Arts & Entertainment
Calendar through September 12
Ana Matronic, Blondie in town, parties on tap for weekend
Friday, September 6
Friday, September 6Adodi, a same-gender-loving men’s group, hosts its bi-monthly potluck from 7-9 p.m. tonight at a member’s home in Burke, Va. For more information, email [email protected].
Town (2009 8th St., N.W.) hosts its monthly “So, You Think You’re A Drag Queen?” tonight at 10:30 p.m. The winner will earn $200 and is chosen by the audience. Cover is $10 all night for guests 18-20 and $5 for guests 21 and over before 11 p.m. For details, visit towndc.com.
OUT NVA hosts “Gay Night Out,”, a bar crawl on King Street for charity, starting at 6 p.m tonight. Begin the night at Rock-It Bar (1319 King St., Alexandria Va.) with a drag show and happy hour. Purchase a wristband for $10 to aid nurses going to Haiti and receive Purple Drink Specials at each bar. For more details, visit facebook.com/OUTNVa.
The District of Columbia Arts Center (2438 18th St., N.W.) hosts its annual “1460 Wallmountables” exhibition through Sunday. Almost 100 artists feature over 300 works on 2×2 foot spaces in a range of styles and media. For details, visit dcartscenter.org.
Whitman-Walker Health provides free HIV testing at Bachelor’s Mill (1104 8th St., S.E.) from 10 p.m.-12:30 a.m. tonight. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Saturday, Sept. 7
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for a lost dog and cat rescue foundation at Falls Church PetSmart (6100 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, Va.) from 11:45 a.m-3 p.m. today. For more details visit burgundycrescent.org.
Ana Matronic, Scissor Sister’s front woman and long time LGBT advocate, performs tonight at Town (2009 8th St., N.W.). Doors open at 10 p.m. and cover charge is $8 from 10-11 p.m. and $12 after 11 p.m. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For details, visit towndc.com.
Adventuring, an LGBT outdoors group, hosts a hike through Paw Paw Tunnel near Cumberland today. The group meets at the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Station (10300 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md.) at 9 a.m., and then walks through the tunnel to the banks of the Potomac and back through the tunnel. Transportation and trip fees are $25. For more information, visit adventuring.org.
Phase 1 of Dupont (1415 22nd St., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Booty Beach Ladies Dance Party” tonight. 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. For more details, visit phase1dc.com.
Sunday, Sept. 8
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today for the D.C. Central Kitchen (425 2nd St., N.W.) from 9 a.m.-noon. For more information, visit burgundycrescent.org.
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 more details, visit perrysadamsmorgan.com.
The Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance (AGLA) hosts an ice cream social and firehouse tour at Aurora Highlands Community Center (735 18th St., South, Arlington, Va.) from 3-6 p.m. today. Free for AGLA members. Non-AGLA members suggested donation is $10. Firehouse tour is from 3-3:30 p.m. For details, visit agla.org.
Monday, Sept. 9
Blondie performs with X at the 9:30 Club (815 V St., N.W.) at 7 p.m. tonight. Tickets are $43 and include exclusive new music download codes from Blondie. For details, visit 930.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k20jR3FwEIU
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.
Nellie’s Sports Bar (900 U St., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Poker Face” poker game night at 8 p.m. Free to play. For details, visit nelliessportsbar.com.
Tuesday, Sept. 10
Whitman-Walker Health provides free HIV testing at Giant (1535 Alabama Ave., S.E.) from 7-9 p.m. tonight. For more information, visit whitman-walker.org.
Trans Legal and Whitman-Walker Health host a name and gender change clinic at Whitman-Walker Health Services (1701 14th St., N.W.) from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. tonight. Meet one on one with an attorney to complete name and/or gender change documents. Pizza is provided. For more information call 202-939-7627.
D.C. Bi Women hosts its monthly meeting at the Dupont Italian Kitchen Restaurant (1837 17th St., N.W.) in the upstairs room from 7-9 p.m. tonight. All women welcome regardless orientation, partner preference or relationship status. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Wednesday, Sept. 11
Big Gay Book Group meets tonight at 7 p.m. at 1155 F St., N.W. Suite 200 to discuss “The Starboard Sea,” a powerful coming-of-age story by first-time novelist Amber Dermont. For details email [email protected].
The Lambda Bridge Club meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Dignity Center (721 8th St., S.E.) for duplicate bridge. No reservations required and newcomers welcome. If you need a partner, call 703-407-6540.
The D.C. Center and Pros in the City host speed dating for gay professionals at Chi-Cha Lounge (1624 U St., N.W.) from 7-9 p.m. tonight. Dating begins at 7:20 p.m. and there is a cash bar. Admission is limited to guests 21 and over. For more information, visit thedccenter.org.
Us Helping Us (3636 Georgia Ave., N.W.) hosts a support group for black gay men living with HIV tonight from 7-9 p.m. For information, visit uhupil.org.
Thursday, Sept. 12
Burgundy Crescent, a gay volunteer organization, volunteers today from 6-8 p.m. for Food and Friends near the Fort Totten Metro Station (Red and Green line). Parking also available. For more information visit burgundycrescent.org.
SMYAL (410 7th St., S.E.) hosts “Women’s Leadership Institute” for LGBT women and their straight allies from 5-7 p.m. Discuss female sexuality, relationships and women’s rights. Ages 13-21. For details, visit smyal.org.
Cobalt (1639 R St., N.W.) hosts its weekly “Ripped-Hot Body Contest” tonight from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Win up to $200 in prizes. $2 rail drinks from 9-11 p.m. Admission is 18 and up and is free.
Rude Boi Entertainment hosts “Tempted 2 Touch,” a ladies dance party, at Fab Lounge (2022 Florida Ave., N.W.). Doors open at 10 p.m. Drink specials $5 and vodka shots $3 all night. No cover charge. Admission limited to guests 21 and over. For more information, visit rudeboientertainment.wordpress.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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