Theater
‘Nu’ twist on Kushner
Early work gets mostly female production
Aubri O’Connor, left, and Karen Lange in ‘A Bright Room Called Day.’ (Photo by Justin Schneider; courtesy Nu Sass)
‘A Bright Room Called Day’
Through April 5
Caos on F
923 F St., NW
$20
To kick off its new “Small Batch Series,” Nu Sass Productions wanted an intimate venue and a play that takes place in one room. The series’ goal is to create an up-close and authentic experience for actors and audiences alike.
With gay playwright Tony Kushner’s early work “A Bright Room Called Day” currently playing at Caos on F, a smallish gallery space, Nu Sass has achieved both aims.
Initially the D.C.-based, female-driven company considered doing Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” It seemed ideal — a booze-fueled night of psychological games that takes place in a middle-aged couple’s cluttered living room. Their intriguing idea, explains Nu Sass’ co-producer and actor Aubri O’Connor, was to change the play’s sexy young professor Nick to a female.
“But we couldn’t get the rights for that idea,” she says. “So we went with another favorite.”
Set in 1930s Germany during the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party, “Bright Room” recounts a devastating time for progressive thinkers and artists. Though filled with lots of big ideas and history, Kushner focuses on a small but dynamic group of liberal friends whose lives fall apart as their country turns against them and throws them out. The action unfolds in left-leaning actress Agnes Eggling’s Berlin apartment.
Intermittently the play shifts to Zillah, an American Jew in 1980s New York. She looks back on the rise of Hitler comparing it to the Reagan administration. She warns about history repeating itself.
Kushner wrote “Bright Room” during the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s, before he wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning magnum opus “Angels in America,” explains Angela Pirko, the show’s bisexual director. In fact, the playwright describes this early work as immature. Still, Pirko adds, “It’s a beautiful play filled poetic language, emotion and universal themes. I think it’s quintessentially Kushner.”
“I’m so attracted to Agnes, the play’s central character played by Karen Lange. She’s a non-stereotypical female role. Unabashedly sexual, compassionate and complex — a complicatedly motivated woman who makes some decisions to protect herself,” says Pirko, 27. “She’s very human. Her fears are portrayed in a compassionate light.”
By play’s end, Agnes’s friends which include Baz (Erik Harrison), a self-described “homosexual Sunday anarchist with a gun in his pocket” and Annabella Gotchling (Aubri O’Connor), a communist graphic designer, are gone. She’s surrounded by ghosts.
Also, Pirko and O’Connor are struck by the issues of oppression addressed in the play and how they are still weighing us down 30 years after “Bright Room” premiered. Civil rights, social injustice and freedom speech are not new issues.
Pirko first joined forces with Nu Sass last summer when she directed the company’s popular Capital Fringe comedic entry “Stone Tape Party.” Now she is a co-producer and resident director at Nu Sass. “With our dream project the Small Batch Series, we’re taking the company from being predominantly festival focused and more to the indie theater scene. Using intimate nontraditional venues can be challenging for the design team but the payoff is worth it. At Caos, our 10-person cast is playing to a 20-person audience who are never more than five feet from the whatever is happening on stage. It’s incredible.”
Nu Sass was born of a chance encounter. O’Connor and Nu Sass cofounder Emily Todd met in the summer of 2008 at Artomatic where they immediately fell into a discussion about the challenges facing women in theater. “We were fed up with the roles women could or couldn’t embody. I’d been getting good feedback from auditions but told I wasn’t right. In other words because I’m six feet tall I’m difficult to cast,” says O’Connor, 32. “Seventy five percent of actors are women and 75 percent of the roles are for men. That disparity is frustrating and a lot of women artists struggling. So we decided to do what we could and created a gender-blind, female-driven company.” They named it Nu (Chinese for woman) Sass (for sassy).
“We’re not about excluding men from the company,” adds O’Connor. “A lot of men advocate for women. And women don’t exist in a vacuum outside of men. We’re just trying to revitalize the focus on women artists in theater.”
Theater
Studio’s ‘Mother Play’ draws from lesbian playwright’s past
A poignant memory piece laced with sadness and wry laughs
‘The Mother Play’
Through Jan. 4
Studio Theatre
1501 14th St., N.W.
$42 – $112
Studiotheatre.org
“The Mother Play” isn’t the first work by Pulitzer Prize-winning lesbian playwright Paula Vogel that draws from her past. It’s just the most recent.
Currently enjoying an extended run at Studio Theatre, “The Mother Play,” (also known as “The Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions,” or more simply, “Mother Play”) is a 90-minute powerful and poignant memory piece laced with sadness and wry laughs.
The mother in question is Phyllis Herman (played exquisitely by Kate Eastwood Norris), a divorced government secretary bringing up two children under difficult circumstances. When we meet them it’s 1964 and the family is living in a depressing subterranean apartment adjacent to the building’s trash room.
Phyllis isn’t exactly cut out for single motherhood; an alcoholic chain-smoker with two gay offspring, Carl and Martha, both in their early teens, she seems beyond her depth.
In spite (or because of) the challenges, things are never dull in the Herman home. Phyllis is warring with landlords, drinking, or involved in some other domestic intrigue. At the same time, Carl is glued to books by authors like Jane Austen, and queer novelist Lytton Strachey, while Martha is charged with topping off mother’s drinks, not a mean feat.
Despite having an emotionally and physically withholding parent, adolescent Martha is finding her way. Fortunately, she has nurturing older brother Carl (the excellent Stanley Bahorek) who introduces her to queer classics like “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall, and encourages Martha to pursue lofty learning goals.
Zoe Mann’s Martha is just how you might imagine the young Vogel – bright, searching, and a tad awkward.
As the play moves through the decades, Martha becomes an increasingly confident young lesbian before sliding comfortably into early middle age. Over time, her attitude toward her mother becomes more sympathetic. It’s a convincing and pleasing performance.
Phyllis is big on appearances, mainly her own. She has good taste and a sharp eye for thrift store and Goodwill finds including Chanel or a Von Furstenberg wrap dress (which looks smashing on Eastwood Norris, by the way), crowned with the blonde wig of the moment.
Time and place figure heavily into Vogel’s play. The setting is specific: “A series of apartments in Prince George’s and Montgomery County from 1964 to the 21st century, from subbasement custodial units that would now be Section 8 housing to 3-bedroom units.”
Krit Robinson’s cunning set allows for quick costume and prop changes as decades seamlessly move from one to the next. And if by magic, projection designer Shawn Boyle periodically covers the walls with scurrying roaches, a persistent problem for these renters.
Margot Bordelon directs with sensitivity and nuance. Her take on Vogel’s tragicomedy hits all the marks.
Near the play’s end, there’s a scene sometimes referred to as “The Phyllis Ballet.” Here, mother sits onstage silently in front of her dressing table mirror. She is removed of artifice and oozes a mixture of vulnerability but not without some strength. It’s longish for a wordless scene, but Bordelon has paced it perfectly.
When Martha arranges a night of family fun with mom and now out and proud brother at Lost and Found (the legendary D.C. gay disco), the plan backfires spectacularly. Not long after, Phyllis’ desire for outside approval resurfaces tenfold, evidenced by extreme discomfort when Carl, her favorite child, becomes visibly ill with HIV/AIDS symptoms.
Other semi-autobiographical plays from the DMV native’s oeuvre include “The Baltimore Waltz,” a darkly funny, yet moving piece written in memory of her brother (Carl Vogel), who died of AIDS in 1988. The playwright additionally wrote “How I Learned to Drive,” an acclaimed play heavily inspired by her own experiences with sexual abuse as a teenager.
“The Mother Play” made its debut on Broadway in 2024, featuring Jessica Lange in the eponymous role, earning her a Tony Award nomination.
Like other real-life matriarch inspired characters (Mary Tyrone, Amanda Wingfield, Violet Weston to name a few) Phyllis Herman seems poised to join that pantheon of complicated, women.
Theater
D.C. theater scene has something for everyone this holiday season
‘Nutcracker,’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ and much more
With its familiar music, yuletide imagery, and storytelling, theater can be a big part of the holidays. Add to that making memories and theater tickets wrapped as presents under the tree, and it’s a seasonal no brainer.
Folger Theatre presents “Resplendent Joy: Christmas Traditions from Spain and Portugal” (Dec. 5-14); the marvelous Folger Consort will perform early Spanish Christmas carols and traditional holiday music from early modern Spain and Portugal: folger.edu/resplendent
At Round House Theatre, playwright Sam Holcroft’s “Rules for Living” (Dec. 3-Jan. 4) makes its U.S. premiere. The darkly funny holiday comedy was a hit in London and is now hoping to repeat that success with a version tailored for the states. The seven-person cast includes versatile actors Naomi Jacobson and real-life spouse John Lescault. Ryan Rillette directs. roundhousetheatre.org
Theatre J presents “Chanukah in the Dark” (Dec. 6-21), an hour-long play ideal for ages five and up. “When the lights go out during Chanukah, Max and family begin sharing songs, stories, and traditions — only to discover the lights they needed and the miracles they searched for were in their midst all along.” edcjcc.org
The Cathedral Choral Society’s “Joy of Christmas” (Dec. 13-14) presents a wonderful program of carols and beloved holiday favorites at the festively decorated National Cathedral. The program features Seraph Brass, organist Edward Hewes, Carillonneur Edward M. Nassor, percussionist Mary La Blanc of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band, and the Eastern Concert Choir from Eastern Senior High School. Cathedralchoralsociety.org
With “The Holiday Show,” (Dec. 13, 14, and 20), the Gay Men’s Chorus returns to entertain audiences with its annual and most popular show.
This year the holiday extravaganza is bigger than ever at historic Lincoln Theatre with new, soulful arrangements of favorite holiday carols: “The reindeer will be high-kicking and the snowflakes will sparkle. Songs include “O Holy Night,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Let It Snow,” “We Wish You the Merriest,” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.’” gmcw.org
At Olney’s intimate Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, out actor Michael Russotto is back for the holiday season in his solo show “Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas” (through Dec. 28). The talented Russotto portrays nearly 50 different characters from the Charles Dickens classic, that proves “funnier and far more relevant than you might imagine.” Olneytheatre.org
Also on holiday offer in the DMV are a jolly bunch of musical chestnuts as well as reliable Christmas crowd-pleasers.
Included on the roster is Olney Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!” (through Jan. 4) starring the mega-talented Nova Y. Payton. Based on the play “The Matchmaker” by famed gay playwright Thornton Wilder, the musical has proved a vehicle for many a diva including Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Bette Midler, and Barbra Streisand. Now Payton dons the mantle and the buzz is good.
Another beloved musical is “Fiddler on the Roof” (through Jan. 25), the story of Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman, his family and their tight-knit community who honor tradition while contending with pogroms in Czarist Russia. Currently being performed intimately in the round at Signature Theatre in Arlington and directed by Joe Calarco, the large cast features actors Douglas Sills, Chrisopher Bloch, and terrific out actor Jake Loewenthal as the poor tailor Motel Kamzoil, all singing Broadway favorites like “Sunrise, Sunset” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker.” sigtheatre.org
At Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Hall is Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” (through Jan. 4). Based on tales from famed American journalist Damon Runyon, the show focuses on two overlapping love stories set in Depression-era Times Square. The terrific score includes songs like “Luck Be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” “A Bushel and a Peck,” and more songs you’ll know. Directed by Francesca Zambello and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse.
The cast includes Julie Benko, Lamont Brown, and Holly Twyford as General Matilda B. Cartwright, which is reason enough to buy a ticket. shakespearetheatre.org
And for hardcore traditionalists there’s the Washington Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” (through Dec. 29) with its balletic magic at the charming gilded Warner Theatre. The beloved production of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, here set in 1882 Georgetown, features a retinue of agile partiers, children, soldiers, rats, and notable figures from American history. washingtonballet.org
And last but hardly least, historic Ford’s Theatre presents “A Christmas Carol” (through Dec. 31), an enduring Washington tradition since I was youngish. Conceived by Michael Baron, this charming Dickens’ moneymaker again spotlights Craig Wallace as miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who after a night of ghostly visits, rediscovers Christmas joy. Fords.org
Theater
New take on ‘Some Like It Hot’ offers diverse casting
National Theatre production includes non-binary character
‘Some Like It Hot’
Nov. 25 – Dec. 7
The National Theatre
1321 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Tickets starting at $67
Broadwayatthenational.com
For more than a year, out actor Edward Juvier has been part of the national tour of “Some Like It Hot,” the musical adaption of the 1959 classic comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and written and directed by Billy Wilder.
Juvier, 49, plays Osgood Fielding III, a cheery millionaire in Depression-era America.
With music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, and a book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin, the 2022 musical is quite different as well with diverse casting, increasingly complicated backstories, and a non-binary character (Daphne).
A talented tenor and Houston native, Juvier is a Cuban American who’s been working in musical theater since graduating from the Boston Conservatory in 2000.
“I personally love touring,” says Juvier. “I like the life on the road and visiting these old theater houses across the country. Seeing the locals that I remember and my friends and family that live all over. For me, a transient life is great. Maybe not so great for others.”
Early in his career, he toured with “Phantom of the Opera” for six years. He began in the ensemble and covered two principal roles, and moved to swing which gave him the longevity covering 11 different roles in that show, a life-changing gig that he remembers fondly.
WASHINGTON BLADE: As a gay actor touring in a hot musical with some queer themes do you feel that you make an impact?
EDWARD JUVIER: Oh yeah, it’s important for queer people to see representation on stage. Our version of the show is a sneak attack; it doesn’t hit you over the head with themes. Seeing an old story that takes a turn where you’re left to accept what’s happening onstage and by that time, you’re in love and rooting with the characters. You feel it from the audiences and we play some of the reddest of states.
Queer, trans, nonbinary people meet us at the stage door in tears thanking us for the representation. They didn’t even know when they came to the show that they’re going to see something with such an affirming message to their lives, and they’re thrilled when they find that out.
BLADE: How were you drawn into musical theater?
JUVIER: I was lucky that my Texas high school made annual trips to New York to see Broadway shows. On one trip, I remember seeing “Will Rogers Follies,” I felt like Keith Carradine was looking and talking right to me.
And the next day, we saw “Falsettos,” the original production. After seeing those two very different shows it was as if I blasted off into the Broadway world.
BLADE: Did “Falsettos,” a musical about AIDS, resonate with you as young gay student?
JUVIER: Absolutely. It shook me to the core.
BLADE: Has being gay made you a better actor?
JUVIER: I think what makes a great actor is somebody who has enormous empathy, able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, and what better than a queer artist to be able to empathize.
I came out pre- “Will and Grace.” A different time to be coming out than it is now, which shows immense progress but also put us through challenges. It’s been a part of my journey.
I’m lucky to have the best, most supportive family. No Trumpers to deal with when I go home for the holidays. So, I’m grateful for that especially at this time of year.
BLADE: How do you approach a comic character like Osgood.
JUVIER: I approach him with honesty and simplicity and try to get out of the way of cheap jokes.
When I’m feeling that I’m pushing myself I remind myself to just say the words. I think the musical is so beautifully crafted in a way to brings the show to a new audience. Changes aren’t a diss on the original but the world has changed.
BLADE: Are you a big fan of the original?
JUIVIER: I respect the original. It’s been with me all my life especially being a queer artist. We grew up watching “Some Like It Hot.” This takes old themes and jokes that don’t land so well and brings it to a new audience.
Particularly with my role played originally and so brilliantly by famed comedian Joe E. Brown. In the movie he’s not a multi-dimensional character. He’s more of an old, rich pervy guy. That’s just how it was back then. And I’ve had the great privilege to play him differently.
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