Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: Dec. 2
Parties, events, concerts and more through Dec. 8
‘The Sound of Music’ is one of a series of mixed media sculptures in the exhibit ‘Eclipsed by the Cloud: the Detritus of Obsolescent Technology’ by Rima Schulkind at Touchstone Gallery. (Image courtesy Touchstone)
TODAY (Friday)
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) is holding its monthly open mic night tonight from 8 to 10 p.m., featuring guest J.T. Bullock, a poet, writer and aspiring teller of stories. Bullock’s been featured at Sparkle and Capturing Fire and is working on a one-man show which debuted as a work in progress at the Wooly Mammoth Theater. The event is hosted by Mike Brazell.
“The A List Show” is tonight at Remingtons (639 Pennslyvania Ave.) at 11:30 p.m. hosted by Miss Remingtons Brandonna DuPri with special guest Stasha Sanchez and MC Tony “And I Thank You” Nelson.
LezGetTogether.com presents “Lez Have a Gay ‘Ol Time” tonight from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Science Club (1136 19th St., N.W.) featuring trivia, an ugly holiday sweater contest, raffles and more. There’s a $4 cover with a $2 discount for wearing an ugly holiday sweater and entering the contest and a $1 discount for wearing a Santa hat, Rudolph nose, antlers or mustache.
Red Fridays presents Will Eastman’s birthday party with Cosmo Baker, Sam Burns, Chris Nitti and Lxsx Frxnk tonight at U Street Music Hall (1115 U St., N.W.) at 10 p.m. This event is free for attendees 21 and older. Attendees from 18 to 20 must purchase tickets in advance for $10 at ustreetmusichall.com.
Baltimore filmmaker Matt Porterfield presents Andy Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls” tonight at the Patterson (3134 Eastern Ave.) in Baltimore at 7 p.m. Presented in split screen with alternating soundtracks and alternation between black and white and color photography, the film follows the lives of several young women who lived at the Hotel Chelsea. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $7 for Creative Alliance members. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit creativelliance.org.
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) is having an opening reception tonight from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for its newest exhibits “Eclipsed by the Cloud: the Detritus of Obsolescent Technology” featuring totems created with obsolete technology by Rima Schulkind and “Small Treasures” featuring artworks small in size and price by a wide array of artists. For more information on either exhibit, visit touchstonegallery.com.
Saturday, Dec. 3
The D.C. Trans Coalition is having its annual community forum today at 12:30 p.m. at the Columbia Heights Community Center (1480 Girard St., N.W.). There will be food, drink and a limited number of transportation vouchers and door prizes. For more information, visitdctranscoalition.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 “Homecoming.”
It’s the last day to view the exhibit “Above the Radar II” at The Fridge (516 1/2 8th St., S.E.) featuring 100 pieces from more than 40 artists. The Fridge is open from noon to 8 p.m. For more information, visit thefridgedc.com.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will be performing Handel’s “Messiah” tonight at the Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Lane) in North Bethesda at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $28 to $88 and can be purchased online at bsomusic.org.
Lambda Squares, D.C.’s LGBT square dancing group, is having a community dance tonight at the Francis Scott Key Middle School (910 Schindler Dr.) in Silver Spring from 7 to 10 p.m. with caller Butch Adams. There’s a $10 entrance fee. The theme this year is Proud Mary. For more information, visit dclambdasquares.org.
Crack presents “Crack High: A School-Themed Variety Show” tonight at Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) at 10 p.m. Tickets are $10 and doors open at 9 p.m. All attendees must be 21 or older. There will also be a matinee performance on Sunday at 6 p.m. Tickets to this show are $8.
Sunday, Dec. 4
Creative Alliance presents “Merry Mart” hosted by Jen Menkhaus and Allison Fomich today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Patterson (3134 Eastern Ave.) in Baltimore. The show will feature clothing, handbags, felt accessories, ceramics and more by crafters from Charm City Craft Mafia, the Baltimore Etsy Street Team and more. This is a free event. For more information visit the Merry Mart blog and merrymartbaltimore.blogspot.
The Logan Circle Community Association is having its 33rd annual Logan Circle Holiday House Tour today from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. with more than a dozen properties opened for self guided tours. Check-in at Studio Theatre (1501 14th St., N.W.) to get a tour guide. There will also be a reception from 3 to 5:30 at the theater. Advance tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at logancircle.org. Same day tickets are $30 and can be purchased at Studio Theatre.
Monday, Dec. 5
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) is having its monthly volunteer night tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tonight’s activities could range from sorting through book donations, cleaning up around the center and taking inventory for Fuk!ts, as well as socializing. Pizza will provided.
WEAVE, a support group for LGBT survivors of intimate partner violence/abuse, meets from 7 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Lighthouse Center for Healing (5321 First Place, N.E.). For more information and to register, call 202-280-6391.
Tuesday, Dec. 6
Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV) is celebrating the end of the year with a happy hour and appreciation tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Duplex Diner (2004 18th St., N.W.). Proceeds from drink sales will benefit the organization. For more information, visitglovdc.org.
Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) presents its “Glee” watch party tonight at 8 p.m. on the deck in the pub room.
Wednesday, Dec. 7
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The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) presents the 38th annual “Merry TubaChristmas!” today at 6 p.m. Founded by Harvey Phillips, the concert features tuba, sousaphone and euphonium players from around D.C. playing traditional Christmas music. This is a free performance.
Riot Act Comedy Theater’s (801 E St., N.W.) monthly gay and gay-friendly comedy show “Gay-larious” returns tonight at 8:30 p.m. with Adam Lehman and co-founders Chris Doucette and Zach Toczynski. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online atriotactcomedy.com.
The Tom Davoren Social Bridge Club is meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.), across from the Marine barracks, for social bridge. No partner is needed. For more information, visit lambdabridge.com and click on “Social Bridge in Washington.”
Thursday, Dec. 8
The American Ballet Theatre performs “The Nutcracker” tonight at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., N.W.) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $45 to $150 and can be purchased online atkennedy-center.org.
Nellie’s (900 U St., N.W.) is hosting a fundraiser for Jack Evans, Councilmember for Ward 2, to be reelected in 2012 tonight at 7 p.m. Also a Nellie’s is the Washington Wetskins Water Polo Happy Hour from 5 to 8 p.m., during which $1 from every Nellie beer sold goes toward the team.
Movies
‘Hedda’ brings queer visibility to Golden Globes
Tessa Thompson up for Best Actress for new take on Ibsen classic
The 83rd annual Golden Globes awards are set for Sunday (CBS, 8 p.m. EST). One of the many bright spots this awards season is “Hedda,” a unique LGBTQ version of the classic Henrik Ibsen story, “Hedda Gabler,” starring powerhouses Nina Hoss, Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots. A modern reinterpretation of a timeless story, the film and its cast have already received several nominations this awards season, including a Globes nod for Best Actress for Thompson.
Writer/director Nia DaCosta was fascinated by Ibsen’s play and the enigmatic character of the deeply complex Hedda, who in the original, is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t want, and still is drawn to her former lover, Eilert.
But in DaCosta’s adaptation, there’s a fundamental difference: Eilert is being played by Hoss, and is now named Eileen.
“That name change adds this element of queerness to the story as well,” said DaCosta at a recent Golden Globes press event. “And although some people read the original play as Hedda being queer, which I find interesting, which I didn’t necessarily…it was a side effect in my movie that everyone was queer once I changed Eilert to a woman.”
She added: “But it still, for me, stayed true to the original because I was staying true to all the themes and the feelings and the sort of muckiness that I love so much about the original work.”
Thompson, who is bisexual, enjoyed playing this new version of Hedda, noting that the queer love storyline gave the film “a whole lot of knockoff effects.”
“But I think more than that, I think fundamentally something that it does is give Hedda a real foil. Another woman who’s in the world who’s making very different choices. And I think this is a film that wants to explore that piece more than Ibsen’s.”
DaCosta making it a queer story “made that kind of jump off the page and get under my skin in a way that felt really immediate,” Thompson acknowledged.
“It wants to explore sort of pathways to personhood and gaining sort of agency over one’s life. In the original piece, you have Hedda saying, ‘for once, I want to be in control of a man’s destiny,’” said Thompson.
“And I think in our piece, you see a woman struggling with trying to be in control of her own. And I thought that sort of mind, what is in the original material, but made it just, for me, make sense as a modern woman now.”
It is because of Hedda’s jealousy and envy of Eileen and her new girlfriend (Poots) that we see the character make impulsive moves.
“I think to a modern sensibility, the idea of a woman being quite jealous of another woman and acting out on that is really something that there’s not a lot of patience or grace for that in the world that we live in now,” said Thompson.
“Which I appreciate. But I do think there is something really generative. What I discovered with playing Hedda is, if it’s not left unchecked, there’s something very generative about feelings like envy and jealousy, because they point us in the direction of self. They help us understand the kind of lives that we want to live.”
Hoss actually played Hedda on stage in Berlin for several years previously.
“When I read the script, I was so surprised and mesmerized by what this decision did that there’s an Eileen instead of an Ejlert Lovborg,” said Hoss. “I was so drawn to this woman immediately.”
The deep love that is still there between Hedda and Eileen was immediately evident, as soon as the characters meet onscreen.
“If she is able to have this emotion with Eileen’s eyes, I think she isn’t yet because she doesn’t want to be vulnerable,” said Hoss. “So she doesn’t allow herself to feel that because then she could get hurt. And that’s something Eileen never got through to. So that’s the deep sadness within Eileen that she couldn’t make her feel the love, but at least these two when they meet, you feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not yet done with those two.’’’
Onscreen and offscreen, Thompson and Hoss loved working with each other.
“She did such great, strong choices…I looked at her transforming, which was somewhat mesmerizing, and she was really dangerous,” Hoss enthused. “It’s like when she was Hedda, I was a little bit like, but on the other hand, of course, fascinated. And that’s the thing that these humans have that are slightly dangerous. They’re also very fascinating.”
Hoss said that’s what drew Eileen to Hedda.
“I think both women want to change each other, but actually how they are is what attracts them to each other. And they’re very complimentary in that sense. So they would make up a great couple, I would believe. But the way they are right now, they’re just not good for each other. So in a way, that’s what we were talking about. I think we thought, ‘well, the background story must have been something like a chaotic, wonderful, just exploring for the first time, being in love, being out of society, doing something slightly dangerous, hidden, and then not so hidden because they would enter the Bohemian world where it was kind of okay to be queer and to celebrate yourself and to explore it.’”
But up to a certain point, because Eileen started working and was really after, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to publish, I want to become someone in the academic world,’” noted Hoss.
Poots has had her hands full playing Eileen’s love interest as she also starred in the complicated drama, “The Chronology of Water” (based on the memoir by Lydia Yuknavitch and directed by queer actress Kristen Stewart).
“Because the character in ‘Hedda’ is the only person in that triptych of women who’s acting on her impulses, despite the fact she’s incredibly, seemingly fragile, she’s the only one who has the ability to move through cowardice,” Poots acknowledged. “And that’s an interesting thing.”
Arts & Entertainment
2026 Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles nominations
We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.
Are you or a friend looking to find a little love in 2026? We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region. Nominate you or your friends until January 23rd using the form below or by clicking HERE.
Our most eligible singles will be announced online in February. View our 2025 singles HERE.
The Freddie’s Follies drag show was held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday, Jan. 3. Performers included Monet Dupree, Michelle Livigne, Shirley Naytch, Gigi Paris Couture and Shenandoah.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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