Arts & Entertainment
Calendar through July 18
Film screenings, parties, social groups, concerts and events
Tchaikovsky from Nutcracker Suite’ by Aina Nergaard-Nammack is on display now at Touchstone Gallery, one of the many things to do this week on the LGBT events calendar. (Image courtesy Touchstone)
Friday, July 12
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts Bear Happy Hour tonight from 6-11 p.m. There is no cover charge, and admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit towndc.com.
The Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) hosts its monthly “Gay/Bash!” party tonight at 10 p.m. DJs Joshua and Dean spin rock and pop favorites all night. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased the day of the party. For more information, visit blackcatdc.com.
Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) hosts an opening reception from 6-8:30 p.m. tonight for the “Fragments of Classical Music” exhibition by Aina Nergaard-Nammack, who creates each painting based on music by classical composers. For more information, visit touchstonegallery.com.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) hosts a “women in their twenties” meeting tonight from 8-9:30 p.m. Visit thedccenter.org for more information.
Sheryl Crow performs tonight with special guest Tyler Toliver in Central Park in Fredericksburg, Va., (1541 Carl D Silver Pkwy., Fredericksburg, Va.). Gates open at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7. Admission ranges from $22.50-100. For more details and to purchase tickets, visit celebratevirginialive.com.
Special Agent Galactica performs tonight at Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) from 6-9 p.m. Admission is free and limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit blackfoxlounge.com.
Saturday, July 13
Phase 1 of Dupont (1415 22nd St., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Booty Beach Ladies Dance Party.” The winner of the party’s bikini and board shorts contest will receive cash and prizes. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and admission is $5. Visit phase1dc.com for more information.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts “Latin Evolution” tonight from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. DJ Willie and DJ k. Milko spin, and the party features performances by Tatianna from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” with the Divas of Evolution. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details and to purchase tickets, visit cobaltdc.com.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) provides free HIV testing today from 4-7 p.m. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Indie rock trio Soundacity perform tonight at Black Fox Lounge from 9:30-10:45 p.m. Admission is $10. Visit blackfoxlounge.com for more details.
Sunday, July 14
Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) hosts karaoke tonight from 9 p.m.-midnight. Cover is $3, and there will also be pool, video gaming systems and cards. For more information, visit bachelorsmill.com.
Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts its weekly Drag Brunch with Shi-Queeta Lee today at 11 a.m. The buffet is $24 including one free mimosa. For more information, visit nelliessportsbar.com.
The Lambda Sci-Fi group for LGBT science fiction, fantasy and horror fans meets this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at 1425 S St., N.W. Attendants are encouraged to bring a snack and non-alcoholic drink to share. For more details, visit lambdascifi.org.
Hand Poured, an LGBT sketch comedy group, performs this evening at Black Fox Lounge (1723 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) from 6-9 p.m. There will be an extended happy hour, with $7 “Sketch-tinis.” Admission is free. For details, visit blackfoxlounge.com.
Monday, July 15
The Fort Reno Summer Music Series continues tonight at Fort Reno Park (Chesapeake St. and Nebraska Ave., N.W.) from 7:15-9:30 p.m. This week’s local bands include Thundermilk, The Obsessives and Joy Buttons. The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit fortreno.com.
Casa Ruby (2822 Georgia Ave., N.W.) provides a spanish-language career development workshop today from 4-6 p.m. Visit thedccenter.org for more information.
The AFI Silver screens footage of “La Sylphide,” performed by the world-famous Russian Bolshoi Ballet, today at 12:45 p.m. “La Sylphide” is one of the oldest surviving ballets from the Romantic period, dating back to August Bournonville’s 1836 original. Admission is $11.50. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit afi.com/silver.
Tuesday, July 16
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) hosts a genderqueer discussion group from 7-8 p.m. tonight for people who identify outside of the gender binary. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Green Lantern (1335 Green Ct., N.W.) hosts a “FUK!T Packing Party” tonight from 7-9 p.m. Volunteers will help make FUK!T packets and TOOLK!Ts. For more details, visit thedccenter.org.
Wednesday, July 17
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 D.C. Facebook page.
Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) hosts drag bingo during 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 Dupont Drawing Group meets tonight at 7 p.m. at The Church of the Pilgrims (2201 P St., N.W.) to draw from the live model. The session is self-directed with no formal instruction and no materials are provided. Drawing spots and easels are available on a first come first serve basis, so guests should arrive anytime after 6:45. No reservations are required and a modest fee to pay the model will be collected. For more information, visit paulreuther.com.
The Lambda Bridge Club meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for social bridge. Participants do not need a partner. For more information, call 301-345-1571.
The D.C. Center (1318 U St., N.W.) provides career development for LGBT individuals during its weekly “Job Club” event from 4-6 p.m. today. Visit thedccenter.org for more details.
Thursday, July 18
MOVA Lounge (2204 14th St., N.W.) hosts “GLBT College Night” this evening, with a vodka open bar for guests who have a college ID from 9-10 p.m. Admission is free and 18 and up. Visit movalounge.com for more details.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Ripped Hot Body Contest” tonight from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Lena Lett hosts the event and contestants can win up to $200 in prizes. $2 rail drinks will be served from 9-11 p.m. Admission is 18 and up and free. For details, visit cobaltdc.com.
The Fort Reno Summer Music Series continue tonight at Fort Reno Park (Chesapeake St. and Nebraska Ave., N.W.) from 7:15-9:30 p.m. This week’s local bands include Bearshark and Washington Bach Consort. The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit fortreno.com.
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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