Arts & Entertainment
Calendar through June 20
Events, parties, concerts and more this weekend and beyond
Mova hosts “GLBT College Night” on Thursday. (Washington Blade photo by Pete Exis)
Friday, June 14
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour Friday from 6-11 p.m. There is no cover charge and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit towndc.com.
Special Agent Galactica performs Friday with her musical director, Aaron Myers, at Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) from 6-9 p.m. Admission is free. Visit blackfoxlounge.com or pinkhairedone.com for more information.
Jamorr Entertainment presents Fusion Friday, an all ladies happy hour, Friday at Capitale (1301 K St., N.W.) from 6-11 p.m. Tickets are $5 in advance or $10 at the door. For details and to purchase tickets, visit jamorr.com.
Delta Elite (10 St., N.E.) hosts ladies night Friday from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. For more details, visit deltaelite.net.
Saturday, June 15
Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts a “Mister Beefcake Contest” tonight at 10 p.m., featuring DJ Kurt Jo. Admission is $7. Contestants can win $100. For details, visit greenlanterndc.com.
Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts a Gemini Zodiac Party this afternoon from 3-7 p.m. Geminis should come early for free T-shirts. Visit nelliessportsbar.com or the event on Facebook for more details.
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation at the Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, V.A.) from 11:45 a.m.-3 p.m. Visit burgundycrescent.org for more information.
Sunday, June 16
Perry’s (1811 Columbia Rd., N.W.) hosts its weekly Sunday Drag Brunch today from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The cost is $24.95 for an all-you-can-eat buffet. For details, visit perrysadamsmorgan.com.
The Capitol Hill Medical Center (700 2nd St., N.E.) presents a Transgender Health care Dialogue this morning from9:30-10:30 a.m. Kaiser Permanente physicians, nurses, behavioral health professionals and member services professionals will be present to answer questions. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) presents an International Queer Poetry Panel this afternoon from 1-3 p.m.Admission is $10 or free with prior registration. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.
Monday, June 17
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) hosts happy hour tonight from 5-7:30 p.m. All drinks are half price, and there will also be pool, video gaming systems and cards. Admission is free. For details, visit bachelorsmill.com.
The Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) hosts La-Ti-Do, a spoken word and musical theater show, tonight from 8-10 p.m. Admission is $10. Visit blackfoxlounge.com for more details.
The Open Society Institute (1730 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.) hosts a panel discussion and film preview on LGBTI refugees with the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) from 1-3 p.m. this afternoon. “No Place For Me,” a documentary that reveals the persecution of LGBT people in South Africa, Mexico and Uganda, will be previewed. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Casa Ruby (2822 Georgia Ave., N.W.) provides a Spanish-Language Career Development tutorial from 4-6 p.m. today. Visit thedccenter.org for more information.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) hosts coffee drop-in hours this morning from 10 a.m.-noon for the senior LGBT community. Older LGBT adults can come and enjoy complimentary coffee and conversation with other community members. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Tuesday, June 18
Whitman Walker Health provides free HIV testing at Panam Supermarket (3552 14th St., N.W.) tonight from 7-9 p.m.For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) hosts a Gender Queer Discussion Group for people who identify outside of the gender binary from 7-8 p.m. tonight. For details, visit thedccenter.org.
MOVA Lounge (2204 14th St., N.W.) screens “Will & Grace” reruns tonight from 5 p.m.-3 a.m. Half-priced “Karen Walker Martinis” and “Just Jack Cocktails” will be served. There is no cover. For more information, visit movalounge.com or the Mova Lounge Facebook page.
The D.C. Trans Coalition hosts a group-planning meeting at Transgender Health Empowerment (1414 North Capitol St., N.W.) tonight from 7:30-9 p.m. For more information, visit dctranscoalition.org.
Wednesday, June 19
Heist (1802 Jefferson Pl., N.W.) hosts its weekly open bar party tonight from 10-11 p.m. There is no cover charge and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit heistdc.com or the Heist DC Facebook page.
The Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) hosts drag bingo tonight from 5:30-7 p.m. during happy hour. All drinks are half price and there will also be pool, video gaming systems and cards. Admission is free. For more information, visitbachelorsmill.com.
The AFI Docs Film Festival starts screening documentaries today at 10 a.m. at the AFI Silver Theater (8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, M.D.). Tickets for individual screenings are $13 and combo ticket packages for 10 screenings are $100. For more information on the festival’s documentaries, various screening locations and to purchase tickets online, visit afi.com.
The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for social bridge. Participants do not need a partner. For more details, call 301-345-1571.
Bookmen D.C., an informal men’s gay literature group, discusses “The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered,” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at The American Foreign Service Association (2101 E St., N.W.). For more information, visitbookmendc.blogspot.com.
Thursday, June 20
Whitman-Walker Health provides free HIV testing tonight from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. at Glorious Health Club (2120 West Virginia Ave., N.E.). For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) hosts a polyamory discussion group tonight from 7-8 p.m. Visit thedccenter.orgfor more details.
MOVA Lounge (2204 14th St., N.W.) hosts “GLBT College Night” this evening with a vodka open bar from 9-10 p.m. for guests with a college ID. Admission is 18 and up to enter and 21 and up to drink. For details, visit movalounge.com or the Mova Lounge Facebook page.
Theater
José Zayas brings ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’ to GALA Hispanic Theatre
Gay Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca wrote masterpiece before 1936 execution
‘The House of Bernarda Alba’
Through March 1
GALA Hispanic Theatre
3333 14th St., N.W.
$27-$52
Galatheatre.org
In Federico García Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba,” now at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Columbia Heights, an impossibly oppressive domestic situation serves, in short, as an allegory for the repressive, patriarchal, and fascist atmosphere of 1930s Spain
The gay playwright completed his final and arguably best work in 1936, just months before he was executed by a right-wing firing squad. “Bernarda Alba” is set in the same year, sometime during a hot summer in rural Andalusia, the heart of “España profunda” (the deep Spain), where traditions are deeply rooted and mores seldom challenged.
At Bernarda’s house, the atmosphere, already stifling, is about to get worse.
On the day of her second husband’s funeral, Bernarda Alba (superbly played by Luz Nicolás), a sixtyish woman accustomed to calling the shots, gathers her five unmarried daughters (ages ranging from 20 to 39) and matter-of-factly explain what’s to happen next.
She says, “Through the eight years of mourning not a breeze shall enter this house. Consider the doors and windows as sealed with bricks. That’s how it was in my father’s house and my grandfather’s. Meanwhile, you can embroider your trousseaux.”
It’s not an altogether sunny plan. While Angustias (María del Mar Rodríguez), Bernarda’s daughter from her first marriage and heiress to a fortune, is betrothed to a much younger catch, Pepe el Romano, who never appears on stage, the remaining four stand little chance of finding suitable matches. Not only are they dowry-less, but no men, eligible or otherwise, are admitted into their mother’s house.
Lorca is a literary hero known for his mastery of both lyrical poetry and visceral drama; still, “Bernarda Alba’s” plotline might suit a telenovela. Despotic mother heads a house of adult daughters. Said daughters are churning with passions and jealousies. When sneaky Martirio (Giselle Gonzáles) steals the photo of Angustias’s fiancé all heck kicks off. Lots of infighting and high drama ensue. There’s even a batty grandmother (Alicia Kaplan) in the wings for bleak comic relief.
At GALA, the modern classic is lovingly staged by José Zayas. The New York-based out director has assembled a committed cast and creative team who’ve manifested an extraordinarily timely 90-minute production performed in Spanish with English subtitles easily ready seen on multiple screens.
In Lorca’s stage directions, he describes the set as an inner room in Bernarda’s house; it’s bright white with thick walls. At GALA, scenic designer Grisele Gonzáles continues the one-color theme with bright red walls and floor and closed doors. There are no props.
In the airless room, women sit on straight back chairs sewing. They think of men, still. Two are fixated on their oldest siter’s hunky betrothed. Only Magdelena (Anna Malavé), the one sister who truly mourns their dead father, has given up on marriage entirely.
The severity of the place is alleviated by men’s distant voices, Koki Lortkipanidze’s original music, movement (stir crazy sisters scratching walls), and even a precisely executed beatdown choreographed by Lorraine Ressegger-Slone.
In a short yet telling scene, Bernarda’s youngest daughter Adela (María Coral) proves she will serve as the rebellion to Bernarda’s dictatorship. Reluctant to mourn, Adela admires her reflection. She has traded her black togs for a seafoam green party dress. It’s a dreamily lit moment (compliments of lighting designer Hailey Laroe.)
But there’s no mistaking who’s in charge. Dressed in unflattering widow weeds, her face locked in a disapproving sneer, Bernarda rules with an iron fist; and despite ramrod posture, she uses a cane (though mostly as a weapon during one of her frequent rages.)
Bernarda’s countenance softens only when sharing a bit of gossip with Poncia, her longtime servant convincingly played by Evelyn Rosario Vega.
Nicolás has appeared in “Bernarda Alba” before, first as daughter Martirio in Madrid, and recently as the mother in an English language production at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh. And now in D.C. where her Bernarda is dictatorial, prone to violence, and scarily pro-patriarchy.
Words and phrases echo throughout Lorca’s play, all likely to signal a tightening oppression: “mourning,” “my house,” “honor,” and finally “silence.”
As a queer artist sympathetic to left wing causes, Lorca knew of what he wrote. He understood the provinces, the dangers of tyranny, and the dimming of democracy. Early in Spain’s Civil War, Lorca was dragged to the the woods and murdered by Franco’s thugs. Presumably buried in a mass grave, his remains have never been found.
Cupid’s Undie Run, an annual fundraiser for neurofibromatosis (NF) research, was held at Union Stage and at The Wharf DC on Saturday, Feb. 21.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Sweat DC is officially expanding to Shaw, opening a new location at 1818 7th St., N.W., on Saturday, March 28 — and they’re kicking things off with a high-energy, community-first launch event.
To celebrate, Sweat DC is hosting Sweat Fest, a free community workout and social on Saturday, March 14, at 10 a.m. at the historic Howard Theatre. The event features a group fitness class, live DJ, local food and wellness partners, and a mission-driven partnership with the Open Goal Project, which works to expand access to youth soccer for players from marginalized communities.
For more details, visit Sweat DC’s website and reserve a spot on Eventbrite.
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