Category Archives: We Love Arts

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

(l to r) Scot McKenzie as Mickey, Matt Dewberry as Sweets, Dylan Myers as Skinny, and Danny Gavigan (back) as Potts in Mojo at The Studio 2ndStage. Photo credit: Scott Suchman.

Frenetically fueled by pill-popped speed, The Studio 2ndStage’s production of British playwright Jez Butterworth’s Mojo hits the right tempo for a journey to rock-n-rolla gangland. These petty mobsters are simmering with ineptitude and obscenity while wielding cutlass and cake. In a 1950’s Britain fast overrun by squealing girls obsessed with rockstars, they are grasping at a chance to make it big. Unfortunately for them, it’s just not going to work out.

Butterworth’s play won the 1995 Olivier Award, and the frantic rhythm of the language is the real star here. Director Christopher Gallu has his ensemble cast embracing that jittery, junkie cadence with total commitment. While the accents may not always be spot on, the underlying backbone of the language is a joy – interjections and overlapping dialogue combined with playful postering that can turn to danger on a dime.

It feels like the love child of Guy Ritchie and David Mamet.

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Downtown, Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Nutcracker

Students of The Washington School of Ballet in Septime Webre's The Nutcracker. Photo by Stephen Baranovics (2009).

I’ve always thought of The Nutcracker as the gateway drug for ballet. It hooks you when you’re young, all candy confection and delicacy, with just enough undercurrent of budding sensuality and danger to appeal. Once smitten by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her tasty treats, it’s only a matter of time before The Red Shoes are dancing you unwillingly to the train tracks, or the Black Swan is bewitching you to your doom.

Okay, that’s a bit much! But I was reared on the filmed version of Baryshnikov’s magical American Ballet Theatre production, before I knew the sad backstory of Gelsey Kirkland, before my beloved ballet teacher damned my dreams of being a baby ballerina with the exasperated sigh, “She simply has no turnout.” I can still hum Tchaikovsky’s score almost in entirety. So yes, even a lovely children’s dream ballet like The Nutcracker can bring me to tears.

Septime Webre’s version for the Washington Ballet and its school, playing at the Warner Theater now through December 26, is a local holiday tradition that I experienced for the first time this year. The audience was a mix of nostalgic adults like me, and children brought to experience that heady gateway drug. The visual aspect of the production is perfect – the traditional story of Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, their battle against the wicked Rat King and their trip to the fairy kingdom, lovingly portrayed against the backdrop of Victorian Washington with relatively uncomplicated choreography well executed by a multigenerational cast of talented dancers. It’s a great introduction to the joys of ballet.

Except for one flaw. A flaw that breaks my heart, for what is says about the future of live performance and an art form that struggles to survive in economic distress.

Taped music. Continue reading →

Entertainment, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Every Tongue Confess


Phylicia Rashad as Mother Sister and Jonathan Peck as Blacksmith. Photo by Joan Marcus.

It was like I was on a pilgrimage.

As I walked up the long, winding ramp that leads into the new Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage I couldn’t help but wonder if the journey to our seats was part of the overall experience of seeing a show there.

The 200 seat / 3,400 sq. ft. space was designed for “building the canon of American work and cultivating the next generation of writers.” The woven walls, oval shape, and intimate dimensions of the space make it worthy of being called a “cradle.” When you are inside it, you don’t feel like you are inside a stage but inside an egg or womb, watching a piece of art grow before your eyes.

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People, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Carolyn Sewell Interview

You can’t walk down the street without seeing a sign.  Signs are there to inform or instruct you, to get you to stop, go and yield to pedestrians. But what good do these signs do if they are difficult to read, provide an unclear message, or get lost in the peripheral?  Graphic design was established as a result of these glaring errors, and developed a universally recognized profession in which people are trained to convey a message, to a target audience, while following the principles of design.  However, the profession has outgrown the average political advertisement and cereal box, and now is an appreciated art form.

Award-winning designer and blogger, Carolyn Sewell, displayed her yearlong project Postcards To My Parents at The Fathom Gallery this September. Every day from July 23, 2009 to July 23, 2010 she sent hand-drawn postcards to her parents with messages of love and adoration, snarky quotes from friends, family and television, and the occasional drawing of a gnome.  Sewell currently resides in Arlington, VA and shares creative (and sometimes not so creative) graphic design with the masses on her blog Pedestrian Typography.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Laramie Project Ten Years Later

Photo courtesy of
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courtesy of ‘rejohnson71’

This past weekend Tectonic Theater Project performed its play cycle on the murder of Matthew Shepard and its effect on the town of Laramie, Wyoming – The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. I was only able to attend the latter on its final night, which deals with the murder’s aftermath through interviews with town residents. It was a moving evening of documentary theater. Though Tectonic does not as yet list future tour performances, the plays are widely produced and I’m sure you will have a chance to see them if you missed this round at Arena Stage.

If not, watch clips online. Maybe while you’re waiting at the airport this week, fire it up. Start a dialogue with the person next to you. Who knows what may happen? You may learn something about the human capacity to alleviate discomfort by forgetting or distorting the past – “the nature of rumor,” as it’s described by a folklorist interviewed in the course of the play.

Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. I remember it not only as a murder whose horror was shocking in itself, but as an incident that catapulted hate crime and homophobia to the national news. It’s hard for me to stomach that there are college students in Laramie now who have absolutely no idea it happened, but that’s the truth as documented by Tectonic’s actors as they interviewed on campus while creating The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Penn Quarter, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Master and Margarita

Paata Tsikurishvili, Irina Tsikurishvili, Sara Taurchini and Katherine Frattini in Synetic Theater's "The Master and Margarita." Photo credit: Graeme B. Shaw.

Synetic Theater is following up on their muscular rendition of King Arthur with something a bit more cerebral. Actually, a lot more cerebral, with not one but two men losing their heads onstage. Joking aside, it’s hard for me to know how to judge The Master and Margarita, playing through December 12 at the Lansburgh Theatre. As the company revisits its 2004 production of the Mikhail Bulgakov novel with a new adaptation by Roland Reed, all the usual elements we’ve come to expect and love from Synetic are in full force – extremely beautiful design, powerful physical visuals, and dramatic intensity. Putting these talents at the service of a densely intellectual story, mostly unfamiliar to American audiences, is the kind of risky undertaking I certainly admire. Yet somehow, I felt like I was watching a diamond – exquisite, but cold.

In his director’s notes, Paata Tsikurishvili says “we have chosen to embrace the absurdist elements of his story and highlight the Master’s (and Bulgakov’s) own artistic and religious struggle.” Esoteric struggles work in literary terms – but do they translate well to physical action and is the audience able to connect?

On the surface we have ninety minutes of stunning production visuals, especially the work of Anastasia Rurikov Simes, whose set and costumes are an eerie evocation of a surreal Soviet Union – like watching propaganda posters come to life through the prism of The Red Shoes. Continue reading →

Fun & Games, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: December 2010

Ben Folds, by Ben Folds, courtesy National Geographic

Ben Folds, by Ben Folds, courtesy National Geographic

National Geographic concludes their 2010 NatGeo Live season with eight more programs to ring in the holidays. Because all of their events wrap up before mid-December, we’re giving you a chance to win one of two pairs of tickets to any of the programs below (except the sold-out Irish Christmas Celebration). To enter, simply comment below (using your first name and a legit email address) with which two events you’d most like to attend, using your first name and a legit email address; we’ll randomly draw two winners sometime after 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24.

We at WeLoveDC would like to thank National Geographic for bringing our readers the opportunity to attend these events all year long. It’s been quite the diverse line-up this year and we can only look forward to another great year in 2011!

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office, located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for all programs beginning after 6 p.m.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Superior Donuts

(l to r) Johnny Ramey and Richard Cotovsky in Superior Donuts at The Studio Theatre. Directed by Serge Seiden. Photo: Carol Pratt

Studio Theatre’s production of Superior Donuts is the definitive tale of modern immigration. Within the Chicago neighborhood of uptown, playwright Tracy Letts finds the perfect setting for a refreshing, honest look at immigration in America. Inside the confines of a run-down, locally owned donut shop, we go on a journey that is as old as the first visitors to Ellis Island, exiles from wars of the past, and even the passengers of the Mayflower.

The owner of the eponymous “Superior Donuts,” Arthur Przybyszewski (Richard Cotovsky), is not only a burnt-old hippie, but an early generation American born from Polish parents. When he hires Franco (Johnny Ramey), an ambitious young African-American, it is more than a clash of generations; it is an intersection of two different perspectives of the immigrant story.

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Interviews, People, The Features, We Love Arts
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Theater Spotlight: Rick Foucheux

Rick Foucheux in Theater J’s “The Odd Couple.” Photo credit: Stan Barouh

Second in a series of interviews with the many theater professionals who call DC their artistic home.

There comes a crossroads in every theater professional’s life, where you have to answer the question – should I try my luck in New York or LA? After two decades as a beloved actor of the DC scene, Rick Foucheux hit that point. So he spent last year “pounding the pavement” in NYC.

But, luckily for us, he returned to DC when the year was out. As exciting as the Big Apple was, and despite his doing well there, its energy just didn’t suit him. “New York has a charge, but it’s like a frayed electrical cord,” he joked, “DC has a more regular current.”

Foucheux got his start in DC theater when he came here in 1982 to host a TV show called “Good Morning Washington” on Channel 7 – it lasted a year. Having studied theater in college in his home state of Louisiana, he thought he’d try his hand at freelancing and made a decent living acting in industrial films. But when the “theater explosion” burst upon DC in the mid-1980’s, he took a chance and got back on the boards. Suddenly it seemed the area was filled with “strong small companies, and as they grew, I grew too.”

In speaking with Foucheux about his background and thoughts on DC theater, it’s obvious that he’s a gracious gentleman, putting you instantly at ease. Displaying equal doses of humor and humility, he’s happiest as a collaborator, enjoying his work with the current crop of playwrights and feeling privileged to be a part of the process. “I like having the opportunity to make some comment,” he says, though then quick to point out he feels his is a small contribution. During our interview, his smooth voice reminded me of a old-school radio announcer, no doubt a result both of his training for TV and his Louisiana background. It’s a welcome respite from the days of mumblecore.

He knows he is lucky too. Continue reading →

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: House of Gold

Images taken by Stan Barouh, courtesy of Woolly Mammoth

Woolly’s House of Gold succeeds spectacularly at creating a unique experience in the theater that couldn’t be replicated in another medium. Whether it succeeds in any other way is a difficult question.

I’ve spent much of the last year concerned about whether the theater experiences available to us really make use of the format. I won’t rehash the same issues I wrote about in August; I’ll simply say that House of Gold makes use of the space and stage design in a way that’s unique, compelling, and attention-grabbing. The action takes place on multiple physical levels and, at one point, uses live video and projection. Director Sarah Benson, set designer David Zinn and everyone else involved in putting this visual together deserves a pat on the back and perhaps an award or three.

Whether the play itself works? Honestly, two days later I’m still trying to decide.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The War of the Worlds

Regen Wilson as Orson Welles in SCENA Theatre's "War of the Worlds." Photo credit: Ian C. Armstrong.

As a child one of my favorite Halloween activities was listening to a taped radio rebroadcast of The War of the Worlds. In my memory it’s always during a power outage, candles flickering, my father scaring us kids even more by playing scratchy old records afterwards on a creepy vintage Victrola. Though the voice of Orson Welles instantly connected me to primal fear, there was always something in that rumbling tone that felt safe, an underlying comic lifeline, a wink. But my father made sure to explain that wink got Welles in a hell of a lot of trouble.

In SCENA Theatre’s recreation of the October 30, 1938 broadcast, Regen Wilson nails that Wellesian voice just right. But the production itself is too faithful to a fault. Simply too much of a recreation, it strangely fails to mine the greater implications of the original broadcast. It feels like a dusty museum piece, playing to an almost empty house the night I visited. Talented actors, a fine production design, all on display for what purpose? When one can download the original in a few minutes and be frightened by Welles himself, what could the intent of such a performance be?

That almost empty house preyed on my mind while writing this review. There is no worse feeling when you love theater. But I have to be honest, all that reverential recreation made for a dry night out. The confines of this conceit are just too restraining for SCENA, which only released itself into what it does best – chaotic surrealism – in the final minute. It all adds up to lost opportunities. And considering this is a remount of their 2006 production, the safe choices are even more mystifying.

At first glance, this seems a respectable production to introduce you to Welles’ infamous prank about a Martian invasion.  It’s well-acted with good production values, taking up an easy hour of your time in the H Street Playhouse. Continue reading →

We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Oklahoma!

The company of the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Arena Stage’s Oklahoma! – their first production since their return to their proper home – isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. The dramatic misses are made-up for in toe-tapping, infectious energy combined with enjoyable choreography and an impressive stage design. If the stars lack a little chemistry and the threat in the final act fails to really fit, well, if you can’t grade Rogers and Hammerstein on a curve, who can you?

Oklahoma! starts strong with Nicholas Rodriguez as a Curly so likable and beaming that you’re left a little uncertain why Elesha Gamble’s Laurey would ever play hard-to-get. The two of them never managed to convince me they were deeply in love, but any lack of chemistry they exhibit in their duet is quickly forgotten when Cody Williams as Will bursts onto the stage and sings and dances his way through what ended up being my favorite number of the night: Kansas City. The cliche police might come to get me but it’s true: I really did discover myself tapping my toe without realizing it.

Arena’s Oklahoma! succeeds best in the moments when it’s being loudly and gleefully earnest and cheesy. It’s not too surprising that this would be the case – Director Molly Smith’s program notes comment that the play was chosen because of its sense of transition and beginnings, to match Arena’s return to its transformed home down by the waterfront. Perhaps some of the other interesting and intermittently successful choices mirror Arena’s transition and journey in other ways as well.

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History, Interviews, Life in the Capital, Media, Scribblings, Special Events, The Features, They Shoot DC, We Love Arts
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Photographing the President

Lyndon B. Johnson’s photographer Yoichi Okamoto disappeared behind the President to make this image. Okamoto would have been below the eye line of almost all of the reporters in the room. (LBJ Library/Yoichi Okamoto, p. 118); courtesy National Geographic

Photographs. They’re a common form of expression in media today; they’re everywhere. To many, none are more relevant or as communicative as those taken of the President of the United States. We see them every day in the paper, on websites, on television. “Pictures are worth a thousand words,” says the old adage; none more so true than those of the most powerful and important position in these United States.

But what about the men and women behind those shots? Ever wonder about them – who they are, how they do what they do, what it takes to get “that shot”? John Bredar recently published The President’s Photographer: 50 Years Inside the Oval Office. Bredar primarily chronicles Pete Souza, President Obama’s chief photographer (and former photographer for President Ronald Reagan), through the book while discussing the unique ins and outs of the position with past photographers. We managed – with National Geographic’s help (and a review copy of Brader’s book)- to catch former Presidential photographers Eric Draper and David Hume Kennerly and find out a little bit more about who some of these special and unique individuals are behind the lens.

Access to the President “behind the scenes” by photographers is, in the sense of Presidential history, only a recent development. “Do we really need someone following the President of the United States around every day with a camera?” Bredar asks in his book. When photographer Edward Steichen approached President Lyndon Johnson about it, he posed a simple question: “Just think what it would mean if we had such a photographic record of Lincoln’s presidency?” Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Odd Couple

Before Harold & Kumar, Bill & Ted, Larry & Balki, there was Felix & Oscar. The pairing of two seemingly incompatible characters has been a classic storyline that is still in use today. However Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple has been long considered the definitive example of an unlikely couple who struggle to get along.

The play’s success has created an Odd Couple franchise that has resulted in two films and a notable TV series. Theater J pays homage to Simon’s comedy with the original version of the show that results in a trip back in time. The entertaining romp still makes audiences laugh today as it did back in 1965. At the center of it all are stars Rick Foucheux and J Fred Shiffman whose performances as Oscar and Felix are a must-see.

The show starts and takes place within the apartment of Oscar (Foucheux), a New York sportswriter. His friend Felix (Shiffman) is left down and out after his wife leaves him and Oscar comes to the rescue offering Felix a place to stay. The fact that the two are divorcees are the only thing they have in common. Oscar and Felix are complete opposites: Oscar a gambling, womanizing, slob and Felix a sensitive, neurotic, neat-freak. The calamity ensues as the two struggle to have their own way under the same roof. Continue reading →

Essential DC, Interviews, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Philip Barlow


Philip Barlow and Simon Gouverneur’s ‘Welkin’ (and all other photos) by Max Cook

Art is a strange beast that defies definition.  It is everything you want it to be as well as everything others say it isn’t.  You may see a painting at a garage sale and think, “Wow, that’s terrible,” but when it’s hung in a gallery it can attract admiration, spark controversy, or in the end cause someone to say, “Wow, that’s terrible.”  And it is, and it might be, and it isn’t.  More often than not the quality and value of art is decided by others, by the resume of the artist, by which gallery they’re represented by, and by the artist’s ability to talk about their work, but the true indicator of its value is whether you like it.  It’s that simple.

Buying a piece of art, much like asking a girl on a date, can be intimidating if you don’t have prior experience.  How do you know if a piece is priced too high?  How do you recognize when something is priced too low?  Who should you talk to when you’ve made the decision to buy? Should you ask the gallery for a discount?  Are you buying on impulse or will you still love it when you wake up the next morning?  Collecting art is something that can take time to learn, just ask Philip Barlow.

As a staple figure of the DC arts scene, I’ve spoken with Philip at least a dozen times over the years at various gallery openings, artist talks, and other events.  At 6’4” he’s hard to miss and can seem intimidating (if you don’t see eye to eye with him as I do), but he’s one of the nicest and most accommodating people you’ll ever meet.  An average conversation with Philip goes just as it would with any other person, but when he starts to talk about the art in his collection, you see where his true passion in life lies.

It would be unfair of me to talk about Philip without also including Lisa Gilotty, his partner and co-collector of twenty years.  When I first heard about their collection, which consists solely of art that is either made by local artists or purchased in local galleries, I was intrigued to say the least.  Recently I was fortunate enough to view their collection, talk to them about their philosophy on collecting, as well as hear about the background behind many of their pieces.

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Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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November’s Best at NMAI & SAAM

Blur

Some great stuff’s going on this month at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum (SAAM) and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). While there’s a ton of events and exhibits happening at both locations, I’ve highlighted some of the more interesting things you may want to check out. Got a free afternoon or in need of some distractions for visiting relatives? Well, there’s something here for everyone.

The following activities and events are at the National Museum of the American Indian, located at the eastern tip of the National Mall at 4th and Independence Avenue SW. (All activities are free.)

Native Dance: “Native Pride Dancers”
Nov. 5, 10:30 a.m. and noon (Discovery Theater); Nov. 6, 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (Rasmuson Theater)
Authentic regalia.… rhythmic drumming… skilled footwork… experience the excitement of a Native American powwow! World Champion Fancy Dancer Larry Yazzie of the Meskwaki Nation, and the Native Pride Dancers perform music and movement celebrated by their American Indian cultures. Reservations are required for Friday’s performances. Call Discovery Theater to reserve seating for groups and individuals: 202-633-8700 or visit http://discoverytheater.org. Saturday’s performances are open to the public, first come, first seated.

Family Celebration Harvest Festival
Nov. 6-7, 10:30 am – 4:30 pm
The whole family is invited to kick off the Smithsonian’s celebration of American Indian Heritage Month with a weekend-long festival exploring how Native communities throughout the Americas celebrate the harvest. It includes harvest-related dance and theater performances, cooking demonstrations, and hands-on activities.

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Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: November 2010

Courtesy White House Photographic Office and National Geographic

It’s just about November and National Geographic continues their great Fall lineup of NatGeo Live events. And once again, the folks at the National Geographic Museum are making available another two pairs of tickets to any of the listed events below, with the exception of the sold out “Sharing Tea with Greg Mortenson”. To enter, simply comment below with which two events you’d most like to attend, using your first name and a legit email address; we’ll randomly draw two winners sometime after noon on Friday, Oct 29.

If you’re interested in attending one of these events, visit NatGeo’s website or their box office, located at 17th and M Street, NW. Keep in mind that parking in NatGeo’s underground lot is free for any programs beginning after 6 p.m. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Little Prince

Ian Pedersen as the Little Prince and Alex Vernon as the Aviator in Ambassador Theater's "The Little Prince."

There are many delights in Ambassador Theater’s production of The Little Prince, but chief among them for me was watching the reactions of the children in the audience. “Who I am writing a review for?” I asked myself afterward. It’s unlikely any of those enraptured five-year-olds would care what I think. Their parents? Perhaps. Funny then that this push-pull between the world of adults and children is at the heart of the much-loved book by Antoine Saint-Exupery (or Saint-Ex, as he’s affectionately known in my neighborhood).

From the small set beautifully draped in tunneling parachutes to the whimsical shadow puppets helping transport the audience to outer space, this is an evening of both sweetness and sadness that held the attention of the children I saw there. One even may have fallen in love with the little prince herself. For adults, the play is a reminder that, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. The essential is invisible to the eyes.”

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Women Beware Women

Caley Milliken as Bianca in Constellation Theatre Company's production of "Women Beware Women." Photo credit: Daniel Schwartz.

The very walls seem to ooze misogyny in Thomas Middleton’s Women Beware Women. But strip that tacky wallpaper away and you’ll find a Jacobean-era playwright keenly aware of the plight of women in his day, no matter how harshly he seems to treat them at first glance. Basically sold at market, their only value virginity (for a proper wife) or beauty (for a proper whore), the few roles available to women in the 1600’s were fraught with danger and boredom.

It’s a world Constellation Theatre Company relishes, their epic ensemble style boldly walking the line between grand guignol scenery chewing and magical hyper-surrealism. And in a month where zombies lurch and vampires stalk, this is the perfect theatrical outing for Halloween.

The play’s anti-humanist self-loathing is deeply rooted in a Calvinist world view that may not be so alien to our own. The fear of the inevitable decline of the body, the perversion of purity into decay, love to lust, flesh to disease… what a great time to live! These fears were daily concerns to people who saw their world laid waste by bubonic plague and civil war. Constellation has cleverly chosen to shake up this grotesquerie with a Tim Burton flair. Though it takes a bit for that creepiness to blossom, when it finally does it’s twisted sick fun.

Of course nothing is creepier than a theremin… Continue reading →

Arlington, Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Cabaret

I consider myself a very lucky person.

Theatre was never in the cards for me when I signed up to produce the high school production of “Noises Off!” as an after-school activity. Now eight years later I recently completed stage managing a production of “Noises Off!“ as my first gig with a professional theatre company.

After signing up for that high school production I went on to produce over 12 shows in high school and college- then I stopped. I moved to the DC area and I walked away from theatre. Continue reading →