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D.C. theater scene adapts with films, concerts, and more
Despite COVID, plenty of entertaining stage options for fall
Taking cues from Anthony Fauci’s recent suggestion to hunker down and stay at home this fall, most theaters have cancelled live performances and will continue to engage audiences in virtual, innovative ways. Still, a handful of venues and companies plan to reopen sooner.
Here’s a smattering of what’s in store.
Arena Stage has already kicked off its fall season with the release of its third world premiere film, “The 51st State.”
“The hyper local 60-minute film created by Washington, D.C. artists through the voices of 11 residents was inspired by protests and the re-ignition of a movement after the murder of George Floyd and the quest for creating the 51st state and sovereignty in Washington, D.C. From a first-time protester to a fourth-generation Washingtonian political scientist, to artists, an attorney, people of faith, and a retired couple who moved to take part in the movement despite the COVID-19 risks, these diverse perspectives and real-life stories are vividly told and transformed into affecting narratives by 10 local playwrights.”
Featured playwrights in the docudrama include, among others, Helen Hayes Award winner Dane Figueroa Edidi, Farah Lawal Harris, Teshonne Nicole Powell, and Karen Zacarías.
Filmed in different locations around D.C., the story of each citizen is portrayed by 11 terrific familiar faces, including Sherri L. Edelen, talented out actor Justin Weaks, and Jacob Yeh.
Directing duties are split among Arena’s formidable out artistic director Molly Smith, deputy artistic director Seema Sueko, and senior artistic adviser Anita Maynard-Losh, along with local directors Paige Hernandez and director Psalmayene 24.
“The 51st State” can be streamed on WTOP.com and arenastage.org/The51stState.
This week, Folger Theatre is premiering its virtual project “Encores,” an initiative to help provide more online content for the community while most arts institutions remain closed during the pandemic.
“Encores” is a weekly online series highlighting past performances from the historic Folger stage, recalling the rich history of public programming at the Folger. Excerpts from Folger Theatre, the Folger Consort early music ensemble, O.B. Hardison Poetry Series and more will be featured.
The series will go out via email each Friday through this calendar year and can also be found on the Folger website.
On Sept. 25, theatreWashington presents the Helen Hayes Awards with a virtual celebration for theater professionals and their fans. In past weeks, recipients from various categories were presented awards during a series of intimate and technically seamless Zoom sessions. The culminating event – to be co-hosted by local favorites Felicia Curry and Naomi Jacobson – will include the presentation of more awards and varied tributes.
Through Oct. 4, Olney Theatre Center (OTC) is streaming a timely take on gay playwright Stephen Karam’s Tony Award-winning play “The Humans,” a one act about a stressed out family unraveling on Thanksgiving Day. With a stellar six-person cast featuring local favorites Kimberly Gilbert, Mitchell Hébert, Sherri L. Edelen, Dani Stoller, Catie Flye, and New York-based actor Jonathan Raviv, the production was filmed from six separate locations during quarantine.
Also, throughout October, OTC is celebrating BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and the tradition of social protest with four streaming installments of “Just Arts”. Each installment highlights a different pillar of social justice: “Accessibility,” “Rights,” “Equity,” and “Participation.”
The project is co-curated by Chil Kong, artistic director of Adventure Theatre MTC; Kevin McAllister, actor and artistic director Artistic Director of the Baltimore-based theater company ArtsCentric, Inc; Nicole A. Watson, associate artistic director at Round House Theatre; and Elena Velasco, artistic director of Convergence Theatre.
The quartet were invited by Olney Theatre’s out artistic director Jason Loewith to create a program around the theme of performance and social justice, responding to the social upheaval of the past summer and highlighting BIPOC artists during the period leading up to this fall’s general election.
In OTC’s press release, Loewith says “The twin pandemics of coronavirus and racism we’re facing give predominantly white cultural institutions like ours an opportunity to revolutionize the way they work.”
“For OTC, that means decentering my privileged role as curator and inviting others with a different point of view and background to share in building our theater’s future. We want OTC to matter to everyone in our community, and this is our first public step in making the table bigger.”
A finalized schedule and streaming details will be released in late September.
OTC isn’t sure what comes beyond that. Thinking optimistically, they’d like to be able to produce Paul Morella’s solo “A Christmas Carol” in December with an audience of 100-150 socially distanced in their 428-seat mainstage. But Montgomery County has not approved guidelines that would allow that although the state of Maryland has.
Round House Theatre’s virtual season begins with “American Dreams” (Oct. 5-11), created by writer Leila Buck (“Love Letter to Lebanon”) and director Tamilla Woodard (“Hadestown” on Broadway). It’s “a participatory performance that imagines a world where the only way to gain U.S. citizenship is by competing in a televised game show. The playful, interactive production uses voting, polling, Q&As, and more to allow audience members each night to directly affect the outcome of the show.”
Esteemed physical company Synectic Theater is celebrating its 20th anniversary season with “Joy” (Oct. 12-Nov. 1) a live, designed-for-digital theatrical production conceived by Chris Rushing and starring Maria Simpkins (directed by Katherine DuBois) and Vato Tsikurishvili (directed by his father Founding Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili) in separate, but parallel versions, presented via Zoom. “In this intimate and personal experience, audiences capped at 25 people will receive a surprise package in the mail inviting them to enjoy interactive solo performances that stimulate the senses and examine the impact of joy in our own lives.”
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is entering fall with a virtual audio production. Together, Woolly and Telephonic Literary Union “repurpose the customer service hotline for stranger, more tender use in ‘Human Resources,’ an intimate audio anthology for remote times.” Though the pieces do not have LGBTQ+ specific material, they’re purported to have broad appeal.
Telephone lines will be open Oct. 1-25. To file a claim or plan your escape, dial 1-800-804-1573.
For fall, Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, is presenting “Monuments: Creative Forces” (Oct. 2–25). It’s “an innovative outdoor projection installation by Craig Walsh, in partnership with Strathmore, pays homage to six individual artists who are forces of nature: individuals whose work and artistic endeavors are changing the shape of our community in fundamental ways.”
On October 17, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington kicks off its 40th anniversary season with “Losing My Mind: A Celebration of Sondheim,” a virtual cabaret featuring over 20 GMCW soloists celebrating the 90th birthday of one of Broadway’s greatest composers, Stephen Sondheim. Songs include “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “(Not) Getting Married Today,” “Somewhere,” and “Children Will Listen.”
Employing reduced-capacity, social-distanced seating, hand sanitizer, and masks (for patrons, staff, and volunteers), GALA Hispanic Theatre is reopening with Lope de Vega’s “El perro del hortelano (Dog in the Manger)” (Oct. 29-Nov. 22), a classic comedy from Spain’s Golden Age.
In early November, Signature Theatre presents its filmed Fall Concert of vinyl hits directed by Signature’s out associate artistic director Matthew Gardiner and featuring a talented group of singers including, among others, Awa Sal Secka, Natascia Diaz, Nova Y. Payton, Maria Rizzo and out actors Jade Jones and Solomon Parker III. “I’ll be filming on Signature’s roof,” explains Parker who’ll be singing Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic “September” accompanied by Mark G. Meadows.
Parker, a 26-year-old tenor who lives in Wheaton, Md., studied theater at Montgomery College before going on to be cast in Signature’s productions of“Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and more recently “Grand Hotel.” During quarantine, he’s developed a drag persona, Echinacea Monroe, who performs each Wednesday evening on Instagram Live. “It’s been fun, and a great way to stay creative,” he adds.
Ford’s Theatre is canceling in-person performances of “A Christmas Carol,” which, like past years, was scheduled for November and December. Instead, Ford’s will release a radio version of the play in December with Craig Wallace returning as Scrooge.
Citing audiences’ health and safety as a top priority, The Kennedy Center is moving most planned programming to spring of 2021 and beyond.
And Rehoboth Beach’s Clear Space Theatre debuts the Tennessee Williams classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Sept. 18. It runs through Oct. 4. Clear Space held a preview for its 2021 season last weekend but attendees were sworn to secrecy until all rights to next year’s productions are secured. Suffice to say it will be a fabulous season of proven hit productions at the beach.
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New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
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Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
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Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
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