay sex after 60.
The setting is one that’s familiar to Bennett — London’s National Theatre during rehearsal for a yet-untried play. Things are going badly: The director has been called to Leeds, a couple of cast members are off performing in another show and the playwright is appalled by unapproved script changes. What’s more, Fitz (Ted van Griethuysen), an aging actor cast as an aging Auden, is still struggling with his lines.
Titled “Caliban’s Day,” the play within a play takes place in 1972. It imagines a fictional, late-in-life meeting between former collaborators Auden and Britten. Troubled by his latest project — an operatic adaptation of “Death in Venice,” Thomas Mann’s novella about an older writer in love with a boy — Britten visits his old associate at Oxford where Auden is poet in residence.
What help precisely Britten is seeking from Auden is never made clear, but interesting conversation certainly ensues nonetheless. They speak of their collaboration as young expatriates in New York City, their respective partners and Britten’s interest in young choir boys. And yes, from Auden there’s a lot of talk about penises — not surprising considering his famous poem “The Platonic Blow.” But there’s also talk of artistic survival and the importance of continued, engaging work.
Thrown into the chaotic mix at Auden’s grossly untidy cottage are Humphrey Carpenter, a ubiquitous biographer on hand to interview the artists, and a local rent boy whom Auden has ordered up for a late-afternoon quickie.
Van Griethuysen is marvelous as both the tactless Auden and the testy actor Fitz who plays him. Equally superb is Paxton Whitehead as Fitz’s witty, gay co-star Henry who takes on the role of the more buttoned-down, angsty Britten.
Other standouts in the dozen person cast include two terrific gay actors: Cameron Folmar as Donald, an earnest actor willing to go to great lengths to understand his character; and Randy Harrison (best known from Showtime’s “Queer as Folk”) who plays Tim, an actor who’s happy to doff his boxer briefs to improve a scene, and Tim’s role: the no-nonsense rent boy who resents the glaring absence of sex workers from cultural history.
“The Habit of Art” is an impressively layered work, and because Bennett wrote it, it’s also smart, touching and a teensy bit smutty. A little sense of the history helps, but isn’t necessary. James Noone’s set within a set vividly brings to life the sty that was the notoriously sloppy Auden’s Oxford digs. Director David Muse’s staging is full of energy and wit.
Fortunately for us, Bennett has followed the old adage “write about what you know” (here, perhaps more than ever before).
WorldPride 2025 concluded with the WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert held along Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. on Sunday, June 8. Performers on the main stage included Doechii, Khalid, Courtney Act, Parker Matthews, 2AM Ricky, Suzie Toot, MkX and Brooke Eden.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
Theater
A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan stars as Duke Orsino
‘Twelfth Night’
Through June 22
Folger Theatre
201 East Capitol St., S.E.
$20-$84
Folger.edu
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan (they/them)loves tapping into the multitudes within.
Currently Keegan plays the melancholic Duke Orsino in Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Twelfth Night.” Director Mei Ann Teo describes the production as “sexy, hilarious, and devastating” and full of “elegant kink.”
Washington-based, Keegan enjoys a busy and celebrated career. Her vast biography includes Come From Away at Ford’s Theatre; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Helen Hayes Award, Best Actress) and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, both at Round House Theatre; Diana Son’s Stop Kiss directedby Holly Twyford for No Rules Theatre Company; and Contractions at Studio Theatre, to name just a few.
In addition to acting, Keegan works as a polyamory and ethical non-monogamy life and relationship coach, an area of interest that grew out of personal exploration. For them, coaching seems to work hand in hand with acting.
WASHINGTON BLADE: You’re playing the lovesick Orsino in Twelfth Night. How did that come about?
ALYSSA KEEGAN: The director was looking to cast a group of actors with diverse identities; throughout auditions, there were no constraints regarding anyone’s assigned sex at birth. It was really a free for all.
BLADE: What’s your approach to the fetching, cod-piece clad nobleman?
KEEGAN: Offstage I identify as completely nonbinary; I love riding in this neutral middle space. But I also love cosplay. The ability to do that in the play gives me permission to dive completely into maleness.
So, when I made that decision to play Orsino as a bio male, suddenly the part really cracked open for me. I began looking for clues about his thoughts and opinions about things like his past relationships and his decision not to date older women.
Underneath his mask of bravura and sexuality, and his firmness of feelings, he’s quite lonely and has never really felt loved. It makes sense to me why his love for Olivia is so misguided and why he might fall in love with the Cesario/Viola character.
BLADE: As an actor, do you ever risk taking on the feelings of your characters?
KEEGAN: Prior to my mental health education, yes, and that could be toxic for me. I’ve since learned that the nervous system can’t tell the difference between real emotional distress and a that of a fully embodied character.
So, I created and share the Empowered Performer Project. [a holistic approach to performance that emphasizes the mental and emotional well-being of performing artists]. It utilizes somatic tools that help enormously when stepping into a character.
BLADE: Has changing the way you work affected your performances?
KEEGAN: I think I’m much better now. I used to have nearly debilitating stage fright. I’d spend all day dreading going onstage. I thought that was just part of the job. Now, I’ve learned to talk to my body. Prior to a performance, I can now spend my offstage time calmly gardening, working with my mental health clients, or playing with my kid. I’m just present in my life in a different way.
BLADE: Is Orsino your first time playing a male role?
KEEGAN: No. In fact, the very first time I played a male role was at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va. I played Hipolito in Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy.
As Hipolito, I felt utterly male in the moment, so much so that I had audience members see me later after the show and they were surprised that I was female. They thought I was a young guy in the role. There’s something very powerful in that.
BLADE: Do you have a favorite part? Male or female?
KEEGAN: That’s tough but I think it’s Maggie the Cat. I played the hyper-female Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Round House. In the first act she didn’t stop talking for 51 minutes opposite Gregory Wooddell as Brick who barely had to speak. That lift was probably the heaviest I’ve ever been asked to do in acting.
BLADE: What about Folger’s Twelfth Night might be especially appealing to queer audiences?
KEEGAN: First and foremost is presentation. 99% of the cast identify as queer in some way.
The approach to Shakespeare’s text is one of the most bold and playful that I have ever seen. It’s unabashedly queer. The actors are here to celebrate and be loud and colorful and to advocate. It’s a powerful production, especially to do so close to the Capitol building, and that’s not lost on any of us.
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