Arts & Entertainment
D.C. arts briefs: July 20
Night Out at the Kastles, Rufus at Wolf Trap and more

Lesbian-directed film part of conference
The National Association of Social Workers is holding a National Hope Conference including a film festival on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park (2660 Woodley Road N.W.).
The three films included in the festival are “Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution” by lesbian filmmaker Lucy Winer, “From Place to Place” by Paige Williams and Matt Anderson and “What Love Is: Pathfinders” by Ted Bogosian.
Winer’s film shows her visit back to a mental hospital that her parents had her committed to as a teenager. She interviews former patients and staff and showcases how the state of mental health care has changed.
“From Place to Place,” is about 18-year-old Cody who’s been in 17 foster homes in seven years. The film shows his struggles to connect with his birth family and avoid slipping into drugs and crime.
Bogosain’s film follows an organization that provides holistic and compassionate care to people with cancer and other serious illnesses.
For tickets visit the Film Festival registration table at the conference. For more information, visit socialworkers.org.
Team D.C. presents Night Out at the Kastles
Night Out at the Kastles is tonight at 7 p.m. at the Waterfront Tennis Center (800 Water St.). The Kastles are playing the Orange County Breakers.
Team DC, Washington’s gay sports connection, began the Night Out Series with Night Out at the Nationals, inviting members of the LGBT community go together to a game. Now the series has spread to several sports teams including the Kastles, Mystics and United.
The Kastles are a World TeamTennis that was started in 2008 and has several big name players such as Serena and Venus Williams.
Grandstand seats are $15 and chairback seats are $30. For more information, visit teamdc.org.
Wainwright and Michaelson coming to Wolf Trap
Rufus Wainwright is pairing up with indie sensation Ingrid Michaelson at Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna) Tuesday at 8 p.m.
On Wainwright’s most recent album, he put pop music aside and focused on other interests and recent personal events such as the birth of his daughter, the death of his mother and engagement to his partner, Jorn Weisbrodt.
Michaelson’s music has been featured in TV shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “One Tree Hill.” Her most recent albums is “Human Again,” released on her own independent record label Cabin 24.
Tickets range from $30-$75. For more information, visit wolftrap.org.
DJ Merrill performing at the MOVA Lounge
DJ David Merrill is playing MOVA Lounge on Thursday night at 9 p.m.
He’s a D.C.-based DJ who plays the latest cutting edge beats, progressive, tribal, trance and electro-house. He is a resident DJ at “Code,” D.C.’s largest gear fetish party, and the “Club Queer,” radio show. He has played at clubs and special events in D.C. and throughout the East Coast, including Town Danceboutique, Cobalt, the Green Lantern and the main stage at D.C. LeatherPRIDE.
Admission is free. For more information, visit movalounge.com.

The 13th annual Hagerstown Pride Festival was held at Doubs Woods Park in Hagerstown, Md. on Saturday, June 21.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)






















Theater
‘Hunter S. Thompson’ an unlikely but rewarding choice for musical theater
‘Speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country’

‘The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical’
Through July 13
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, Va.
$47 to $98
Sigtheatre.org
The raucous world of the counterculture journalist may not seem the obvious choice for musical theater, but the positive buzz surrounding Signature Theatre’s production of Joe Iconis’s “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical” suggests otherwise.
As the titular, drug addled and gun-toting writer, Eric William Morris memorably moves toward his character’s suicide in 2005 at 67. He’s accompanied by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles including out actor George Salazar as Thompson’s sidekick Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, a bigger than life Mexican American attorney, author, and activist in the Chicano Movement who follows closely behind.
Salazar performs a show-stopping number — “The Song of the Brown Buffalo,” a rowdy and unforgettable musical dive into a man’s psyche.
“Playing the part of Oscar, I’m living my Dom daddy activist dreams. For years, I was cast as the best friend with a heart of gold. Quite differently, here, I’m tasked with embodying all the toxic masculinity of the late ‘60s, and a rampant homophobia, almost folded into the culture.”
He continues, “My sexuality aside, I like to think that Oscar would be thrilled by my interpretation of him in that song.
“Our upbringings are similar. I’m mixed race – Filipino and Ecuadorian and we grew up similarly,” says Salazar, 39. “He didn’t fit in as white or Mexican American, and fell somewhere in the middle. Playing Oscar [who also at 39 in 1974 forever disappeared in Mexico], I pulled out a lot of experience about having to code switch before finally finding myself and being confident just doing my own thing.
“As we meet Oscar in the show we find exactly where’s he’s at. Take me or leave me, I couldn’t care less.”
In 2011, just three years after earning his BFA in musical theater from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Salazar fortuitously met Iconis at a bar in New York. The pair became fast friends and collaborators: “This is our third production,” says George. “So, when Joe comes to me with an idea, there hasn’t been a moment that I don’t trust him.”
In “Be More Chill,” one of Iconis’s earlier works, Salazar originated the role of Michael Mell, a part that he counts as one of the greatest joys of artistic life.
With the character, a loyal and caring friend who isn’t explicitly queer but appeals to queer audiences, Salazar developed a fervent following. And for an actor who didn’t come out to his father until he was 30, being in a place to support the community, especially younger queer people, has proved incredibly special.
“When you hear Hunter and Oscar, you might think ‘dude musical,’ but I encourage all people to come see it.” Salazar continues, “Queer audiences should give the show a shot. As a musical, it’s entertaining, funny, serious, affecting, and beautiful. As a gay man stepping into this show, it’s so hetero and I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I took it upon myself that any of the multiple characters I play outside of Oscar, were going to be queer.
Queer friends have seen it and love it, says Salazar. His friend, Tony Award-winning director Sam Pinkleton (“Oh, Mary!”) saw Hunter S. Thompson at the La Jolla Playhouse during its run in California, and said it was the best musical he’d seen in a very long time.
“Since the work’s inception almost 10 years ago, I was the first Oscar to read the script. In the interim, the characters’ relationships have grown but otherwise there have been no major changes. Still, it feels more impactful in different ways: It’s exciting to come here to do the show especially since Hunter S. Thompson was very political.”
Salazar, who lives in Los Angeles with his partner, a criminal justice reporter for The Guardian, is enjoying his time here in D.C. “In a time when there are so many bans – books, drag queens, and travel — all I see is division. This is an escape from that.”
He describes the Hunter Thompson musical as Iconis’s masterpiece, adding that it’s the performance that he’s most proud of to date and that feels there a lot of maturity in the work.
“In the play, Thompson talks to Nixon about being a crook and a liar,” says Salazar. “The work speaks volumes about how sad things land on our country: We seem to take them one step forward and two steps back; the performance is almost art as protest.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Goodwin Living Pride Parade
Senior living and healthcare organization holds fifth annual march at Falls Church campus

The senior living and healthcare organization Goodwin Living held its fifth annual Pride Parade around its Bailey’s Crossroads campus in Falls Church, Va. with residents, friends and supporters on Thursday, June 12.
(Photos courtesy of Goodwin Living)











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