Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Nov. 25
Plays, support groups, club meetings and more through Dec. 1
Alex Mills and Natalie Berk in Synetic Theater’s ‘Romeo and Juliette,’ which will be performed tonight in Arlington. (Photo by Graeme B. Shaw; courtesy of Synetic)
TODAY
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) and Pop-Up Vintage have partnered up for a special Black Friday sale today from noon to 5 p.m. Pop-Up is a monthly vintage clothing, art, books and houseware shop. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
The Lodge (21614 National Pike) in Boonsboro presents the Royal Rumble: Battle of the Drag Queens Jello Wrestling. All contestants will walk the runway and have 30 seconds to impress the crowd to win Best Wrestling Costume then there will be a series of wrestling matches. Contestants get in without a cover and get a $20 bar tab. For more information on signing up, contact [email protected] Doors open at 9 p.m.
Busboys & Poets will be having an American Sign Language open mic night tonight at 11 p.m. in the Langston room at its 14th and V streets location (2021 14th St., N.W.). Anyone with sign language knowledge may sign up by e-mailing [email protected]. There is a $5 admission at the door.
The Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Lane) in North Bethesda presents classic albums live with “The Beatles Abbey Road.” The show brings musicians together for live performances of classic rock albums.
Synetic Theater (2788 S. Arlington Mill Drive) in Arlington continues its Speak No More: The Silent Shakespeare Festival with the return of “Romeo and Juliet” opening tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $45 to $55 and can be purchased online at synetictheater.org.
Saturday, Nov. 26
Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Ave.) in Arlington presents its production of “Hairspray” starring Robert Aubry Davis and Carolyn Cole today at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets range from $62 to $67 and can be purchased online at ticketmaster.com.
Greenbelt Arts Center (123 Centerway) presents “Alice in Wonderland” tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 for general admission and $14 for students, seniors and military. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit greenbeltartscenter.org.
Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) presents Hellmouth Happy Hour, where every week an episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will be screened and drink specials will be offered. This week the episode is “Beauty and the Beasts.”
The Lodge (21614 National Pike) in Boonsboro presents DJ Ryan W Backtracks Retro tonight from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. featuring music from the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and now. There’s a $3 cover before 11 p.m. and $5 after with $5 “Refreshers” drink specials all night.
The National Symphony Orchestra Pops presents “An Unforgettable Tribute to Nat King Cole” featuring Grammy Award-winning guitarist/vocalist George Benson and conductors Randy Waldman and Steven Reineke tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $20 to $85 and can be purchased online at kennedy-center.org.
Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd.) in Vienna presents local pianist John Eaton for “Indiana on Our Minds” featuring the music of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at wolftrap.org.
Sunday, Nov. 27
National Theatre (1321 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) presents the Tony Award-winning musical, “Jersey Boys” today at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $36.50 to $276.50 and can be purchased online at jerseyboysinfo.com.
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) has two exhibits on display, one is an all-member show and the other is “The Privileged Series” by Anthony Dortch. This is the last day of the exhibit. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit touchstonegallery.com.
Monday, Nov. 28
WEAVE, a support group for LGBT survivors of intimate partner violence/abuse will be meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Lighthouse Center for Healing (5321 First Place, N.E.). For more information and to register, call 202-280-6391.
Author Andrew Skerritt will be at Busboys & Poets 14th and V streets location (2021 14th St., N.W.) to discuss his new book, “Ashamed to Die: Silence, Denial, and the AIDS Epidemic in the South.” This event is free and open to everyone.
Tuesday, Nov. 29
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) is hosting a foster parent information night tonight at 7 p.m. There will be people who are foster parents, who have recently finished the application process and people from the Latin American Youth Center about how to become a foster parent. The event will have a special focus on being a foster parent for older, LGBT youth. For more information, thedccenter.org.
Join Burgundy Crescent Volunteers to help pack safer sex kits from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight at FUK!T’s packing location, Green Lantern, 1335 Green Ct., N.W.
Wednesday, Nov. 30
Singer Robin Thicke plays the 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) at 7 tonight. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online a 930.com.
The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) across from Marine Barracks, for duplicate bridge. No reservations are needed and newcomers are welcome. If a partner is needed, visit lambdabridge.com.
Thursday, Dec. 1
Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) holds its monthly meeting tonight in the main room at the D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Capital Splats, an LGBT racquetball group, is having its happy hour tonight at Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information, visit capitalsplats.org.
The Lambda Sci-Fi Book Group meets today at 1425 S St., N.W. This month’s book is the anthology “Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy” edited by Ellen Datlow. Attendees are asked to bring a snack and/or non-alcoholic drink to share. For more information, email [email protected], [email protected] or visit the group’s website lambdascifi.org.
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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