Archive for the ‘We Love Arts’ Category
National Geographic Live: March 2010
The spring season of National Geographic Live – a series of dynamic lectures, concerts, films and more – continues this month, with more great offerings.
Thanks to the awesome response from last month, the National Geographic Museum is offering up two pairs of tickets to our readers for any of the following events. Simply comment below [...]
We Love Arts: Some Girl(s)
It’s Neil LaBute’s birthday next week, so it seems fitting that relative newcomers No Rules Theatre Co. are performing his play Some Girl(s) now through March 21st. Many have called him a psychologist of the dark side of the human soul, others a misogynist (personally, I think he’s an equal opportunity misanthrope). LaBute was responsible for [...]
More »We Love Arts: Drawing Toward Home
Bowen House, Woodstock, Connecticut, c. 1846. Joseph C. Wells, architect. Courtesy Historic New England.
“A major component of the American pursuit of happiness has long been a home of one’s own (the automobile is a distant second: the one a castle, the other a chariot).” – James F. O’Gorman, lead curator for Drawing Toward [...]
We Love Arts: Henry V
Now this is more like it.
From the first moments of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Henry V, there’s a feeling of power and potency that I found lacking in Richard II, playing in repertory at Sidney Harman Hall. This is a company in command, helmed by David Muse’s tight, almost economical direction which sets the play firmly [...]
We Love Arts: Richard II
I don’t normally write the kind of review that I’m writing today. But to be blunt, I’ve had enough. What is going on at Shakespeare Theatre Company? Inconsistent vocality, acting styles ranging all over from natural to downright hammy, condescending directorial choices, flubbed lines. With so much talent at its disposal, I can only attribute [...]
More »We Love Arts: Georgia O’Keeffe Abstraction
Black Door with Red, 1954. Oil on Canvas, 48 x 48 in. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.63 (CR1271). Copyright, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
“Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense.” – Georgia O’Keeffe, 1976
When discussing abstract [...]
We Love Arts: Evolve Urban Arts Project
Arts organizations tend to get hit the hardest in times of economic distress or, let’s face it, the current weather crisis. When galleries and theaters have to shutter their doors for even one night, it can be devastating. So consider this your PSA for Arts today: once we’re out of this mess, hit a play, [...]
More »Spring Offerings From ISM
‘Boundaries’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’
Every Friday for the next six weeks, the International Spy Museum (ISM) will be debuting a new exhibit within the museum, including the addition of several new rare artifacts from the shadowy world of espionage. These new additions (some for a limited time only) join the already-extensive collection regarding the world’s “second-oldest profession” [...]
We Love Arts: Antony & Cleopatra
If you want to know why Synetic Theater has been nominated for 13 Helen Hayes awards for its productions last year, go see Antony & Cleopatra. Now. Everything this robust and vibrant company is beloved for is here on stage at the Lansburgh’s beautiful proscenium, as part of an alliance with Shakespeare Theatre that I [...]
More »National Geographic Live: February 2010
The spring season of National Geographic Live – a series of dynamic lectures, concerts, films and more – kicks off next week.
This year, the National Geographic Society has graciously offered some event tickets to our readers. If you’re interested in winning a pair of tickets to any of the events below, simply remark in comments [...]
Celebrate Lincoln’s Birthday at Ford’s Theatre
Ford’s Theatre Society and the National Park Service celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with special February programming. On February 5th, 12th, and 19th, Washington-area youth will present a selection of Lincoln’s greatest speeches as part of the Target Oratory Festival. On February 12th at 8:45 a.m., National Park Service Park Rangers will commemorate President Lincoln’s birthday [...]
More »We Love Arts: Three Sisters
It’s been over 100 years since Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s death. We’re still struggling against a traditional view of how to perform, and indeed experience, a genius that straddled two very different centuries. Last year, Theater J attacked some sacred cows with a lively production of The Seagull. I expected a young company like Constellation [...]
More »DC Seeks Vision for Dupont Underground
Old Entrance by M.V. Jantzen
Decades after the trolley system was shut down at Dupont Circle, the city is still looking for a viable use for the abandoned underground space. The last attempt was a food court, creatively named “Dupont Down Under”, however it failed miserably and was only open for a year. In 2007 a [...]
We Love Arts: Object as Subject
I’ve never been a particular fan of still lifes. But The Phillips Collection’s current exhibit Object as Subject: Photographs of the Czech Avant-Garde might just change my mind. It’s a small showing, highlighting some thirty photographs from the 1920’s and ’30’s. Apparently Prague was second only to Paris as a major center of surrealism, and [...]
More »We Love Arts: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Thirty plays in sixty minutes. That’s the goal, anyway – a race against the onstage clock for five performers to present pieces based on their own life experiences. The catch? They have no idea what order the mini-plays will be performed. A long clothesline of hanging numbers lines the stage, and it’s up to the [...]
More »We Love Arts: Dana Ellyn, Divinely Irreverent
What’s most shocking about Dana Ellyn’s paintings?
That they’re truthful.
Opening this past weekend at the Evolve Urban Arts Project in the Atlas District, Divinely Irreverent is an audacious exhibit delivering some hard slaps to myths of many kinds – from religion to what it means to be a woman. These are thought-provoking pieces – sometimes outright [...]
We Love Arts: A Christmas Carol
Tiny Tim has always had the striking ability to make me shed a few tears. Wednesday night’s presentation of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre was no exception.
If you’re looking for a true holiday treat this season, get your tickets to see A Christmas Carol as soon as possible. Not only were Christmas carols stuck [...]
We Love Arts: Intersections
There’s something about the approach of the winter season that always makes me want to drift away in a museum, quieting my mind by reflecting on art. A recent sojourn to the Phillips Collection to see the Intersections series did just that, and I encourage you to check it out.
Too often art collections can become [...]
We Love Arts: As You Like It
For the first thirty minutes of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of “As You Like It,” I was entranced. The characters were on a journey through the history of American cinema, and the first scene’s send-up of a silent film had the audience delighted. Director Maria Aitken’s evocation of that era was perfect, from the stylized acting [...]
More »First Look: the Terra Cotta Warrior Invasion
Yesterday was the opening of “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” at the National Geographic Museum. A rare treat, the exhibit is on the final stop of a four-city US tour and closes on March 31, 2010.
Promotion for this visit has been going on since spring of this year. The hype is justifiable, [...]
