Theater
FALL ARTS 2019: THEATER — ‘Cats,’ ‘Cabaret,’ ‘Assassins’ ‘Doubt’ and more
Newly discovered Tennessee Williams one act ‘Lady’ among fall theatrical highlights
First, a few odds and ends:
More of a concert but worth nothing is “Coat of Many Colors: the Music of Dolly Parton,” a tribute event featuring Joan Osborne, Garrett Clayton, Neyla Pekarek, Morgan James, Nova Payton, Jess Eliot Myhre, Rita Castagna and the American Pops Orchestra on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. at Arena Stage (1101 6th St., S.W.). Tickets are $25-75 at arenastage.org.
theatreWashington’s Theatre Week! features discounted tickets on many area shows at $15 and $35 through Sept. 29. Details at theatreweek.org.
The D.C. Queer Theatre Festival continues its reading series of new and unpublished full-length plays on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at The D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W., suite 105). Details at thedccenter.org/queertheatrefest.
Now, on to the regular productions.
Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington) continues with its season opener, a terrific production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” (through Sept. 29). Beautifully staged by Signature’s out artistic director Eric Schaeffer, the Tony Award-winning dark comedy tells the story of nine would-be and successful presidential assassins ranging from John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald.
Also, at Signature, out Helen Hayes Award-winning actor Holly Twyford is directing “Escaped Alone” (Sept. 24-Nov. 3). This newish play by brilliant British playwright Caryl Churchill (“Could Nine,” “Top Girls”) centers on three old friends gathered in an English garden “who are joined by a neighbor to engage in amiable chitchat — with a side of apocalyptic horror.” Sounds intriguing. Full details at sigtheatre.org.
Through Oct. 6, “Cabaret” runs at Olney Theater Center (2001 Olney-Sandy Springs Road, Olney, Md.). Based on out writer Christopher Isherwood’s literary classic “Berlin Stories,” John Kander & Fred Ebb’s stunning musical records the rise of fascism in Weimar Berlin through the lens of life in a seedy cabaret. Alexandra Silber stars as striving cabaret singer Sally Bowles and Mason Alexander Park is the Kit Kat Klub’s genderfluid Emcee. Helen Hayes Award-winning out director Alan Paul directs. Full details at olneytheatre.org.
Then at Olney it’s Marco Ramirez’s “The Royale,” a co-production with 1st Stage in Tyson’s Corner (Sept. 25-Oct. 27). Inspired by the true story of African-American boxer Jack Johnson, this look into the mind of an early 20th century boxer is directed/choreographed by Paige Hernandez and features out actor Jaysen Wright.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (641 D St., N.W.) has begun its season with “Fairview,” through Oct. 6. Penned by Jackie Sibblies Drury and directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, this hard-hitting and inventively imagined and staged drama about family and race features a strong cast including Shannon Dorsey, Cody Nickell and Kimberly Gilbert. “Fairview” is the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Full details at woollymammoth.net.
Studio Theatre (1501 14th St., N.W.) enters fall with playwright John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt: A Parable,” through Oct. 6. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play concerns the suspicions of Bronx Catholic school principal Sister Aloysius (out actor Sarah Marshall) surrounding a young priest’s keen interest in a little boy, the school’s first and only black student. Matt Torney directs. Full details at studiotheatre.org.
GALA Hispanic Theatre (3333 14th St., N.W.) is presenting a commissioned adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s classic “La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream),” through Oct. 13. Adapted by out playwright Nando López, the new take on a timeless work of Spanish Golden Age theater, explores free will, fate and tyranny. The cast of familiar faces features out Spanish actor Mel Rocher. Hugo Medrano directs. Full details at galatheatre.org.
Folger Theatre (201 E. Capitol St., S.E.) has kicked off its season with Shakespeare’s “1 Henry IV” (through Oct. 13). The compelling history play directed by Rosa Joshi, stars Edward Gero as Falstaff and Avery Whitted as Prince Hal.
Then next on Folger’s docket, it’s out Londoner Richard Clifford directing Nick LaMedica as Mozart and Ian Merrill Peakes as Salieri in gay playwright Peter Shaffer’s sensational Tony Award-winning play “Amadeus” (Nov. 5-Dec. 22). Accomplished D.C. scenic designer Tony Cisek is creating the sets for both Folger productions. Full details at folger.edu/folger-theatre.
The Kennedy Center presents “Cats” (Sept. 17-Oct. 6). Based on poems by T.S. Eliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning mega hit musical tells the story of one magical night when an extraordinary tribe of cats gathers for its annual ball to rejoice and decide which cat will be reborn. If you haven’t yet witnessed a bewhiskered thespian sing “Memory,” resist no more. Now’s the time to see it. Full details at kennedy-center.org.
At Round House Theatre (4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda) Nicole A. Watson is directing Jocelyn Bioh’s hit off-Broadway comedy “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play” (Sept. 18-Oct. 13). When the new girl arrives in Ghana from America loaded with Western ideas and superior beauty products, she threatens to steal of the crown from her new boarding school’s reigning queen bee. Hilarious battle ensues. The eight person of color cast includes out actor Jade Jones and Temidayo Akibu who recently came out as nonbinary. More details at roundhousetheatre.org.
Taffety Punk (Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 7th St., S.E.) presents “Riot Grrrls: Othello” (Sept. 19-Oct. 12). Directed by Kelsey Mesa, the all-women cast stars terrific actors Danielle A. Drakes, in the title role, and Lise Bruneau as evil Iago. Details at taffetypunk.com.
For fall, Synetic Theater (1800 South Bell Street, Chrystal City) is reprising its 2013 movement-based interpretation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” (Sept. 25-Oct. 20). Along with the water-filled stage that made this take on the Bard’s irreverent comedy so memorable, Synetic is keeping it fresh by casting gifted company co-founder Irina Tsikurishvili as “Prospera.” The cast also includes talented out actor Alex Mills as Ariel. Full details at synetictheater.org.
Spooky Action Theater is set to present Tennessee William’s “The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers” for one performance only (Sept. 21) before it moves on for a short run in Provincetown, Mass. (Sept. 26-29). The newly discovered and never-before-produced one act directed by Natsu Onoda Power mixes Japanese kami-shibai style street theater with storytelling performers in “a punchy send-up of love, the perils of first impressions and our earthly attempts to touch something eternal.” Details at spookyaction.org.
Shakespeare Theatre Company (Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St., N.W.) kicks off new artistic director Simon Godwin’s inaugural season with “Everybody” (Oct. 15-Nov. 17). Penned by hot out playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, it’s a takeoff of the 15th-century play “Everyman.” It’s described as “an irreverent, rollicking ride that asks deep questions of all who see it. Remixing the archetypal medieval morality play into an explosive experiment of wit and emotion.” The diverse nine-person cast includes local favorite Nancy Robinette as Death, and nonbinary actor Avi Roque as Somebody. Trans identifying Will Davis directs. Full details at shakespearetheatre.org.
At Theater Alliance (Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Pl. S.E.), co-directors Raymond O. Caldwell and Angelisa Gillyard are staging an imaginative retelling of Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 play, “Day of Absence” (Oct. 5-Nov. 3). Expect a “comedic and pointed commentary on systemic racism that still bears relevance today.” Full details at theateralliance.com.
For fall, Constellation Theatre Company (1835 14th St., N.W.) is doing “Little Shop of Horrors” (Oct. 17-Nov. 17). Set in an obscure Skid Row flower shop, Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin’s zany musical plumbs the mad depths of success, love and bloodthirsty posies with doo-wop and Motownesque sounds. Nick Martin directs. Full details at constellationtheatre.org.
In time for Halloween, Rorschach Theatre presents Qui Nguyen’s “She Kills Monsters” (Oct. 18-Nov. 10). The 2014 inspiring comedy rife with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres and ’90s pop culture, has been re-imagined for 2019, this production will include site-specific elements that bring audiences into unseen places throughout the Atlas Performing Arts Center (Center, 1333 H St., N.E.). Details at rorschachtheatre.com.
The always timely Mosaic Theater Company (Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St., N.E.) presents “Theory,” playwright Norman Yeung’s techno thriller set against a campus free speech debate (Oct. 23-Nov. 17). Victoria Murray Baatin directs.
Following “Theory” is California-based playwright Jonathan Spector’s “Eureka Day” (Dec. 4-Jan. 5). A mumps breakout at a prestigious day school in liberal Berkeley, Calif., pushes thoughts on facts, consensus and social justice into the spotlight. Mosaic’s talented out managing director and producer Serge Seiden directs a cast of topnotch actors including Regina Aquino, Lise Bruneau, Erica Chamblee, Sam Lunay, and Elan Zafir. Full details at mosaictheater.org.
D.C.’s company dedicated to the LGBT experience, Rainbow Theatre Project (D.C. Arts Center, 2438 18th St., N.W.), kicks off the season with the world premiere of “Blue Camp” (Oct. 31-Nov. 24). Penned by out writers Tim Caggiano and Jack Calvin Hanna and directed by Christopher Janson, it’s described as a Vietnam War story of discrimination in the military, as relevant now as it was then. Details at rainbowtheatreproject.org.
At Theater J (1529 16th St., N.W.), it’s legendary gay playwright Edward Albee’s “Occupant” (Nov. 7-Dec. 8). In this late career work, Albee (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) probes the life and times of famed sculptor Louise Nevelson. Local actor Susan Rome plays Nevelson and Aaron Posner directs. Details at theaterj.org.
A few other odds and ends: “19: the Musical,” which tells of women who fought for women’s voting rights, runs Nov. 25-27 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (1250 New York Ave., N.W.). Details at nmwa.org. “My Barking Dog” is Oct. 4-13 at Caos on F Street (923 F St., N.W.). Details at universeplayers2.tix.com. “Paris! the Show” is Tuesday, Oct. 22 at GW Lisner. Tickets are gwutickets.com. And Young Artists of America presents “Once Upon a Mattress” on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 4 p.m. at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Md., and Saturday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Kennedy Center. Details at youngartistsamerica.org.
Theater
Theatre Prometheus spreads queer joy with ‘Galatea’
Two girls dressed as boys who find love despite the odds
‘Galatea’
Through May 10
Theatre Prometheus
Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center
7995 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, Md.
$27
Theatreprometheus.org
In a timely move, Theatre Prometheus thought it would be a beneficial thing to spread a little queer joy. And since the company’s mission includes engaging audiences and artists in queer and feminist art, there was nothing to stop them.
Co-artistic directors Tracey Erbacher and Lauren Patton Villegas, both queer, agree they’ve found that joy in John Lyly’s “Galatea,” an Elizabethan-era comedy about Galatea and Phillida, two girls dressed as boys who find love despite some rather slim odds.
Now playing at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center on the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus, the upbeat offering is a mix of contemporary and period, and strives to make audiences happy. Galatea’s cast includes Amber Coleman and Cate Ginsberg as the besotted pair.
Erbacher, also the production’s director, adds “queer joy is something that I prioritized in casting actors and interviewing production people. I asked them what it means to them, and resoundingly the reply — from both them and the play — is that queer joy is the freedom to be yourself without having to think about it.
“Galatea” was first brought to Prometheus’s attention by Caitlin Partridge, the company’s literary director. Erbacher recalls, “she strongly suggested I read this very queer play. I read it and fell absolutely in love. And because it’s a comedy — I really like directing comedy — I knew that I could lean into that while not neglecting its universal themes of young love.”
Villegas, who’s not ordinarily drawn to the classics, was also instantly smitten with Galatea.
“Usually with classics, the language doesn’t jump out at me the way modern works do,” she says. “But not so with ‘Galatea.’ The first time I heard it read aloud, I found it easy to follow and entirely accessible in the best way.”
Whether Lyly deliberately wrote a queer play isn’t known. What’s definitely known is the play was written with an all-boy performing troupe in mind; that’s partly why there are so many young female roles, the parts 10-year-old boys were playing at the time.
There’s not a lot known about Lyly’s personal life, mostly because he wasn’t wildly famous. What’s known about the times is that there wasn’t a concept of “gay,” but there were sodomy laws regarding homosexual activity in England geared toward men having sex with men; it was all very phallocentric, Erbacher says.
She categorically adds, “Women’s sexuality wasn’t considered in the equation. In fact, it was often asked whether women were even capable of having sex with other women. It just was not part of the conversation. If there wasn’t a dick involved it didn’t count.
“Perhaps that’s how the playwright got around it. If there were two male characters in the play he could not have done it.”
Prometheus has done adaptations of ancient myths and some classics, but in this case it’s very faithful to the original text. Other than some cuts winnowing the work down to 90 minutes, “Galatea” is pretty much exactly as Lyly wrote it.
And that includes, “girls dressed as boys who fall in love thinking girls are boys,” says Erbacher. “And then they start to clock things: ‘I think he is as I am.’ And then they don’t care if the object of their affection is a boy or a girl, the quintessential bisexual iconic line.”
And without spoiling a thing, the director teases, “the ending is even queerer than the rest of the play.”
Erbacher and Villegas have worked together since Prometheus’s inception 11 years ago. More recently, they became co-artistic directors, splitting the work in myriad ways. It’s a good fit: They share values but not identical artistic sensibilities allow them to exchange objective feedback.
In past seasons, the collaborative pair have produced an all-women production of “Macbeth” and a queered take on [gay] “Cymbeline,” recreating it as a lesbian love story. And when roles aren’t specifically defined male or female, they take the best actor for the part.
With Galatea, Prometheus lightens the current mood. Erbacher says, “the hard stuff is important but exhausting. We deserve a queer rom-com, a romantic sweeping story that’s not focused on how hard it is to be queer, but rather the joy of it.”
Theater
Timely comedy ‘Fake It’ focuses on Native American themes
Arena Stage production features two out actors
‘Fake It Until You Make It’
Through May 4
Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., S.W.
Tickets start at $59
Arenastage.org
A farce requires teamwork. And Larissa FastHorse’s “Fake It Until You Make It” now at Arena Stage is no exception.
The timely comedy focuses on Native American nonprofits fractiously housed in a shared space. Friction rises when rivals River (Amy Brenneman), a white woman operating in the Indigenous world, goes up against the more authentic Wynona (Shyla Lefner) to win a lucrative Native-funded grant.
While Brenneman (best known for TV’s Judging Amy) is undeniably a big draw, it takes a group collaboration to hit marks, land jokes, and pull off the well-executed physical comedy including all those carefully timed door slams.
As members of the six-person “Fake It” cast, Brandon Delsid and Eric Stanton Betts, both out actors of partly indigenous ancestry, contribute to the mayhem. Respectively, Delsid and Betts play Krys and Mark, a pair of two-spirited Native Americans who meet farcically cute and enjoy one of the play’s more satisfying arcs.
For Krys, every attractive man is a potential next fling, but when Mark, handsome and relatively reserved, arrives on the scene, it’s something entirely different.
Both onstage and sometimes off, Betts plays the straight man to Delsid’s waggishness. But when it comes down to real life business, the friends are on the same page: not only are the L.A.-based, up-and-coming actors intensely serious about their film and stage careers, but they’re also particularly engaged in the themes of Indigenous People found in “Fake It.”
On a recent Wednesday following a matinee and an audience talkback, they were ready for a phone interview.
In establishing whose voice was whose, Delsid clarified with “I’m the one who sounds a little like a Valley girl.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Brandon, you’ve been with the show since its early work-shopping days in 2022 and through its debut in Los Angeles and now Washington. Have things evolved?
BRANDON DELSID: Definitely. I’ve grown up in the last couple of years and so has my character; it’s hard to know where I end and Kry begins. There’s been a real melding.
Eric and I are both queer, and to get to play these roles that are so human, imperfect, sexy, and interesting is really joyful.
As queer artists you don’t always get the chance to do work like this. So many stories are queer trauma, which is incredibly important, but it’s liberating to feel joy and ride it off into the sunset, which, without revealing too much, is kind of what we get to do.
BLADE: There’s some race shifting in “Fake It” particularly with regard to “pretendian” (a pejorative term describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous status).
ERIC STANTON BETTS: The last few years I’ve been on a journey with my cultural identity and place in the world. I’m a mixed BIPOC artist, my dad is Black and Native American by way of the Cherokee tribe and my mom is white.
Since 2020, I’ve tried to figure out where I belong in this cultural history that I haven’t had a tie to throughout my life; it’s gratifying to find my way back to my indigeneity and be welcomed.
In the play, race shifting is introduced through farce. But it’s never in a disrespectful way; it’s never mocked or done in a way to take away from others. The playwright parallels race shifting with gender fluidity.
DELSID: But in life, there are people posing as Indigenous, actively taking grants, and the play goes there, we don’t hold back. Larissa, our playwright, has made it clear that she’s not trying to figure it out for us. With that in mind, we hope people leave the theater interested and curious to learn more.
BLADE: Mark arrives kind of the middle of some crazy drama, bringing along a jolt of romance.
BETTS: Yeah, when I show up, we’re all sort of shot out of a cannon, struggling to keep up with the initial lie.
DESLID: A very gay cannon.
BLADE: What’s up next for you two?
BETTS: Both Brandon and I are up for the same part in a TV pilot, so one of us may be getting some very good news. I also have a Tyler Perry film coming out soon [he plays a model, not an unfamiliar gig for Betts].
DELSID: Coming up, I have a recurring part on HBO’s “The Rehearsal,” and a supporting part in “June and John,” a John Besson film. But doing “Fake It Until You Make It” in L.A. and now D.C. has been a special time in our lives. It’s 23/7 togetherness. There’s that hour for sleep.
Theater
‘Bad Books’ a timely look at censorship in local library
Influencer vs. conservative parent in Round House production
‘Bad Books’
Through May 4
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway
Bethesda, Md.
Tickets start at $43
Roundhousetheatre.org
While a library might seem an unlikely place for a heated contretemps, it’s exactly the spot where adults go when they’re itching to battle out what books minors might be allowed to read.
In Sharyn Rothstein’s “Bad Books,” two women, The Mother (out actor Holly Twyford) and The Librarian (Kate Eastwood Norris), swiftly become mired in a quarrel that comes with some weighty repercussions.
The Mother is a popular conservative influencer on a mission. She’s furious that the local library has overstepped its bounds and she blames The Librarian, a woman who adheres to the “it takes a village” method of child rearing and is dedicated to the young people who approach her reference desk.
There’s some background. It seems The Librarian who dresses young (tight jackets and Doc Martens) and curses a blue streak, forged a friendship with Jeremy, a teenage library regular.
While the details are a bit hazy, it seems the troubled Jeremy confided in The Librarian regarding some personal issues. In return, she suggested a helpful book – Boob Juice.
Unsurprisingly, based solely on its title, the book has thrown The Mother into a pique of outrage. After finding Boob Juice in her son’s bedroom, she made a beeline to the library; and not incidentally, The Mother hasn’t read the recommended work and has no plans to do so.
Set in a suburb with lax gun laws, the story explores facets of division and conciliation. The Mother insists she isn’t so much about banning books as she is keeping some books away from young people until they’ve obtained parental approval.
“Bad Books” is performed in the round. Built on a rotating stage, Meghan Raham’s set is simple, pleasingly serviceable, and easily transforms from the library into a small corporate office, and later the assembly room of a church. Overhead floats a circular glass shelf filled with a cache of banned books. Things like a rolling book cart and a goldfish bowl add some flavor to the different locations.
The Mother wasn’t always a popular conservative warrior with an enthusiastic horde of followers.
Her past includes penning a book that later filled her with guilt and regret. She refers to that early questionable literary accomplishment as her bad book. And while over the years, she has persevered to find and destroy each and every printed copy, she hasn’t entirely succeeded.
Norris plays three women who figure meaningfully into the arc of Twyford’s mother character. In addition to The Librarian, Norris is The Manager, a broadly played piece of comic relief, and The Editor, a warm woman who reveals things about Jeremy that his own mother never knew.
Smartly staged by Ryan Rilette, the production is part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. While Rothstein’s script offers two strong roles (skillfully performed by celebrated actors Twyford and Norris), its ending feels too neatly resolved.
In the past, Twyford and Norris have successfully joined forces for numerous DMV productions including Studio Theatre’s production of David Auburn’s two-hander “Summer, 1976,” the story of a longtime and unlikely friendship between two women who meet as young mothers during the Bicentennial summer.
Though different, both The Librarian and The Mother share a strong and ultimately hopeful relationship with words.
There’s a quote from E.B. White’s classic “Charlotte’s Web” that pops up a couple of times in the briskly paced 80-minute play. Charlotte, the wise spider, says, “with just the right words you can change the world.”
ILGA World reinstates Israeli LGBTQ rights group
Brazilian police arrest two men who allegedly targeted Lady Gaga concert
Hidden hazards at home
A boy-meets-boy, family-mess story with heat
Australian prime minister re-elected
TRAITOR: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has blood on his hands
LGBTQ activist murdered in Lesotho
Theatre Prometheus spreads queer joy with ‘Galatea’
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
