Theater
Loosey-goosey summer theater
Gay actors, directors let hair down in wide range of shows
Let theater be a part of your summer staycation. All the adventure of a getaway but without the sunburn, bug bites and travel costs. Here are 10 things to experience, and all are just a taxi ride away.
For good cabaret this summer you donāt need to hop the Acela to Manhattan. Out actor/singer Will Gartshore and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan are joining forces with āFear No More: A Courageous Cabaretā (July 14) part of Signature Theatreās Sizzlinā Summer Nights series. Cabaret is a bit of a departure for Wilmoth Keegan whoās known mainly known for her formidable acting prowess, Gartshore says. But she wanted to do this for a while so theyāre making it happen.
āThe cabaretās theme is courage and things that scare you. Itās kind of inspired by Alyssa’s wanting to throw caution to the wind and so something she’d never really done,ā Gartshore says. And like all of his cabarets, this one will also be an eclectic evening of humor and cheekiness along with an earnest deep dive into some thematic variations. The eveningās eclectic pop/rock/show tune roster includes Sondheim, Gershwin, Kander & Ebb, Guettel, the Beatles, Sia, Kate Bush, Death Cab for Cutie, Gilbert & Sullivan, Shakespeare and Donna Summer.
Husbands Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith are combining their musical talents with āDreamlandā (Aug. 19-20) part of Creative Cauldronās exciting summer cabaret series. The pair promise a revue of music from 10 years of Creative Cauldron shows including āTurn of the Screw,ā āMonsters of the Villa Diodati,ā āSleepy Hollow,ā āNight of the Living Deadā and the companyās youth productions āPeter Pan,ā āThe Wind in the Willowsā and āThe jungle Book.ā
For those seeking summer thrills, Taffety Punk if offering āBootleg Shakespeare Henry VI, part 1ā (July 18). I say thrills because the company will stage the entire play, battles and all, in a single day. Helen Hayes Award-winning cast member Kimberly Gilbert, a āBootlegā vet, describes the experience as āterrifying but incredibly exhilarating.ā Also, six of the seven women in the show are playing male characters.
This summer Studio Theatre presents Robert Askinās Broadway hit āHand to Godā (through Aug. 7), the story of a Christian ministry in Texas that spreads the good word using sock puppets. Things go hilariously awry when one of the puppets takes on a ādemonic foul-mouthed life of its own.ā
There are quality offerings for young audiences too. Adventure Theatre MTC, located in historic and fun Glen Echo Park, Md., is presenting the world premiere play āJumanjiā (through Aug. 28) based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Itās about two kinds who become trapped in a board game and find themselves up close and involved with lions, monkeys and volcanoes. Staged by out director and parent Serge Seiden, the production is intended for ages 4 and up.
“Because of the beloved 1996 movie, parents and kids will enjoy this classic story together,ā says Adventureās Artistic Director Michael J. Bobbitt, also a parent. āNot to mention the 4-D immersive experience. Seeing this hilarious show with your child will be a āforever” memory.āā
In addition to theater, Glen Echo features lots of family fun attractions including a gorgeous vintage carousel and a newly opened hands-on aquarium with a Chesapeake Bay focus.
Bethesdaās Imagination Stage in collaboration with the Washington Ballet presents Hans Christian Andersenās āThe Little Mermaidā (through Aug. 14). Staged by Kathryn Chase Bryer, the production uses dance, puppets, music and singing to faithfully retell the classic fairytale in which a young mermaid trades her voice for legs.
Washington Improv Theatreās Summer Camp is offering a romp of unscripted summer fun skits as well as their own improvised slasher movie āDie! Die! Die!ā Summer just wouldnāt summer without a slasher flick.
Round House Theatreās production of āThe Who & The Whatā (through June 19) tells the storyĀ Pakistani-American novelist Zarina who after meeting intriguing convert Eli, is forced to reexamine her relationships. This 2014 work comes from Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of āDisgraced.ā
Synetic Theater is reprising its 1920s-set, silent screen inspired take on āTwelfth Nightā (through Aug. 8). The movement-based companyās wordless and delightful production stars co-founder and resident choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili as Viola and out actor Philip Fletcher as Orsino.
And whatās summer without a big top circus? Or in this case āCirque du Soleil: Kuriosā (July 21- Sept. 18) housed in its grand chapiteau. This addition to the legendary franchise is a Victorian carnival with a steampunk vibe brought to life by the usual hard bodied cast of mind-blowing contortionists. Itās staged by out director Michel Laprise.
Theater
āHand to Godā showcases actors and their puppets
Luke Hartwood serves as designer, coach for Keegan production
āHand to Godā
Feb. 1-March 2
Keegan Theatre
1742 Church St., N.W.
$49-$59
Keegantheatre.org
Luke Hartwood has loved puppets for as long as he can remember.
At 24, heās indulging his passion as puppet designer/coach and properties designer for Keegan Theatreās production of Robert Askinsā āHand to God.ā Itās the Tony-nominated comedy about meek Jason who after the death of his father finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry in small town Texas.
Puppets begin as a design team collaboration, Hartwood explains, and move on from there. With āHand to God,ā the playwrightās notes describe Jasonās badly behaved puppet Tyrone as looking āElmo-y and shit,ā but beyond that thereās room for some interpretation.
Hartwood, who is gay and Asian American, graduated from George Mason University in May 2023. He majored in theater with a double concentration in performance and design/technology, and minored in graphic design.
āWith all my varied interests thatās what made sense to me,ā he says. āIt wasnāt easy but now Iām a flexible candidate when interviewing for work. Iām skilled in design and the physical fabrication of puppets. And I also act.ā
Based in Northern Virginia, heās been with his partner for six years. Recently, Hartwood shared his thoughts on puppetry and what he wants from the future.
WASHINGTON BLADE: Whatās the attraction to puppets?
LUKE HARTWOOD: Iāve always loved puppets. It started as a kid watching cartoons, Iād pause the TV get out a sheet of paper and draw a character, usually PokĆ©mon and Digimon. I learned to use shapes, rounded or sharp edges depending if I wanted to make it cute or scary. I moved from 2-D to 3-D using cereal boxes to give dimension to the drawings. Once I carved a character into the wood of my momās sideboard. She wasnāt happy.
BLADE: Were puppets your way into theater?
HARTWOOD: Not exactly. Despite some fear, I started acting when I was a sophomore in high school. I was a shy kid, but I wanted to be in theater. With me, I also brought my love of art and soon began working on props. It wasnāt unusual to see me in costume backstage between scenes building props.
BLADE: And you continued in college?
HARTWOOD: Mine was the dreaded COVID college experience and the creation of Zoom theater. When we finally came back to live theater, my stage fright returned too. But I got past that and acted in āYouāre a Good Man, Charlie Brownā [Hartwood was cast as the titular blockhead]. Itās a low-tech show; I did cutouts in the style of Peanuts characters. That was fun.
BLADE: With āHand to Godā at Keegan youāre really multitasking. Tell me a little bit about working with actors.
HARTWOOD: During casting, the actors were asked to bring a sock to use as a puppet. Not to show expertise but to prove some potential.
Actor Drew Sharpe plays both Jason and his puppet Tyrone throughout the show; itās like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time.
We start with basics. But then we retrain the way an actor thinks about a puppet. Not only is he marking up his script with his own blocking and intentions, but heās also doing the same thing for his puppet. Itās playing two roles simultaneously. Iām in awe of how quickly Drew has learned and improved over the last few weeks.
BLADE: Does being queer affect your project choices?
HARTWOOD: I try to incorporate my queerness into theater. For a while I didnāt know how to do that. Iām not writing plays or activist pieces, but Iām selective of what shows I do. I like to dedicate time to shows I care about, particularly those involving the queer and POC communities. Sometimes that means working with a smaller theater and not getting paid as much.
BLADE: Is money a concern?
HARTWOOD: I recently quit my full-time corporate job as a business analyst at a government contracting company to focus fully on theater. If Iām going to spend 40 hours of my week doing something I better love it.
I was picturing myself in 10, 20, or 30 years. If I push my artistry now, thereās more time for me to become successful or to get my big break.
Also, I just graduated from bartending school. That should help pay the bills.
BLADE: How does āHand to Godā jibe with your professional ethos?
HARTWOOD: Really well. Though not explicitly written for the queer community or POC, it explores grief, toxic masculinity and what it means to be āman enough.ā And that resonates with a lot of queer folks.
And, Iām definitely here for the puppets
Theater
Two queer artists ready to debut new operas at Kennedy Center
Works by JL Marlor, Omar Najmi part of American Opera Initiative
American Opera Initiative
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
Jan. 18, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
$25.00 ā $39.00
Kennedy-center.org
For those who find traditional opera off-putting or mired in the past, thereās the American Opera Initiative (AOI). Now in its 12th season, the Washington National Operaās well-known program pairs composers and librettists who under mentorship spend months collaborating on new work, culminating with the premiere of three 20-minute operas.
Included in this yearās exciting group are queer artists JL Marlor and Omar Najmi. While these multi-taskers lend their composition talents to AOI, they are also performers and arts administrators. Marlorās bio includes electric guitarist, and performer (she fronts the celebrated indie rock band Tenderheart Bitches), and Najmi divides most of his time writing music and performing as an operatic tenor.Ā
Marlor and librettist Claire Fuyuko Biermanās āCry, Wolfā is a short yet probing opera about three males (a late teen and two college age) who are navigating some dark internet ideologies. The work explores how the red-pilled manosphere pipeline serves as spaces of community for some people.
āTo me itās a very timely piece inspired by an outlook that has consequences in the real world.ā She adds, āWeāve heard a lot about how angry incels [involuntary celibates] think about women. I want to hear what incels think about themselves.ā
While Marlor tends to gravitate toward more serious opera pieces, Fuyuko Bierman, whose background includes standup, tends toward humor.
āI think this work brought out the best in both of us. The libretto feels like a comedy until suddenly it doesnāt.ā
Marlor was introduced to opera through osmosis. At her gay unclesā house there was always music ā usually Maria Callas or Beverly Sills. She appreciated grand opera but not with the same ardor of true buffs. But her relationship with opera changed dramatically while attending Smith College.
āI was lucky enough to have Kate Soper as my first composition teacher and saw her opera āHere Be Sirensā as my first piece of modern opera. I was totally hooked.ā
Originally from picturesque Beverly, Mass., Marlor now lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their very senior dog. For Marlor, coming out at 25 in 2017 wasnāt entirely smooth, but finding support among the many queer women in the world of classical music helped. And more recently, AOI has bolstered her confidence in continuing a career in the arts, she says.
Najmi and librettist Christine Evansā opera is titled āMud Girl.ā Set against a post-apocalyptic, climate-affected world, itās the story of a mother, daughter, and the daughterās child Poly, created from toxic detritus, trying to navigate relationships.Ā
āMost people go into opera without having had a ton of exposure.Ā Often through musical theater or choir,ā says Najmi, 37. In his case, he was pursuing a BFA in musical theater at Ithaca College. After an unanticipated internal transfer to the School of Music, where he transitioned from baritone to young gifted tenor, his interest veered toward opera.Ā
While enjoying a performance career, he wrote his first opera on a whim. āAnd now,ā he says ācomposition is my creative passion. Singing is more like a trade or sport. I love the action of doing it and practicing.ā
In one of his recent operas, āJo Dooba So Paar,ā Najmi, who is half Pakistani American, draws specifically from personal experience, exploring how queer and Muslim donāt necessarily need to be conflicting identities. And while he grew up in liberal Boston in a secular environment, he still had insights into what it means to exist in two worlds. Itās a story he wanted to tell. Ā
On a broader level, he says coming of age in the 1990s and aughts, on the cusp of homosexuality becoming normalized and accepted, created certain angsts. Today, his artistās voice is drawn to the sentimentality that comes with unrequited longing.
Whatās more, Najmi collaborates with his husband Brendon Shapiro. In 2022, the Boston-based couple co-founded Catalyst New Music, an organization dedicated to fostering, developing, and producing new works.Ā
AOIās three 20-minute operas will be led by conductor George Manahan and performed by Cafritz Young Artists on Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.
Following their world premiere at the Kennedy Center, the three operas will travel to New York City in a co-presentation with the Kaufman Music Center. The Jan. 23 performance will mark AOIās first appearance in New York City.
Theater
2024 a memorable year in local theater
Engaging premiers, reprises, and some particularly strong performances
For D.C. theater, itās been a year of engaging premiers, reprises, and some particularly strong performances. Here are a few of the standouts.
At Round House Theatre, 2024 kicked off with āNext to Normal,ā Brian Yorkey and Tom Kittās masterful alt-rock musical. Strikingly helmed by out director Alan Paul, the production featured a marvelous Tracy Lynn Olivera as Diana Goodman, a homemaker struggling with mental illness.
Despite years of scary manic episodes, med adjustments, and endless flat days filled with robotically performed household chores and married life, she maintains a wry sense of humor peppered with sarcastic asides.
At Studio Theatre in spring, nonbinary playwright Bryna Turnerās āAt the Weddingā made a regional debut with a production directed by Tom Story. The queer comedy about a woman crashing her exās wedding and hoping not to make a scene.
Also in spring, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Gustavo Ott and Mariano Valeās āThe Return of Eva PerĆ³n: Momia en el closetā a dark musical comedy filled with history and madness starred out actor Fran Tapia as the taxidermized former first lady. She was terrific.
Set against the harsh landscape of World War I, āPrivate Jonesā a new musical written and directed by Marshall Pailet, premiered at Signature Theatre in Arlington in February.
The production featured a cast of hearing, Deaf, and hard-of-hearing actors including Dickie Drew Hearts, the Deaf, gay, and appealing actor who won an Obie Award for āDark Disabled Stories,ā a Public Theatre production.
At Signature, Hearts played Henry, a Deaf munitions worker. At the time, he told the Blade, āI know that queer people have always been here and I like to infuse that into the characters I play whether or not itās stated. I look for those moments of where it might be hinting at sexuality, and ask what was it like at the time, was it safe to be out?ā
Throughout summerās Capital Fringe, D.C.ās annual edgy performing arts festival, there was ample opportunity to see some new and different things.
Included in the offerings was work by Sharp Dance Company performed at DCJCC in Dupont. Sharp company member Wren Coleman, a transmasculine dancer and educator based in Philadelphia, described the group as very LGBTQ friendly and noted that their summer dances were of particular interest to queer people.
In July, Stephen Mark Lukas brought his good looks and considerable talent to the Kennedy Center Opera where he played Nick Arnstein, the love interest of Katerina McCrimmonās Fanny Brice in the national tour of the Broadway revival of āFunny Girl.ā
āThese older book musicals are character driven and have great scores,ā he shared. āItās what makes them relevant today. On the surface they might feel dated, but thereās also the contemporary humor and romance.ā
As a leading man in musical theater, Lukas has played the straight love interest more than once, but heās never been too concerned about his sexuality getting in the way of the work. āThe acting takes care of that,ā he said.
In North Bethesda, Strathmore dedicated two months to celebrating the greatness of James Baldwin. programming included live musical and theatrical events celebrating the late writerās genius.
In late September, Tony Award winning out actor Gavin Creel, 48, died from a rare and aggressive cancer.
Just a year and a half earlier, heād been at the Kennedy Center headlining with a national tour of the Broadway hit production of āInto to the Woods.ā He played both the lascivious Wolf and Cinderellaās Prince, two terrific scene stealing roles that allowed him to show off his gorgeous voice and comedic magic.
In December, much-admired childrenās television screenwriter and producer Chris Nee went from TV to stage at the Kennedy Center with āFinn,ā her heartwarming musical about a young shark who dreams of following in his familyās footsteps by joining the prestigious Shark Guard and the challenges and moments of self-discovery he faces along the way.
Nee is best known for being the creator of the popular Disney animated series āDoc McStuffinsā (the first Disney show to air an episode featuring an interracial lesbian couple as well as other kidsā shows āRidley Jonesā and āVampirina.ā
And at Studio Theatre, out actor/director Holly Twyford moves into the new year starring opposite Kate Eastwood Norris in David Auburnās āSummer, 1976ā (through Jan. 12), a wonderfully acted memory play about two very different women and their longtime friendship.
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