Category Archives: We Love Arts

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Patrick and Me

Part of our continuing coverage of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene.

Avenue Q asked the question, “What Do You Do With A B.A. In English?”

Historian Anthony Cohen asks the audience a similar question, “What do you do with a history degree?” In his one-man Fringe show Patrick and Me he attempts to answer the question. Lost and unsure of what he should do after college, Cohen went on a cross-country journey to not only uncover a hidden part of history, but to perhaps uncover his own identity  in the process.

Unfortunately we are left as lost as he is in this “monologue.” Cohen doesn’t have the drama and the passion of a Mike Daisey, in the end Cohen is an academic and his one-man show feels like an hour plus long lecture- complete with power point slides.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Capital Balloon Ride

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

True experimental theater breaks down the divide of expectations between performer and audience. Extroverts usually love this. Introverts, not so much. No surprise then that the long-form improvisation Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Capital Balloon Ride positively delighted me. It’s like a sociological seminar on human nature, challenging you (ever so subtly) to actually be interested in the people around you.

Interested in your fellow audience members instead of the actors? Outrageous! The evening I saw the performance, one woman seemed almost hostile and offended by the nontraditional premise (though she may have warmed to it by the end). As your ears pick up on the whispering of Cecily (Kelly A. Jennings) and Gwendolyn (Karen Getz), circling round the perimeters of the theater, loopily costumed in Victorian crinolines, you begin to realize – they are talking about you. Get ready. Actual interaction can’t be far behind.

Long-form improv can be an incredible art. Jennings and Getz have got the requirements in abundance – with fearless intelligence and lightning quick reactions they mold the action into an intriguing hour, making random connections between people seem like cohesive observations about life. Well, they are. Each performance will be different (though I suspect there will always be at least one person unwilling to engage), depending on the mix of audience members, their backgrounds, and their willingness to share. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Crave

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

Every heartbreaker eventually gets their heart broken. Cosmic justice, karma, the wheel of fortune – whatever you call it, the seesaw of relationships will always go from up to down and back again. But there’s a journey there, from paradise to hell and all the shades of grey in between. As Editors put it, “even an end has a start.”

Sarah Kane’s extraordinary play Crave dives into that ebb and flow, the descent from attraction to repulsion, the rise and decline of the chemistry that drives our desires. And above all, the fact that we cannot escape our pasts, that wounds don’t ever truly heal, and that maybe, just maybe, we don’t really want them to – that pain is more compelling than fulfillment.

There’s a fascinating field about micro-expressions, the almost imperceptible facial signals we give each other. One of those is contempt. It’s said that once a couple begins to express contempt for each other, however slight, that’s the start of the end. Each character in Crave goes through that kind of journey, from micro to macro until the internal rage is externalized. It should be riveting.

Unfortunately, Avalanche Theatre Company’s production of Kane’s play fails to go on that journey – it’s all macro. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Sanyasi

Rabindranath Tagore's Sanyasi is performed by Namayesh Productions as part of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival.

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

Can you ever truly detach from the world? From emotions, like heartache, greed, love? From the mundane, the pettiness of every day existence? Is this truly liberation, or is renunciation of the world a different kind of bondage?

The Hindu tradition of the sanyasi could be described in the simplest terms as a man who chooses to live an austere life, his actions detached from emotion and desire, as the final stage towards achieving moksha – liberation. It’s far more complex than just that, of course, layered with different meanings explored from the Bhagavad Gita onward. Performed by Namayesh Productions, Rabindranath Tagore’s play Sanyasi is an achingly beautiful work examining whether the spiritual desire for liberation and the essential need for love can co-exist.

Tagore was a profound Bengali poet/writer/scholar (the first non-Westerner to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, in 1913) and the words of Sanyasi have a haunting power. Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Rock of Ages

Photo courtesy of
‘Times Square 4’
courtesy of ‘photographerglen’

If you’re looking for a typical night out to the theater then Chris D’Arienzo’s Rock of Ages is not for you. The musical isn’t your standard Broadway affair. The characters aren’t complex. There’s little emotional depth. If there were original songs then I missed that memo.

What’s great about Rock of Ages is that it isn’t a Sondheim musical. It’s what it claims itself to be: an evening of poop jokes and White Snake songs. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: The Malachite Palace

Wit's End Puppets production of The Malachite Palace at the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival.

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

Though there’s definitely an element of raunchy radicalism about Fringe, it’s important to remember that there are performances suitable for all. If you have a small child in your life, a sweet outing for you and them would be Wit’s End Puppets presentation of The Malachite Palace.

Combining both shadow puppetry and marionettes, this adaptation of the children’s picture book Alma Flor Ada is also bilingual, with dialogue repeated in both Spanish and English in a flow that’s natural and unforced. Four puppeteers and one actor voicing all the roles take you through a simple plot easily understood by children – a princess’s quest to discover if she can make a caged bird sing, while she herself longs to be free of the confines of her palace so she can play with the happy-go-lucky kids below. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe 2011: Tactile Dinner Car

John Hibey as Chef in banished? productions Tactile Dinner Car. Photo credit: Kristian Whipple.

I’m reviewing seven plays over the course of the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, in collaboration with DC Theatre Scene. Get your Fringe button and join me!

For a crash course on what to expect from Fringe, you can’t do better than banished? productions mad avant-garde experience, Tactile Dinner Car. It’s a crazy sociological experiment playing by its own rules, smack dab in the middle of the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent. Learning what those rules are is part of the fun, as is the surreal discovery of the “a la car(te) menu” you’ll nibble your way through.

Parts of the world have caught up with these ideas, first presented in Italian Futurist F.T. Marinetti’s 1932 book of culinary mayhem La Cucina Futurista (The Futurist Cookbook), but some have surpassed it. Minibar this isn’t. Don’t go expecting amazing displays of molecular gastronomy, but you and your fellow “diners” will definitely be challenged and delighted by becoming part of the performance. I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun of discovery by describing anything in too much detail, however, so consider this just an amuse bouche.

Served up by “chef” John Hibey and “servertron” Keira Hart, their complete zany dedication pulls you in quickly as you gather round the dinner car (and yes, it’s a car, polished gleaming white). Within minutes, though you may be doing the ordering, they are the ones in command. The initial anarchy then settles down into pop-art clockwork. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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2011 Capital Fringe Festival

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘erin m’

Last night I got tied up to two people. We were force fed food through a syringe. Several people ate bugs. A couple needed the Heimlich. It blew all our minds.

Welcome to Fringe!

Judging by the happy crowd buzzing through the heat at the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent last night, the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival is off to a great start. Now through July 24 you can enjoy (or not enjoy, that’s part of the experience too!) 18 days of over 100 risky productions by over 2,000 artists performing genres from theater, music, puppetry and dance. It’s chaotic, and it’s meant to be that way – anarchic challenging fun. Venues are spread out from the core in the Mount Vernon Square, with home base at Fort Fringe, 607 New York Avenue NW. Tickets are available in singles of $17 a show or in packs of 4 ($60), 6 ($80), 110 ($120) or all-access ($300). A Fringe Admission Button is required as well, a one-time purchase of $7 (kids 12 and under don’t need one, and yes, though Fringe can be raunchy there are shows for kids too!). There’s also plenty of free events and crazy people-watching at the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent, which serves as the hub with food and drink throughout the festival.

Last year was my first time really diving into Fringe madness, reviewing eight plays over eight days in collaboration with the fantastic folks at DC Theatre Scene. It was exhilarating, because whether I liked a production or not, every one pushed boundaries in that way only Fringe can. This year I’ve got seven plays over fourteen days to tackle. DCTS has assembled a team of 21 crack reviewers (or, we’re all on crack, depending on your view) to ambitiously cover every show, with reviews going up within 24 hours of opening. Fellow WLDC author Patrick Pho is also in on the game, and you’ll see our reviews both here and at DCTS. We’re ready for a fast and furious immersion into the world of experimental performance. So get your button and join us!

Based on what I experienced last night (the futurist food frenzy of the Tactile Dinner Car), it’s going to be one hell of a wild ride.

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Merchant of Venice

Derek Smith as Antonio, Mark Nelson as Shylock and Julia Coffey as Portia in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman.

We come to a performance of The Merchant of Venice with a lot of preconceptions. One of them has to do with the title itself. It doesn’t refer to its most famous character, I remember a brilliant English professor beating into my brain. “Shylock isn’t the merchant,” he said repeatedly, “Antonio is.”

Antonio? Wait, who? That confusion wasn’t resolved by many productions I’ve seen, where either played as a straight villain or as a decent man tortured by institutional prejudice, Shylock reigned as the central focus. But as seductive as he is, especially to the modern sensibility that wants so badly to reconcile the beauty and insight of Shakespeare with the cruel racism inherent in many lines, protagonist he isn’t.

One of the chief joys of director Ethan McSweeny’s sprawling production now playing at the Shakespeare Theatre Company is the restoration of Antonio as the merchant of Venice. Derek Smith’s economical portrayal, containing the character’s melancholy and self-loathing within the cool veneer of commerce and charisma, is revelatory. And it’s made possible in large part by the risk of placing the action in a Venice that resembles 1920’s New York City, so that the merchants sip espresso after espresso like Little Italy denizens and the Rialto Bridge becomes a magnificent staircase suggesting a subway overpass.

By setting the action here, somehow it becomes more Venetian – the bustle of business, the hint of corruption, the glamorous sheen that barely hides a seedy decay. Sweeney nails the big picture, but gives equal weight to the quiet moments. There’s so much rich interplay in this production it’s hard to know where to look. Not all of it is perfectly realized, but there’s much to admire.

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Entertainment, Interviews, People, The Features, We Love Arts
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Theater Spotlight: White Hot Set

If you’ve seen Shakespeare Theatre Company’s excellent production of Old Times, chances are your first impression was of a monochromatic letterbox, as the minimalist all-white set seemed to float against the black proscenium (and if you haven’t seen Old Times, you need to get hopping over to the Lansburgh this week, as closing is July 3. It’s a thought-provoking performance of Pinter’s play, as Don noted in his review). Almost every surface is white, with glass and chrome punctuations.

Not surprisingly, it was the cleanest backstage I’ve ever seen.

An all-white set presents many challenges, from design to execution to maintenance. I spoke with designer Walt Spangler and the STC run crew about their experiences with Old Times, and even learned the secret ingredients to keeping whites bright and cigarette ash in its proper place. And when a set’s this minimal, it’s not a simple process – sometimes a designer has to go through fifty different ashtrays to find the perfect one.

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Essential DC, The Features, We Love Arts
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Old Lovers Meet at 14th and Swann

Faded, crumbling, unlikely to survive too many more DC winters or 14th Street-area renovations, I love this mural. It raises a million questions.

From the perch of an old row house wall overlooking the Swan Auto parking lot, emerging from a pool? pond? ocean?—two Dr. Seuss-like figures—humans? balding angels? fruit flies?—share a fading yellow apple. Lips locked on the fruit, their eyes are closed passionately. One wears a small bejeweled crown, but otherwise they appear naked. They are LOVERS, says the painting in simple black font, a status reinforced by the word “madreselva” painted in upside-down and backwards letters below. Madreselva means honeysuckle in Spanish, a flower that is supposedly associated with “the bond of love,” or according to other sources, “generosity.” Either way, we are getting a sneak peek at two individuals’ affection through this mustard yellow, circular window….  Or is it a puzzle piece? (What are those little nodes around the frame?)

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The History of Kisses

Photo by Carol Pratt

The ocean is a silent character in David Cale’s The History of Kisses at Studio Theatre, a one-man show that is currently enjoying its world premiere. Cale was inspired to write the semi-based-on-real-life piece after discovering an old photo of an unknown couple kissing on the deck of a boat. He imagines a world behind the photo filling in the details through an interconnected series of vignettes depicting romances between those in the photo, an alter-ego of himself called James, and the guests and staff working at James’ hotel. Connected by the common themes of love and a common element of the sea, Cale finds himself in the role of many characters ranging from a middle-aged divorcee to a retired Navy man-turned composer. The History of Kisses is a boat of mixed company merrily making its way to a brighter destination. The journey isn’t without a few turbulent waves however, and it suffers from a few bumps that slow down the show’s journey.

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Downtown, Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Special Events, The Features, The Mall, We Love Arts
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NMAI’s Indian Summer Showcase Not Just for Natives

Photo courtesy of
‘Bill Miller and Derek Miller (no relation) perform at the 2010 Indian Summer Showcase at NMAI’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

Tomorrow afternoon, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is hosting a free outdoor concert to kick off their yearly Indian Summer Showcase. This year, the Indian Country/Country Indian concert will feature Victoria Blackie (Navajo), Rebecca Miller (Six Nations, Canada), and Becky Hobbs (Cherokee). The concert will take place at 5 pm outside on the Welcome Plaza in front of the museum’s main entrance.

I was fortunate enough to squeeze some time from Victoria and Becky to talk about their music, their heritage, and what inspires them in their artistry.

First, there’s Victoria Blackie. Last year’s winner of the Debut Artist of the Year at the Native American Music Awards, she also performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her voice has been described as powerful with lots of soul, hearkening back to the days of Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and other female greats of the past. And don’t let her small stature fool you (she’s 5’1”); her voice is strong enough to pull you in and versatile enough to appeal to a wide range of country enthusiasts.

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Entertainment, We Love Arts
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Spring Awakening Makes U.S. Amateur Premiere In Frederick

On the pages of Music Theatre International, the licensing and royalty agent for Spring Awakening, you see that the show is rolling out across the country after the national tour closed in May. You won’t likely see the show being performed at your local church basement anything soon however, upcoming dates of the show include regional theatres and colleges. You’ll have to settle for geeky college boys performing Bitch of Living on YouTube til then.

So how did a group of performers in Frederick, MD get the blessing to put on the show before every other amateur group in the country?

It’s all about who you know, and for Producer David Horch it was the Producer of the now-closed national tour. Horch was able to secure the rights to hold a number of performances in honor of Stephen A. Bomango, a leader in the local arts community who passed away in 2003. The proceeds from the performances of Spring Awakening will go towards the a scholarship fund in his name.

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Dylan Koehler of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society

From Terrible Secret of Lunastus
All photos by Heather Keating, courtesy of Baltimore Rock Opera Society

At last summer’s H Street Festival just beyond the hand dancing demonstration, and right before the zoot-suited swing band, lay the Brothership, an art-car manned by a half dozen members of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS). With their ornate hats, righteous shredding techniques, devilish good looks, they won my heart.

The Baltimore Rock Opera Society took Baltimore by storm in 2009 with their original rock opera Gründlehammer, and after a year of toil, they debuted their new double feature of original works two weekends ago at the renovated Autograph Playhouse in the Charles Village in Baltimore.

We caught up with Grand Viceroy of Harmonious Operations (aka Musical Director) Dylan Koehler this week to talk about the BROS, their latest production, the renovation of the Autograph, and all things rock opera. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Don Quixote

Ryan Sellers as Sancho Panza and Dan Istrate as Don Quixote, with Natalie Berk as Aldonza, in Synetic Theater's production of Don Quixote. Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw.

There is nothing on stage in Synetic Theater‘s Don Quixote more expressive than Dan Istrate’s eyes. Which is odd, because they are actually anything but – wide, unseeing, unblinking eyes focused anywhere else except on reality. Matched by his frozen arms in an almost wooden stance, his mad foolhardy knight is like a marionette or a religious icon paraded in a pageant.

That last is an apt metaphor when you consider the pace of this production seems to mimic a Catholic saint’s day pageant, as the icons slowly shake their way down the street. At 100 minutes, Dr. Roland Reed’s adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ famous novel felt much, much longer. Though the usual high level of physical daring and command we’ve come to expect (and demand) from Synetic’s extremely talented ensemble was on display opening night, the overall effect was somehow muddy.

After several productions featuring expansively creative set design (such as the water stage for King Arthur), director Paata Tsikurishvili has chosen to tone things down and present a minimalist experience. After all, Synetic built its well-deserved reputation by using actors’ bodies to suggest environments to stunning effect. So why doesn’t it quite work with Don Quixote? Certainly this play about a dreamer is full of action, but that action is in the form of multiple vignettes hanging together incohesively, with a dreary sigh.

The fault may lie in the adaptation itself. Though the moments of Istrate’s keen sightliness are riveting when allowed to take focus, the production commits the cardinal sin of feeling joyless, through dialogue that simply fails to engage or enlighten.  Continue reading →

Entertainment, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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DC Street Art Scene: G40 Summit is Just the Beginning

When I first introduced myself as the newest We Love DC arts writer to Lauren Gentile, Director at Irvine Contemporary art gallery on 14th Street, she warned me that I would struggle to find works that would meet my “street art” beat. At the time, I was researching the P Street Shepard Fairey mural, and she was quick to point out that neither he, nor any of the other artists represented in that tiny gem of an alleyway, were DC-based.

This was true, of course; but as it turns out, maybe not for long.

The DC blogosphere has been buzzing lately over “vitaminwater uncapped LIVE’s” month-long takeover of 1213-1217 14th Street. In a last hoorah before its scheduled demolishment later this year, the multi-story building has played host to a “cultural extravaganza” of musical performances, fashion shows, and Art Whino gallery’s second annual G40 Summit.

Playfully (or something like that) named after the G20 Summit that unites political heavyweights, the exhibit unites leaders in “New Brow”—contemporary underground art that draws from graffiti and skater culture—with thousands of pieces from New York, California, DC and around the world on display. While DC is no stranger to galleries and art shows, the truly unique nature of underground art literally exploded onto the street last Saturday, when Art Whino hosted its “Artapalooza” live painting session in the parking lot adjacent to the venue.

Open to the public, Art Whino Executive Director Shane Pomajambo offered curious visitors old disc covers, paints, and Sharpies (and screws, to attach the ‘canvasses’ to the side of the building) to create their own street art. Continue reading →

Special Events, We Love Arts
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June Happenings at SAAM

Photo courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Looking for some great things to do over the summer while the tourists flood in? There are several great programs (free!) being hosted by the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Penn Quarter this month. Take some time to check them out!

Opening Night of the IV BrazilDocs Documentary Film Week: Santiago
June 9, 7 p.m.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery host the opening-night film, “Santiago,” of the IV BrazilDocs Documentary Film Week, sponsored by the Cultural Section of the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, DC. In 1992, João Moreira Salles, one of Brazil’s foremost documentary filmmakers, began shooting a film about Santiago, the butler in his childhood home, who had lived a rich and vivid life. Through the film’s personal narrative, Salles addresses the elements of memory and identity that are crucial to the documentary genre.

The House I Live In
June 11, 4 p.m.
A theatrical presentation by Catherine Ladnier chronicles life in America from New Year’s Eve in 1939 through the end of World War II. Music underscores dramatic readings of letters written by servicemen and their loved ones, which recount the lingering effects of the Great Depression, America’s involvement in World War II, life on the home front, the bravery of soldiers, and gratitude for peace. In conjunction with “To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America.”

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Bootycandy

Photo by Stan Barouh

Bootycandy playwright Robert O’Hara breaks it down in a vignette in the middle of the show entitled, “Conference”. The skit presents a moderator questioning the four “playwrights” that wrote the previously presented vignettes in the show. The moderator cross-examines each author, trying to pigeon hole his or her work into his stereotype. The illustration is a  meta-point in the play that a statement that this piece provokes more than placates:

Moderator (to Playwright): What would you like the audience to take-away after seeing this show?

Playwright 1: I would like them to choke.

Moderator: Choke?

Playwright 2: After you choke and struggle, what goes down your throat isn’t easy- you know that it’s there.

O’Hara acknowledges that what you are witnessing may not be comfortable at times. Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s Bootycandy is like an Atomic Warhead Candy turned inside out.  The series of 10 short plays start out sweet, funny, and entertaining but the show will have moments that will make you pucker as a complex portrait of the author is created through exploration of various issues including sex, family, and homo-phobia.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA

(L-R) Michael Dove, Chelsey Christensen, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, and Cliff Williams in Forum Theatre’s Bobrauschenbergamerica (photo Melissa Blackall)

Chelsey Christensen, friend and new head of Marketing/PR for Forum Theatre, wanted me to make sure that I disclose that the performance I attended last night of Bobrauschenbergamerica was the opening night preview.

What she didn’t tell me was that she was also in the cast of the show.

Last night I walked into the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring and experienced quite the scene: a three-man woodwind/brass marching band practicing in one corner, a man dressed as a hobo clutching a small megaphone in another. A small crowd patiently waited for the house to open but there was something off. Among the normal looking audience members were individuals dressed in a style that was a blend of 50’s southern and gypsy. Chelsey spotted me and ran over and gave me a big hug. She wore a pinkish tie-dyed dress and offered me candy. She introduced herself as Phil’s girl and I just stared with a blank expression on my face until I realized she was a IN the show.

I walked to the concession stand, stepping out of the way of a roller-skating child with rainbow-striped socks. A cast member who called herself Susan struck up a conversation with me as I bought a bottle of water.

“You’re just in time for the party- have you eaten dinner yet,” she asked.

I replied that I had already ate but I will warn you that if you do attend this show hungry- you might be able to snag some free snacks but I’ll get to that later.

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