Arts & Entertainment
‘Ordinary’ yet charming
Low-key musical delights with its minimalism
Janine Divita as Claire and Will Gartshore as Jason in ‘Ordinary Days.’ (Photo courtesy Round House Theatre)
‘Ordinary Days’
Through June 22
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda
$25-50
240-644-1100
In the program notes for Round House Theatre’s delightful area premiere of “Ordinary Days,” out composer/lyricist Adam Gwon says the show’s gay character is most like him.
Warren is an optimist. He isn’t terribly put off by rude behavior. For him, a calamity is an opportunity. In jaded Manhattan he might seem an anomaly, yet in Gwon’s charming chamber musical about young people carving out lives for themselves, it’s Warren who embodies the promise and possibilities of Gotham.
“Ordinary Days” is two stories — one about friendship the other love. The first involves nervous Deb (Erin Weaver), a humorless grad student who is unsure what she wants; and Warren (Samuel Edgerly), a happy cat sitter and aspiring artist who canvasses the street handing out flyers with inspiring messages. Two complete strangers. Deb and Warren come together after she loses her thesis notes and he finds them. A hand-over rendezvous is arranged. Warren, ever the romantic, suggests the two meet on Saturday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in front a Monet painting in one of the museum’s myriad galleries. Deb reluctantly agrees. The meeting is amusingly played out in the duet “Sort-of Fairy Tale.”
On parting, uptight Deb feels she owes Warren a thank you. After affirming he’s gay, she suggests a quick 20 minutes at Starbucks, her treat. They sip and chat. Her initial distaste for Warren softens.
That same Saturday, Jason (Will Gartshore) and Claire (Janine Divita) are also at the museum. An afternoon taking in art is part of Jason’s plan to get the couple closer. Though Jason recently moved into Claire’s place, the relationship feels stalled. A painful secret prevents reserved Claire from taking things to the next level.
Almost entirely sung through, Gwon’s 19-song melodic score is filled with the yearning of youth and some more clearheaded thinking prompted by a little maturity. His lyrics are sharp, clever and often funny. Through his songs, Gwon deftly introduces and rounds out complex characters and smartly moves an engaging but hardly groundbreaking plot, which is part of its charm.
Out director Matthew Gardiner’s staging is masterful. Under his sure hand, the perfectly cast, four-person ensemble make it all look so easy, which of course it isn’t. As Jason, Will Gartshore is in gorgeous voice, especially with “Favorite Places,” a sentimental tune in which Jason lists his most prized spots in the city including one he’s yet to visit, Claire’s heart. Janine Divita’s Claire hides her hurt with a hardened veneer. Finally she comes clean with her feelings and reveals the show’s secret with a touching rendition of “I’ll Be Here.”
The eminently watchable Erin Weaver is terrific as Deb, displaying some serious comic and vocal talent with songs like “Don’t Wanna Be Here” and “Calm” (which Deb isn’t). Samuel Edgerly is delightful as the preternaturally sunny and sometimes oblivious Warren. Like his fellow cast members, Edgerly more than does justice to the score. Sole musical accompaniment comes from the excellent musical director/pianist William Yanesh who is seated on stage at a baby grand.
A relatively modest musical, “Ordinary Days” is fun and affecting. Gardiner’s production exudes New York’s energy. There’s the sense of a big city teeming with people in which near misses and accidental meetings can change fates. Misha Kachman’s set is open. A table and chairs, benches and newspaper boxes suggest locations where the characters meet. High above there’s a high balcony from which falls a colorful flurry of inspiring messages.
During his ordinary days as a college student at New York University, Gwon, 34, enjoyed listening to Broadway star Audra McDonald’s first solo album, imagining that one day he would compose for musical theater. Last year McDonald recorded “I’ll Be Here” from “Ordinary Days” on her most recent album, “Go Back Home.”
Gwon’s “Ordinary Days” makes for something special.
Star of “Pose” Dominique Jackson was the special guest at the vogue party “Kunty” on Saturday, Oct. 5 at Bunker. DJ Mascari provided the music.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
‘Acting their asses off’ in ‘Exception to the Rule’
Studio production takes place during after-school detention
‘Exception to the Rule’
Through Sunday, October 27
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.
$40-$95
Studiotheatre.org
After-school detention is a bore, but it’s especially tiresome on the last day of classes before a holiday.
In Dave Harris’s provocative new play “Exception to the Rule” (now at Studio Theatre) that’s just the case.
It’s Friday, and the usual suspects are reporting to room 111 for detention before enjoying the long MLK weekend. First on the scene are blaring “bad girl” Mikayla (Khalia Muhammad) and nerdy stoner Tommy (Stephen Taylor Jr.), followed by mercurial player Dayrin (Jacques Jean-Mary), kind Dasani (Shana Lee Hill), and unreadable Abdul (Khouri St.Surin).
The familiar is jaw-droppingly altered by the entrance of “College Bound Erika” (Sabrina Lynne Sawyer), a detention first timer whose bookworm presence elicits jokes from the others: What happened? You fail a test?
Dasani (who’s teased for being named for designer water) dubs Erika “Sweet Pea” and welcomes her to the rule-breaking fold. Together the regulars explain how detention works: The moderator, Mr. Bernie, shows up, signs their slips, and then they go. But today the teacher is tardy.
As they wait, the kids pass the time laughing, trash talking, flirting, and yelling. When not bouncing around the classroom, Dayrin is grooming his hair, while Dasani endlessly reapplies blush and lip gloss. At one point two boys almost come to blows, nearly repeating the cafeteria brawl that landed them in detention in the first place.
It’s loud. It’s confrontational. And it’s funny.
Erika is naively perplexed: “I thought detention was quiet. A place where everyone remembers the mistakes that got them here and then learns how to not make the same mistakes again.”
For room 111, the only connection to the outside world is an increasingly glitchy and creepy intercom system. Announcements (bus passes, the school’s dismal ranking, the impending weekend lockdown, etc.) are spoken by the unseen but unmistakably stentorian-voiced Craig Wallace.
Dave Harris first conceived “Exception to the Rule” in 2014 during his junior year at Yale University. In the program notes, the Black playwright describes “Exception to the Rule” as “a single set / six actors on a stage, just acting their asses off.” It’s true, and they do it well.
Miranda Haymon is reprising their role as director (they finely helmed the play’s 2022 off-Broadway debut at Roundabout Theatre Company in New York). Haymon orchestrates a natural feel to movement in the classroom, and without entirely stilling the action on stage (makeup applying, scribbling, etc.), the out director gives each member of the terrific cast their revelatory moment. In a busy room, we learn that Tommy’s goofiness belies trauma, that Mikayla is admirably resourceful, and most startling, why Erika, the school’s top student, is in detention.
Mr. Bernie is clearly a no-show. And despite his absence, the regulars are bizarrely loath to leave the confines of 111 for fear of catching yet another detention. Of course, it’s emblematic of something bigger. Still, things happen within the room.
While initially treated as a sort of mascot, awkwardly quiet Erika becomes rather direct in her questions and observations. Suddenly, she’s rather stiffly doling out unsolicited advice.
It’s as if an entirely new person has been thrown into the mix.
Not all of her guidance goes unheeded. Take fighting for instance. At Erika’s suggestion, St.Surin’s Abdul refrains from kicking Dayrin’s ass. (Just feet from the audience gathered for a recent matinee in Studio’s intimate Mead Theatre, Abdul’s frustration resulting from anger while yearning for a world of principled order is palpable as evidenced when a single tear rolled down the actor’s right cheek)
Set designer Tony Cisek renders a no-frills classroom with cinder block walls, a high and horizontal row of frosted fixed windows that become eerily prison like when overhead fluorescent lighting is threateningly dimmed.
Still, no matter how dark, beyond the classroom door, a light remains aglow, encouraging the kids to ponder an exit plan.
The Washington Commanders are proud to welcome the LGBTQ community for the fourth annual “Pride Night Out!” on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md.
This will be a matchup against the Cleveland Browns. The Pregame Pride Party Pass and Club level game ticket includes premier party location and club level ticket all-you-can-eat buffet, beer and wine, an exclusive Commanders Pride T-shirt, pregame entertainment and a postgame photo on the field.
More ticket options are available and $5 of every ticket goes back to Team DC. For more information visit the Commanders’ website.
PHOTOS: Dominique Jackson at Bunker
Gay Episcopal minister to be reinstated 40 years after being defrocked
In D.C., 28 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ
One year later and no closer to peace
Delaware’s Simpler absent in LGBTQ fights
Is the Washington Post editorial board asleep?
It’s time we talk about trauma
GOP candidate in Del. House race expresses LGBTQ support
Commanders Pride Night Out is back
