Arts & Entertainment
Glitterlust headlines Band Camp benefit
Frankie and Betty, More AM than PM also slated to play
Glitterlust, a local, gay-helmed electro dance-rock group, headlines Band Camp Benefit IV at Black Cat (1811 14th St., N.W.) Saturday at 9 p.m.
Glitterlust will be joined by acoustic duo Frankie and Betty, rock group More AM Than FM, blues-rock group Freeform Radio and punk group Sister Ex. All proceeds from the show benefit Girls Rock! D.C., a rock and roll empowerment group for girls.
Tickets are $12. For more details, visit blackcatdc.com.
Theater
Celebrating the 2024 Helen Hayes Awards nominees
38th annual event returns next week ābuilding on last yearās successā
2024 Helen Hayes Award
May 20, 2024
For tickets go to theatrewashington.org
Itās that time of year again when the DMVās theater pros and those who love them getdolled up and show up to celebrate the best of last yearās work.
On Monday (May 20), Theatre Washingtonās Helen Hayes Awards marks its 38th year with a splashy ceremony at The Anthem on the District Wharf. With two parts, a non-rushed intermission, and a lively after party, the program is long but the format allows time to celebrate award recipients, enjoy the entertainment, and talk about some serious issues without racing to the end.
Co-directed by Will Gartshore and Raymond O. Caldwell, the show features four terrific hosts ā out actor Tom Story, Felicia Curry, Maria Rizzo, and Rayanne Gonzales along with an ensemble of five singer/dancers (dubbed the Fab Five) peppering the show with some fun numbers.Ā
āWeāre building on last yearās success,ā says Amy Austin, Theatre Washingtonās out president and CEO. āAgain, dinner will be served during the show Ć la Golden Globes on the first floor for mostly nominees and their guests, and the second floor offers lots more affordable stadium seating.ā
Austinās approach harks back to the sumptuous Helen Hayes Awards of yesteryear, which she cleverly remembers as the āice sculpture age.ā Ultimately, the goal is to create something fun, memorable, and meaningful: āItās such a collaborative community and thatās why the Helen Hayes Awards are special; itās a reunion of people whoāve worked together.ā
Still, the doling out of awards remains the focus of the long evening. And that leaves a lot of nominees waiting on tenterhooks to see just who will go home with prizes named for the legendary first lady of American theater, Miss Helen Hayes.
The awards selection process is no simple task, she adds. Recognizing work from 151 eligible productions presented in the 2023 calendar year, nominations were made in 41 categories and grouped in āHelenā or āHayesā cohorts, depending on the number of Equity members involved in the production with Hayes counting more.
The nods are the result of 49 carefully vetted judges considering 2005 individual pieces of work, such as design, direction, choreography, performances, and more. Productions under consideration in 2023 included 44 musicals, 107 plays, and 36 world premieres.
As one of this yearās nominees, out actor Justin Weaks says he isnāt about beating the competition. He concedes it may sound clichĆ©, but itās a privilege simply to be nominated, especially with all the work done in the DMV. And certainly, with three wins and multiple nominations under his belt, heās in a position to know.
And now, heās nominated for Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Play, for his notable turn as Belize/Mr. Lies in Arena Stageās production of Tony Kushnerās seminal masterwork āAngels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches.ā
For Weaks, a longtime D.C. actor who relocated to New York in 2021, the āAngelsā experience was singular: āItās one of those great, very American plays that remains relevant, and that itās centered on the gay experience and HIV/ AIDS makes it especially impactful for the queer community.ā
Often noted for creating roles in new plays, Weaks enjoyed being part of a piece that so many hands have touched since its premiere more than 30 years ago. He was thrilled to work with the productionās Hungarian director JĆ”nos SzĆ”sz who, Weak says, approached the piece as a new work, treating it like fresh text.
And does Weaks have a speech prepared?
āThe morning of the awards, Iāll journal about my experience with āAngels,ā and if my name is called, Iāll get up and give an abbreviated version of what I wrote. But mostly for me, itās a reunion, a chance to be cute, get dressed up and celebrate the work.ā
In the Outstanding Lighting Design category, Brooklyn-based Venus Gulbranson is nominated for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company & The Wilma Theaterās āMy Mama and the Full-scale Invasionā. Itās the proud and out Filipino designerās second nomination (last year she received a nod for Monumental Theatreās ātick, tick… BOOM!ā).
āLighting design is underrated in the eye of theatergoers,ā explains Gulbranson who earned her lighting stripes as an Arena Stage fellow. āScenic and costume design are somehow more tangible to them; they donāt often realize that itās lighting designers who navigate the mood of the story.
āItās a very empathetic skill, and a good designer can take you there emotionally. When youāre tearing up watching a scene, the lighting has a lot to do with it. We also spend a lot of time making scenes transition smoothly,ā she adds.
āWe half-jokingly say āa compliment to set design is a compliment to us.ā We are the reason there are beautiful colors on stage. Scenery is our canvas.ā
Other queer nominees include Bobby Smith (Studio Theatreās āFun Houseā), Billie Krishawn (Arenaās āAngels in Americaā), Miss Kitty (Spooky Action Theatreās āAgresteā), Michael Urie (The Kennedy Centerās āMonty Pythonās Spamalotā), costume designer Frank Labovitz (Constellation Theatre Companyās āThe School for Liesā), director Jason Loewith and set designer Tony Cisek (Round House Theatre & Olney Theatre Centerās āInkā), and most likely more.
Both the Helen Hayes Awardsā choreographer and a nominee, David Singleton is up for Outstanding Choreography in a Musical for NextStop Theatre Companyās āRide the Cyclone,ā a wildly entertaining dark comedy.
āThe showās score is eclectic, so I could do a little bit of everything. I had to find anchor points for each number where I draw most inspiration, and go with it. I have a strong jazz background, both street and musical theater jazz, but Iām also really into tap and some ballet.ā
Singleton began performing professionally in āDreamgirlsā at Tobyās Dinner Theatre in 2017, but he hit his stride with āreally fierceā choreography post pandemic.
A dancer first, Singleton says his energies are divided into thirds: performer, choreographer, and drag queen (Tiara Missou, an āincredibly vain but kind queenā whoās regularly featured at D.C. bars Pitchers and Shakers). When Singleton was 18, he volunteered to work the Helen Hayes Awards. He recalls thinking āIāll be part of this one day, for what exactly Iām not sureā and now he says, āIām here and I feel honored.ā
And what about a prepared speech? āOh, definitely. Iām a rambler.ā
Break legs nominees!
A full list of award recipients will be available at theatrewashington.org on Tuesday, May 23.
Television
āInterview with the Vampireā returns in triumph
Long-awaited season 2 continues to get story exactly right
When AMC debuted its long-awaited series adaptation of āInterview With the Vampireā – Anne Riceās seminal proto-postmodern horror novel that set the stage and paved the way for a decades-long literary franchise that has kept millions of readers, queer and straight alike, passionately engaged since first reading its thinly veiled allegorical document of life as a being with heightened awareness on the edge of human existence – in 2022, we were among the first to sing its praises as a triumph of narrative storytelling,
We were not the last. The series, created by Rolin Jones in collaboration with Christopher Rice ā the original authorās son and a successful horror novelist in his own right ā and the late Anne Rice herself, was one of its seasonās best-reviewed shows, earning particular praise for its writing, in which the queer āsubtextā of Riceās original works was given the kind of unequivocal full weight denied to it in the Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise-starring Neil Jordan-helmed film adaptation from 1994.
Though purist fans of the original boom series took occasional umbrage to some of the showās leaps ā changing the historical period of the story to illuminate themes of racism and deepen its resonance for those living as āothersā on the fringe of society, and making the bookās protagonist, Louis Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), a closeted Black Creole man in early 20th-century New Orleans ā the series won most of its naysayers over by its season finale. It delivered a deliciously subversive, unapologetically queer interpretation that remained true to Riceās original gothic re-imaginings while expanding the scope to encompass social and cultural factors that have become central to the moral and ideological conflicts that plague us in the first quarter of the 21st century.
To put it bluntly, the showās willingness to embrace the storyās countercultural queer eroticism and place its transgressively amoral āmoral compassā front and center was more than enough to smooth over any nitpicking over faithfulness to narrative detail or tone that might otherwise have kept Riceās legion of acolytes from signing on to the new-and-contemporized vision of the book that Rollins built as the foundation for his daunting project.
Now, after a buzz-tempering delay borne of last yearās actorās strike, the series has returned for its second season. And weāre happy to assure you that its feet hit the ground running, keeping up both passion and narrative momentum to pick up the story with electrifying energy after leaving off (at the end of season one) with the shocking murder and seeming elimination of Lestat (Sam Reid), the exquisitely amoral ārock starā vampire who served as both protector and lover of Louis, and the departure of the latter and his perpetually juvenile ādaughter,ā Claudia (Bailey Bass) on s quest to find others like themselves.
Fans of the book might, in fact, find new reasons to take exception to the showās adaptation, which, as in season one, makes significant departures from the original narrative. After moving the storyās setting forward by roughly half a century, Louis and Claudiaās secretive sojourn now takes place in the traumatized landscape of post-WWII Europe, and spins a scenario in which the two ex-pat vampires, navigating their way through the perils of Soviet-occupied Central Europe after the fall of the Nazi regime, spend time in a refugee shelter while investigating rumors of old-world vampires who might provide a link to their āfamily history.ā
When we rejoin this pair of relative fledgling vampires, their undead existence is a far cry from the decadent elegance they enjoyed in the New Orleans setting of season one. Enduring a near-feral existence as they make their way through a war-ravaged landscape, they find no shortage of prey in the aftermath of the Third Reich, but the ācreature comfortsā of their former āafterlivesā are now only a memory. Louis is devoted, as always, to Claudia (now portrayed by Delainey Hayles, presumably due to scheduling conflicts for original actor Bass, who is set to reprise her role from āAvatar: The Way of Waterā in the next installment of filmmaker James Cameronās high-dollar sci-fi franchise), but remains haunted by his vampire maker and former lover Lestat, whose undead corpse remains buried on another continent but whose charismatic presence manifests itself in his private moments, nonetheless. In the first episode, the pair have used their supernatural wiles to journey into the āold countryā long associated with their kind, tracking human tales of monstrous terrors in the night in hope of connecting with more of their kind. Louis, as always, struggles with his compassion for the mortal beings around him, while the more savage Claudia simply sees them as prey, and holds little hope of finding other vampires, if they even exist. For her part, Claudia has forgiven ā but not forgotten ā his refusal to ensure Lestatās demise by burning his body, and is now solely focused on finding others like her.
Of course, the adventures of these two undead companions are only half the equation in āInterview With the Vampire.ā The past is, as always, merely a flashback, as Louis relates the story of his afterlife experiences to mortal journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). In the present, the skeptical Molloy casts doubt on the truth of his memories, forcing the vampire to re-examine them as he goes. Perhaps more interestingly, in the long game of a series which, if it comes to full fruition, will eventually encompass the entire Rice vampire saga, these contemporary scenes give us a look at the relationship between Louis and Armand (Assad Zaman), revealed in the season one finale to be not a mere servant in Louisā household but a centuries-old fellow vampire who is now Louisā lover and companion.
Fans of the books, of course, know that Armand plays a significant role in the story of the past, too, and while we wonāt spoil anything, we can say that history begins to unspool as season two progresses ā but thatās getting ahead of ourselves. For now, what we can say is that season twoās first episode, while it may veer away from the familiarity of Riceās original tale in service of reimagining it for 21st-century audiences, continues the first seasonās dedication to breathing thrilling new life into this now-iconic, deeply queer saga; superb performances all around, an elegantly cinematic presentation and literate writing, and a lush musical score by Daniel Hart all combine to sweep us quickly and irresistibly into the story, making us not just fall in love with these vampires, but want to be one of them.
That, of course, is the gloriously sexy and subversive point of Riceās āVampire Chronicles,ā and this long-awaited series continues to get it exactly right.
Out & About
Pride Run 5K nearly sold out
Front Runners annual event to be held at Congressional Cemetery
Sign up now to join the annual Front Runners Pride Run 5K. The event is 85 percent sold out. The event is Friday, June 7 at Historic Congressional Cemetery.
Join more than 1,000 runners and walkers as they kick off Pride weekend 2024. When registering please consider donating to one of the eventās charity partners. This year’s race proceeds benefit local LGBTQ and disenfranchised youth organizations, including the Team DC Student-Athlete Scholarship, Wanda Alston Foundation, Blade Foundation, Ainsley’s Angels of America (National Capital Region), Pride365 and SMYAL. Visit DCPriderun.com to register or to donate.
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