Arts & Entertainment
Calendar: events through Dec. 27
Parties, concerts, exhibits and more for the coming week
TODAY (Friday)
Ford’s Theatre (511 10th St., NW) hosts Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” tonight at 7:30 p.m. It runs with performances planned throughout the rest of December. The musical was originally conceived by Michael Baron and acclaimed Washington actor Edward Gero leads the show as Scrooge. Tickets are $55-$100. For more information, visit fordstheatre.org.
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., NW) presents “Course Corrections” by Gale Wallar and “The Best of Touchstone” with artwork from 40 artists. Wallar’s pieces explore places we may not know. The annual holiday show features several artists whose artwork is affordable and great for gifts. The show runs until Dec. 30. For more information, visit touchstonegallery.com.
“Zoolights” is on display at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park (3001 Connecticut Ave., NW). The show includes around 500,000 environmentally friendly LED lights that make animal silhouettes, musical light displays and new garden scene light sculpture. Admission is free, but parking costs $9 for members and $16 for non-members. For details, visit nationalzoo.si.edu.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre (641 D St., NW) presents “The Pajama Men: In the Middle of No One,” the highest rated comedy routine at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, tonight at 7. Tickets are $55. For more information, visit woollymammoth.net.
The Black Cat (1811 14th St., NW) holds its “Dr. Who Happy Hour” tonight at 7 p.m. on its backstage. There will be one episode of “Dr. Who” along with drink specials. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.
Phase 1 (528 8th St. SE) has its weekly dance party with DJ Jay Von Teese tonight starting at 7:30. Cover is $10. For more information, visit phase1dc.com.
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. This event is for people 21 and older. There is no cover charge. Later the drag show will start at 10:30 p.m. and the GoGo boys come out at 11. Cover is $5 before 11 and $10 after. There are $3 drinks until 11. For details, visit towndc.com.
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) is having its happy hour tonight starting at 5 p.m. All drinks are half off until 7:30 p.m. After 9 p.m., admission is $10. The dance floor opens at 11 with DJ Tim-Nice and DJ Cameron. For details, visit thebachelorsmill.com.
The Black Cat (1811 14th St., NW) screens “Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance” tonight on its backstage at 9:30. This event is free. For details, visit blackcatdc.com.
Saturday, Dec. 22
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) opens its doors at 10 tonight and the drag show begins at 10:30. Cover is $8 before 11 p.m. and $12 after. There are $3 drinks before 11. For details, visit towndc.com.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, is helping in food preparation and packing groceries for Food and Friends (219 Riggs Road, NE) this morning at 8 and again at 9:45. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, NW) holds its “Tainted Love: ‘80s Dance Party” tonight starting at 10 p.m. Cover is $5. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.
The Black Cat(1811 14th St., N.W.) hosts, “Hellmouth Happy Hour” where attendees watch one episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with drink specials. Cover is free and doors open at 7 p.m. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.
Sunday, Dec. 23
The National Symphony Orchestra gets into the holiday spirit by performing Handel’s “Messiah” today at 1 p.m. at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St., NW). Tickets are $10 to $85. For more information, visit kennedy-center.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) holds its weekly Martini Sundays and Homowood Karaoke. Karaoke starts at 10 p.m. and there is no charge for admission. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Monday, Dec. 24
Green Lantern (1335 Green Court, NW) has its normal hours and drink specials this evening from 4 p.m.-2 a.m. but there will not be “Bears Do Yoga” and karaoke. Admission is free. For more information, visit greenlanterndc.com.
Tuesday, Dec. 25
The Kennedy Center (2700 F St., NW) brings the annual traditon from Millennium Stage, “All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam” with Chuck Redd, Rober Redd, Lenny Robinson, Tom Williams, James King and Delores Williams. This event is free. For details, visit kennedy-center.org.
The Black Cat (1811 14th St., NW) hosts “James Brown Death-Mas Holiday Bash” tonight at 9. The party is to commemorate the death of the “hardest working man in show business” who died on Christmas in 2006. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.
Wednesday, Dec. 26
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its gay men over 50 support group this evening at 6:30 p.m. The group is for gay men entering a new phase of life. Registration is required to attend. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Whitman-Walker Health (1701 14th St., NW) holds its HIV+ Newly Diagnosed Support Group tonight at 7. It is a confidential support group for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV and the group welcomes all genders and sexual orientations. For details, visit whitman-walker.org.
Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 pm at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., SE). Newcomers are welcome and no reservations are needed. For more information, visit lambdabridge.com.
Thursday, Dec. 27
Whitman-Walker Health offers HIV testing at Miriam’s Kitchen (2401 Virginia Ave, NW) today from 4-6 p.m. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W) is hosting its weekly Best Package Contest tonight at 9 p.m. There is a $3 cover and there are $2 vodka drinks. Participants in the contest can win $200 in cash prizes. The event is hosted by Lena Lett and music by DJ Chord, DJ Madscience, and DJ Sean Morris. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
Celebrity News
D.C. goes gaga for Gaga
Bisexual icon brought ‘The Mayhem Ball’ tour to Washington this week
Lady Gaga this week took D.C. by storm.
The bisexual icon and LGBTQ rights champion brought “The Mayhem Ball” tour to Capital One Arena on Monday and Tuesday.
“Abracadabra,” “Paparazzi,” “Applause,” and “Bad Romance” are among the songs Lady Gaga performed during the 2 1/2-hour long concert. Lady Gaga also celebrated her many queer fans.
“You are precious to us,” she said on Tuesday night before she performed “Born This Way.”
Photos
PHOTOS: Capital Stonewall Democrats 50th anniversary
D.C. LGBTQ political group celebrates milestone at Pepco Edison Place Gallery
The Capital Stonewall Democrats held a 50th anniversary celebration at Pepco Edison Place Gallery on Friday. Rayceen Pendarvis served as the emcee.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
‘Inherit the Wind’ isn’t about science vs. religion, but the right to think
Holly Twyford on new role and importance of listening to different opinions
‘Inherit the Wind’
Through April 5
Arena Stage
1101 Sixth St., S.W.
Tickets start at $73
Arenastage.org
When “Inherit the Wind” premiered on Broadway in 1955 with a cast of 50, its fictional setting of Hillsboro, an obscure country town described as the buckle on the Bible Belt, was filled with townspeople. And now at Arena Stage, director Ryan Guzzo Purcell has somehow crowded Arena’s large Fichandler space with just 10 actors, five principals and a delightful ensemble of five playing multiple roles.
Inspired by the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s fictionalized work pits intellectual freedom against McCarthyism via the imagined trial of Bertram Cates (Noah Plomgren), a Tennessee educator charged with teaching evolution. Drawn into the fracas are big shot lawyers, defense attorney Henry Drummond (Billy Eugene Jones), and conservative prosecutor, Matthew Harrison Brady (Dakin Matthew). On hand to cover the closely watched story is wisecracking city slicker and Baltimore reporter E.K. Horneck (played by nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan).
Out actor Holly Twyford, a four-time Helen Hayes Award winner who has appeared in more than 80 Washington area plays, is part of the ensemble. In jeans and boots, she memorably plays Meeker, the bailiff at the Hillsboro courthouse and the jailer responsible for holding Cates in the days leading to his trial.
Twyford also plays Sillers, a slack jawed earnest employee at the local feed store who’s called to serve on the jury. And more importantly she plays Brady’s quietly strong wife Sarah whom he affectionately calls “Mother.”
When Twyford makes her memorable first entrance as Meeker, she’s wiping shaving cream from her face with a hand towel. With shades of Mayberry R.F.D., the jail is run casually. Meeker says Cates isn’t the criminal type, and he’s not.
“There’s a joke among actors,” says Twyford. “When an actor gets his shoes, they know who their character is. And it’s sort of true. When you put on boots, heels, or flip flops, there’s a different feeling, and you walk differently.”
Similarly, shares Twyford, it goes for clothes too: “When Mother slips a pink coat dress over her cowboy boots, dons a little hat and ties her scarf, or Meeker puts on his work shirt, I know where I am. And all of that is thanks to a remarkable wardrobe crew.
“Additionally, some of the ensemble characters are played broadly which is helpful to the actors and super identifying for the audience too.”
During intermission, an audience member loudly described the production as “a proper play” filled with beautifully written passages. And it’s true. Twyford agrees, adding “That’s all true, and it’s also been was fun for us to be a part of the Arena legacy as well. Arena took ‘Inherit the Wind’ to the Soviet Union in the early ‘70s when the respective governments did a cultural exchange. At the time, the iron curtain was very much in place, and they traveled with a play about a man with his own thoughts.”
When the ensemble was cast, actors didn’t know which tracts exactly they were going to play. “What came together was a cast, diverse in different ways. Some directors, including myself when I direct, are interested in assembling a cast that’s a good group. No time for egos. It’s more about who will make the best group to help me tell this story.”
At one point during rehearsal, ensemble members began to help one another with minor onstage costume changes, like jackets and hats: “We just started doing it and Ryan [Guzzo Purcell] picked up on it, saying things really began to come alive when we helped each other, so we went with that.”
“For me, it was reminiscent of ‘The Laramie Project’ [Ford’s Theatre in 2013] when we played five different parts and we’d help each other with a vest or jacket in a similar way. It worked so well then too,” says Twyford.
“Inherit the Wind” isn’t about science versus religion. It’s about the right to think, playwright Jerome Lawrrence has been quoted as saying. And it’s a quote that makes the play that much more relevant today.
Twford remembers a chat in a hair salon: “I was getting my hair cut and the woman next to me shared that she was tired of message plays. Understandably there are theater makers who believe that message plays are the point, while others think it’s all about entertainment. I feel like ‘Inherit the Wind’ sits in a nice place in the middle.”
She adds “the work is a creative way of showing different opinions and that, I think, is what we should be paying attention to right now. Clearly, it’s not right or wrong to express what you think.”
DeSantis signs emergency bill that restores Fla. ADAP funding
Menaka Guruswamy celebrated as India’s first openly LGBTQ MP
Trans-led HIV clinic in Portsmouth struggles amid funding cuts
D.C. goes gaga for Gaga
Gay priest credited with boosting church support for LGBTQ Catholics
‘How We Survived’ panel set for March 25
Calendar: March 21-26
‘Inherit the Wind’ isn’t about science vs. religion, but the right to think
Small is beautiful: subcompact SUVs
