Arts & Entertainment
Drives and desires
War-injured photojournalist ponders work vs. domesticity in new Studio production
‘Time Stands Still’
Through Feb. 12
The Studio Theatre
1501 14th Street, NW
$35-$69
202-332-3300
In “Time Stands Still” (now at Studio Theatre) playwright Donald Margulies takes us to war zones without ever leaving his characters’ Brooklyn loft.
After being seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq, photojournalist Sarah (Holly Twyford) goes home to New York to heal. The angry red scars on her face aren’t her main worry. She’s more concerned about getting back on her feet and returning to the Middle East where she can continue bearing witness with her Nikon. But when Sarah’s reporter boyfriend James (Greg McFadden) asks her to join him in a quieter, safer life (a potential novelty for both), she is forced to consider doing things differently.
Holly Twyford and Greg McFadden in Studio Theatre’s production of ‘Time Stands Still.’ (Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy Studio)
While Sarah is unparalleled at capturing the difficult images of war, she is less adept at navigating emotional battles on the home front. For years she and James traveled to the world’s most dangerous conflict zones chronicling atrocities, but after James saw one too many civilians blown up in Iraq, he suffered a sort of breakdown and called it quits. Weeks later Sarah was injured.
At home, she resists James’ coddling and feels trapped and bored by domesticity. But she loves him and is in her way very invested in the relationship. She owes it to herself to try and make things work despite having never signed on for a normal life.
Like Margulies’ Pulitzer-winning play “Dinner with Friends,” this newer work’s cast is also comprised of two straight couples. James and Sarah are visited by their worldly editor Richard (Dan Illian) and his much younger new girlfriend Mandy (a delightful Laura C. Harris) who mistakenly thinks jaded, grouchy Sarah might appreciate a tacky bunch of “get well” balloons and a barrage of small talk. An unlikely addition to the sophisticated friends’ longtime circle, Mandy acknowledges that she’s an intellectual lightweight while making it clear that she’s a lot more than Richard’s mid-life crisis.
Mandy also questions Sarah on the ethics of her profession. How can she stand by and photograph death and destruction without somehow intervening or offering some kind of assistance? Sarah responds rather mechanically that photojournalists are there to record life and not to change it; but later in the play, Sarah reconsiders her reply more emotionally, wondering if it’s somehow indecent to make a living from the suffering of others.
Timely, thought provoking and entertaining, Margulies’ nuanced script is wonderfully written. Sarah and James’ pitch-perfect dialogue is subtly infused with affecting and sometimes disturbing references to people they’ve encountered in Iraq, most especially Sarah’s translator and sometime lover Tarek. The play gives a bit of humanity to the tens of thousands of faceless civilian Iraqi casualties about whom Americans seldom hear anything.
Helmed by New York director Susan Fenichell, the thoughtful production is smartly staged and well acted by a splendid cast. On Broadway, Laura Linney created the part of Sarah. At Studio, Twyford (openly gay) makes the role of the brave, witty, complicated woman her own. Twyford’s approach to Sarah’s physicality is particularly memorable — whether she’s walking tentatively on her painfully broken leg or clenching her good hand from the intense anxiety brought on by being away from the action.
Sarah and James’ loft — realistically rendered by John McDermott from its fully functioning kitchen sink to raindrops hitting the skylight — serves as both refuge and starting gate. It’s up to Sarah whether to stay or go.
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.
World Bank resumes lending to Uganda
PHOTOS: WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert
Baltimore Trans Pride to take place Saturday
PHOTOS: WorldPride Parade
Judge temporarily blocks executive orders targeting LGBTQ, HIV groups
PHOTOS: WorldPride Boat Parade
Activists rally for Andry Hernández Romero in front of Supreme Court
The best U.S. cities for LGBTQ homebuyers in 2025
A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
