Category Archives: We Love Arts

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Astro Boy and the God of Comics

(l to r) Betsy Rosen, Clark Young, Lee Liebeskind, and JB Tadena in Astro Boy and the God of Comics. Photo: Carol Pratt

“Who is Astro Boy? Where did he come from?”

That phrase was repeated in an audio loop, flowing over cheerful marching music, while actors furiously drew cartoons of an impending horror. It might as well have been my own question, coming into Astro Boy and the God of Comics at The Studio 2ndStage without any prior knowledge of artist Osamu Tezuka or of his cartoon creations. That phrase seemed to be the lynchpin of the play’s meaning. It stayed with me for several days, running through my mind, unwilling to be forgotten.

A real boy dies in a horrible accident. A robot boy is created to take his place.

Created and directed by Natsu Onoda Power, Astro Boy and the God of Comics is a seventy minute riff on creation and destruction from both the creative and historical angles. We learn about the brilliant Tezuka through episodes presented in reverse chronological order – seamless mash-ups of live action, video, projections and puppetry. It’s a dizzying concoction that might almost seem gimmicky if it weren’t for the production’s total commitment to the bright-eyed, vivid intensity of comics.

Honestly? It might be a bit genius.

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Downtown, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Kent Monkman Emerges at NMAI

Photo courtesy Kent Monkman and NMAI

In his first performance in the United States, acclaimed Canadian artist Kent Monkman (Cree) will present a new work featuring his alter ego, Miss Chief, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Monkman’s large-scale paintings, faux-antique photographs, silent films, and performance works subvert official histories of Manifest Destiny and “noble savages.”

In the lavishly staged satire “Miss Chief: Justice of the Piece,” Miss Chief—the glamorous, powerful, mythical alter ego of artist Kent Monkman—as well as a host of other performers, illuminate policies that determine Native American identity. Unlike other populations in North America, Indians are defined not solely by self-designation, but by laws (some originating from archaic notions of biological race such as blood quantum) that measure one’s heredity by percentages. Miss Chief has decided to take the ultimate political stand against these laws and create her own nation and is looking for members. But, as is common with Miss Chief, her invitation is a grand event. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Civilization (all you can eat)


Photo: Stan Barouh

As the sun rises on the stage of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s “Civilization (all you can eat)”, we are shown a farm full of animals. A group of pigs sleep soundly as dawn breaks. All appears well by the barn.

Except this isn’t any ordinary farm- it’s a slaughterhouse.

As the pigs sleep and play, unaware of their impending doom, one pig rises above the rest. Known as Big Hog (Sarah Marshall), this not so little piggy demonstrates an awareness above the rest of the herd and has a plan for freedom.

And thus starts Jason Grote’s world premiere of “Civilization”- his take on the values of America prior to the 2008 election. Grote examines the ideas of consumption, commercialization, and the inner struggle to succeed through several interconnected characters.

David (Daniel Escobar), is a struggling actor who gains notoriety after starring in a funny but crude Twix ad campaign. The commercials were directed by his friend Zoe (Tia James) who hopes to make the leap from ad work to feature films. Also working to make a name for herself is David’s friend Karen (Jenna Sokolowski), who dreams of becoming a reality TV star. Zoe’s husband Mike (Sean Meehan) is an aspiring motivational speaker who hopes to find the answer to the universe through chaos theory. Mike’s sister Carol (Naomi Jacobson) is struggling to make ends meet which has forced her daughter Jade (Casie Platt) to try her hand in amateur porn.

Their stories are intertwined along with Big Hog’s escape from the slaughterhouse in a series of scenes that are broken up with interludes of choreographed movement that depict a society that is always moving, yet the individuals inside it sometimes struggle to keep up.

Grote’s collection of stories come together to form a view of a lost America that knows that they want to make a difference in the world- but are having difficulty trying to find the way to do that. While entertaining and striking, the impact of Grote’s message is loss through a narrative that is a mixed bag in regards to impact.

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We Love Arts: The Language Archive

(Photo: Melissa Blackall)

What we have here with Julia Cho’s “The Language Archive” is a failure to communicate. George (Mitchell Hébert) is a master linguist yet doesn’t have the words to convey the thoughts that swirl around in his head and the emotions inside his heart. His wife Mary (Nanna Ingvarsson) has been driven to tears (lots of tears) with their marriage and has resorted to hiding passive aggressive notes of “bad poetry” lamenting about the situation. Meanwhile George’s lab assistant Emma (Katie Atkinson) has feelings for her boss and struggles with the decision to tell George how she feels about him. At the center of it all are Resten (Edward Christian) and Alta (Kerri Rambow), a married couple that are the last two speakers of a dying language. George and Emma are tasked with the job of documenting the language for posterity- better said than done when the long-married couple decide to stop talking to each other.

Forum Theatre’s production of The Language Archive has a sitcom premise, but the comedy is smarter than most Heigl-esque dreck.

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Adventures, Downtown, Special Events, The Features, The Hill, We Love Arts
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Come for the Murder, Stay for the Masquerade

This Sunday, Labyrinth Games is bring some Louisiana charm liberally mixed with a masquerade, murder, and mystery to the DC area. Kathleen Donahue, the store’s owner, is throwing the doors open to area residents and inviting everyone to join in the fun of a good old-fashioned murder mystery party. The event is this Sunday at The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital in Southeast from 5 to 8 pm. Just make sure you have a ticket to get in!

“This will be a mix & mingle event with all attendees receiving minor character roles and clues to share with other attendees,” said Donahue. “It will be like live-action Clue! Festival carnival garb (and Mardi Gras masks) are encouraged but not required.” Several area actors will play the roles of the major characters for the evening; just because they’re major doesn’t mean they’re not exempt from being a suspect, either. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Blood Wedding

Deidra LaWan Starnes in Constellation Theatre Company's production of Blood Wedding. Photo credit: Scott Suchman

Somewhere it must be written in a Surrealist manifesto that Death steals every scene. In Constellation Theatre Company‘s production of Blood Wedding, he stalks them too. A shadowy figure swathed in a black tulle hat, his manifestation gradually gains power until at last, veil cast off, he’s revealed as the primal force behind love, lust and revenge.

Through both his poetry and plays, Federico García Lorca explored the tragic beauty of deep primitive myths – only to become one himself after his murder in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Three years earlier he’d written Blood Wedding, a play whose themes go beyond folk superstition to uncover the dark pagan nature within us all.

Constellation is normally very much at home in the realm of Surrealist drama and epic theater, however, this production can’t seem to find a cohesive vocal or physical style for Lorca’s poetic dance of death. The result is a lot of discordant emotive vocality that threatens to overwhelm the action and the poetry, even while director Shirley Serotsky presents us with some eerily beautiful tableaux by a talented ensemble.

The story itself is a simple one: a mother has misgivings about her son’s intended wife. Add in a spurned lover, repressed passion and a blood feud, and mother turns out to be terribly right. She always is, isn’t she?

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Adventures, Downtown, Entertainment, Interviews, Special Events, We Love Arts
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Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner: Scaling the World

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner; Photo courtesy National Geographic

Tonight, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner takes the stage at the National Geographic Museum. A prolific mountaineer, Ms. Kaltenbrunner is best known for being the first woman to summit all 14 8,000 meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or porters. She was nominated as one of NatGeo’s Adventurers of the Year for 2012.

She’ll be talking tonight about her daring climb of K2 in August 2011. Ms. Kaltenbrunner took a moment to answer a few questions for WeLoveDC before tonight’s event. Continue reading →

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Theatre Spotlight: Really Really


Photo: Scott Suchman

Over on their website, this is how Signature Theatre describes their upcoming World Premiere of Really Really by Paul Downs Colaizzo:

“At an elite university, when the party of the year results in the regret of a lifetime, one person will stop at nothing to salvage a future that is suddenly slipping away.”

Many people have interpreted this description as a play loosely based on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, a description cast and crew members were quick to distance themselves away from. Colaizzo described the show as, “a play about a girl who wants a house.”

Even though there are some similarities: college elites, a big party, an accusation and scandal; after talking with several members of the cast the show has strong themes about how the Millennial generation is struggling to find what they want in today’s changing world.

In other words it’s right up my alley.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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Theatre Spotlight: Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers


(Photo courtesy No Rules Theatre Company)

The entertainment we are consuming has taken a turn towards the dark side. The likes of Adam West’s Batman and Christopher Reeve’s Superman are long gone, replaced with darker retellings of our classic stories and heroes. Christopher Nolan re-imagined Batman with his Dark Knight trilogy and even Disney, the biggest name behind the glitter and glam of the 90’s, tapped Tim Burton when it decided to make Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time have taken our childhood fairy tales and turned them into chilling dramas.

That being said, it’s only fitting that No Rules Theatre Company‘s production of Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers would be grittier than anything that Cathy Rigby would do.

By the way, I can’t believe she’s still playing the role at 58.

This week the production opened at the H Street Playhouse, I talked with cast members Adam Downs, Nathan Mendez, and John Evans Reese (who plays Pan) about Michael Lluberes’ adaptation of the classic J. M. Barrie tale.

The phrase “darker adaption” was thrown around a lot during our conversation but Downs adds, “you can call it darker but you can also say the stakes are more real.”

There are no songs, no sugar coating, no spectacle with Pan. Instead the show works out to be an essential reaction to the “Disney-fication” of our youth. A leap away from happily ever after and more towards something more authentic and real, as described by Reese.

“We’re really hungry for the truth,” Reese explains, “so what is true about Peter Pan? He steals children, takes them back, thins then out when they start growing up…there’s so much death in this story that’s been glittered.”

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We Love Arts: The Gaming Table

Photo ©Carol Pratt/Folger Theatre

It’s a woman’s world out there. Now a days more women than men are attending college and these more educated females are putting off families and earning more money than men. As a late-20’s lost boy, I’m ok with saying that.  Folger Theatre’s production of The Gaming Table represents this new role of women well. In the show the women are empowered, smart, and clever while the males range from bumbling to sissy.

Amazing that the play the show was adapted from, The Basset Table, originally written in 18th century by playwright Susanna Centlivre. While additional material was added to modernize the piece, the play is still truly ahead of its time. Lady Reveller (Julie Jesneck) and her cousin Valeria (Emily Trask) are two different women who suffer from the same problem. Reveller would rather play cards at the Basset table she runs in her uncle’s (Michael Willis) house than put up with the affections of Lord Worthy (Marcus Kyd). Valeria isn’t much for cards, she is a woman of science. However her father would rather see her married to a Sea Captain (Michael Glenn) then dissecting frogs. Valeria doesn’t fancy Captain Hearty but does have an eye for his Ensign (Robbie Gay).

An 18th century play with a modern RomCom set-up. Doesn’t matter when the play was written though- you’ll be a laughing in the aisles all night.

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We Love Arts: Elephant Room


Photo by Scott Suchman

This past weekend I saw magic. No I’m not talking about a win from the hapless Wizards or miracles of that sort- I’m talking about a real magic show with magicians, tricks, and illusions. However this show did not have the showmanship of Houdini, the polish of Copperfield, or the rock and roll of Criss Angel. No the trio of Dennis Diamond, Daryl Hannah, and Louis Magic that star in Arena Stage’s Elephant Room look like a cheesy act that’s more Reno than Vegas.

Not only is there magic, but mustaches and mullets as well.

The look and feel of Elephant Room ties into a line said during the show: “We have nothing new to show you.”

With magic’s biggest secrets since revealed, showmanship is now as important as the illusions themselves. The Diamond/Hannah/Magic wolfpack provides a refreshing new take on the magic show. It is essentially the anti-David Blaine. These men aren’t sporting hard bodies or designer jeans, they look more like extras off the set of Napoleon Dynamite than someone that would lock himself in a ball full of water.

And that’s what makes the show so much fun to watch.

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We Love Arts: Red

Edward Gero as Mark Rothko and Patrick Andrews as Ken in the 2011 Goodman Theatre production of Red. Directed by Robert Falls. Photo by Liz Lauren.

De Kooning. Pollock. Rothko. Giants of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Killers of Surrealism, only to be swept aside themselves by Pop Art. At least, that’s how the legend goes (even Rothko would disagree with the precise classifications). But is a revolutionary’s story compelling if it doesn’t end in a young, glorious death? In Red, playwright John Logan sets up his genius protagonist to play defense against the onslaught of age and change. His Mark Rothko is engaged in a constant struggle against accusations of hypocrisy and potential irrelevance, while his paintings stand silent, their internal monologues quietly stealing the scene.

A joint production between Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Arena Stage, Red is an exploration of an important moment in the life of artist Mark Rothko (played by Ed Gero). He took on a commission in the late 1950’s to produce murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, itself a gorgeous modernist tower designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson. We’re supposed to feel somewhat shocked that Rothko would paint for this much money, would consent to house his paintings in a consumerist palace (as if Michelangelo never did anything similar for the Medici, but conveniently forgetting our art history, let’s say it is shocking). Rothko claimed to want his murals to disquiet the diners. The commission was certainly one of the most lucrative of its day. Red encapsulates that struggle between art and consumerism (on the verge of Pop Art’s embrace of it) in the relationship between Rothko and his young assistant, and if it did nothing else, the battle between the two would still make for a fascinating and unnerving evening. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Euan Morton as Launce, Oliver the dog as Crab and Adam Green as Speed in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by PJ Paparelli. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Ah, love. The kind that makes you stalk your lover, lie to your best friend, steal someone else’s girl. We’re talking young, hormone-addled, angst-ridden love. Add in some fervent karaoke singing, late night fast food binges and way beyond last call drinking, and it’s love in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Rarely performed (STC’s artistic fellow Laura Henry notes in Asides that it’s only been staged twenty-four times in London and five times in New York City), Two Gentlemen is commonly thought of as difficult to produce. It’s an early play in the canon, containing many characters and plot devices that seem half-baked next to their later manifestations. There’s also the question of that pesky final scene – which moves from the threat of violence and rape to forgiveness all too quickly – often tinkered with to make it more palatable. It’s always been a prime candidate for conceptual settings and modernization.

Director PJ Paparelli goes for a pastiche of teen movie metaphor in the current production. It’s a risky choice to add in neon corporate logos and U2 cover songs. That kind of concept can, and often does, fall flat. But here, a kind of pure earnest beauty marries text and concept. Kick your cynicism to the curb, and remember that time when love meant losing everything, including even your self-respect, and yet you just didn’t care that it wasn’t cool.
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Downtown, Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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National Geographic Live: February 2012

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner; Photo courtesy National Geographic

As spring looms on the horizon, so does National Geographic Live’s new season. For the third year in a row, the National Geographic Museum is offering WeLoveDC readers a monthly chance to enjoy one of their premier events. We’re giving away two pairs of tickets to readers and entering is simple. Look through the great programs coming up in February and pick two you’d like to attend. Then in the comment field, simply enter your choices. (Make sure you use your first name and a valid email address!) Winners for February will be chosen at random in the afternoon on Tuesday, January 31.

All programs (unless otherwise noted) will take place in Grosvenor Auditorium at 1600 M Street, NW.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.nglive.org, via telephone at (202) 857-7700, or in person at the National Geographic ticket office between 9 am and 5 pm. Free parking is available in the National Geographic underground garage for all programs that begin after 6 pm.

Uncovering Hidden World ($20)
Tuesday, Feb. 7; 7:30 pm

As a staff photographer with National Geographic, Jodi Cobb has worked in more than 60 countries—celebrating the best of the human spirit and spotlighting some of its worst abuses.

She is best known for lifting the curtain on worlds closed to outsiders, such as Japan’s geisha, Saudi Arabian women, the grim underworld of human trafficking. Experience a retrospective of her most important work as she also shares images and stories from her most recent assignment, a story on twins for the January 2012 issue of National Geographic. Continue reading →

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


Photo by Dennis Deloria

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer doesn’t ink funnies. Instead he speaks his mind through art, be it what a woman thinks or how the nation elects a President. So when you consider the dangerous world of New York City depicted in American Century Theatre’s “Little Murders“, you have to realize that a premise that is a tad over-the-top is simply part of his craft as a cartoonist. The environment is exaggerated because he wants to make a point about forces he thought was creating a turning point in America at the time.

The play takes place in 1966 New York where Fiffer takes liberty in highlighting the rise of urban violence of the late 60’s, a wave he observed in the wake of the assassination of JFK. Fiffer and director Ellen Dempsey satirically illustrate the city falling deeper and deeper into a state of lawlessness and chaos. One cannot venture outside his home without getting mugged, one cannot walk down the street without getting shot at. Gunshots become a regular cue throughout the show, with many shots nearly missing members of the cast.

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We Love Arts: Time Stands Still

Holly Twyford in Time Stands Still. Photo: Scott Suchman

Watching Time Stands Still is to witness a relationship cracking apart, as two people whose entire shared experience has consisted of an adrenaline rush that can’t be sustained, irrevocably come off the high. Its success then rests on strong performances rooted in naturalism, and luckily that’s a strength Studio Theatre has perfected. Otherwise, you might be asking yourself why you are watching yet another slice-of-life about relationship woes.

Time Stands Still begins in the aftermath of war zone trauma for Sarah, a photojournalist physically battered by an explosion, and James, a reporter psychically wounded. Sarah can’t wait for her body to heal so she can jump back in, photographing atrocity after atrocity despite the nagging moral conflict of non-engagement. James has had enough, and wants a normal life (albeit a “normal” live lived in a nice loft in Brooklyn deconstructing horror movies instead of real-life horrors). This framework might be enough for an exploration of what happens when you repeatedly put yourself in harm’s way for the sake of bringing people news they don’t want to see, but playwright Donald Margulies raises the stakes in pretty pedestrian ways. Relationship woes like infidelity, mid-life crisis and delayed parenting are highlighted. How different the play might be had the core plot revolved around Sarah’s battle to keep her shattered limbs intact, a very relevant and brutal struggle many who’ve been in war zones have faced.

Here, you’ll get a rather safe depiction of facial scars that will slowly fade, like the relationship questions we all face and ultimately survive through. No one loses an eye or a leg here in their quest for that beautiful photograph of a baby’s burns after a market bombing. Margulies and director Susan Fenichell are lucky to have four talented actors making the psychic wounds interesting to the audience.

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Best Of: Theater 2011

Photo courtesy of thisisbossi
2011 07 16 – 6398 – Washington DC – Redrum at Fort Fringe
courtesy of thisisbossi

We Love DC authors Don, Patrick, Rachel and I may have different backgrounds in criticism and performance, and varying preferences for theatrical style, but we share a goal – to bring you our thoughtful, honest opinions on the passionate, challenging craft of live theater. Though the actual season calendar isn’t over yet, it’s time for the annual wrap-up of 2011. Here’s at look back at some of the highlights (and a few lowlights) of our theatrical year. Continue reading →

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We Love Arts: You, Nero


Photo by Scott Suchman

Nero is perhaps most well known as the Emperor of Rome who let the city burn as he played the fiddle. A widely known piece of history that isn’t entirely true yet perfectly paints a portrait of a ruler who cared more about himself than his people. The vanity of Nero could easily be compared to others in history- from Napoleon to today’s mega-celebrities and athletes.

Danny Scheie steals every scene as the self-absorbed ruler of the early Roman empire in Arena Stage’s production of You, Nero. From the moment Scheie enters the stage we feel Nero’s ginormous presence fill every inch of the Finchandler Stage. In a fitting moment of irony one of his first lines to the audience is a woeful, “Poor me!”

Of course we take less pity on him and more laughter as we take-in Nero’s over the top appreciation for himself.

Despite a fantastic job by Jeff McCarthy in the role of Scribonius, a role McCarthy took on only days before the opening, he is simply a guide through this hilarious send-up of ancient Rome. The real star is Nero and Scheie reprises the role he first performed in early West Coast productions with panache, pizzazz, and flamboyance.

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We Love Arts: Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies


Photo by Michael Brosilow

In my previous job I analyzed the prevalence of fear and risk in current events and news. So if I know anything about society, it’s that we love to worry.

We are afraid of a lot of things: invasion of privacy, food contamination, and deadly diseases. West Nile, Cancer, and Swine Flu are just some of the buzzwords that have infiltrated the evening news in recent times.

The problem is we have become so scared stiff we have lost all perspective in measuring and weighing risk. In the summers of 2001 & 2002 it was “The Summer of the Shark”, to which The Daily Show pointed out- more people are killed by falling coconuts than by shark attacks.

Does that mean we should wear helmets outside? Does that mean we need to constantly sanitize our purses and make sure our kids don’t eat french fries so they don’t get cancer?

My answer is no- but don’t take my word for it, the players of Chicago’s Second City are here to shine the light on death, doom, and gloom in their production of Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies. The renown Chicago-based comedy troupe returns to Woolly Mammoth Theatre to offer up another show of sketches, songs, and shtick.

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We Love Arts: Much Ado About Nothing

Kathryn Meisle as Beatrice and Derek Smith as Benedick in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing is odd. Not on stage – there it’s very entertaining with only minor flaws. Odd in selection, odd in its last-minute casting kerfuffle, odd in tone choice.

The selection and tone choice weirdness is the most prominent. Why do this now, two short years since Folger did their own production of Ado with a Caribbean bent? It’s a well-loved play and good fun but this seems like very recently-trod ground given the similarity in cultural tone. The play notes credit the concept to a 2007 production by Vivian Benesch at Chaucautua in New York, where Director Ethan McSweeny is artistic director alongside Ms Benecsh, so it pre-dates Folger’s production, but why not stretch a little and give us something a little more divergent than what happened down the street?

Deja vu aside, the show swings for the fences and pretty consistently delivers.

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