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.

The ladies in this show are sharp as tacks and punchlines are delivered quick and often. The audience will be chuckling all throughout the night, culminating to a dick joke that was clearly added in the adaption yet wins the night. Lady Rev and Valeria are supported by an equally charming group of ladies. Lady Lucy (Katie duBuys), Mrs. Sago (Tonya Beckman Ross), and the house maid Alpiew (Emily Townley) all fit in with the theme of fun-loving ladies who don’t let their men be the boss of them. Townley as Alpiew is a real scene stealer with her timely facial expressions that just adds the right amount of ham to this dish.

The men in this show are no Prince Charmings by any means. Lord Worthy (Marcus Kyd) pines away at his unrequited love for Lady Reveller in true diva fashion. Throw a pair of skinny jeans on him and he’d fit in as today’s emo hipster. His sidekick James (Michael Milligan) is after the hand of Lady Lucy, but his flamboyant suit and puffed up hair makes him look more like Liberace than Darcy.

However because the piece is a Restoration Comedy, the men in the end get their act together and outwit the ladies to get what they want. An ending that goes against most of the strong female themes of the show, but is corrected by an epilogue added at the end of the show.

Out of the all the pieces I’ve seen at Folger over the past year, The Gaming Table currently stands out as the most enjoyable to date. A classic piece that does not bore, a comedy that keeps things light, and an adaptation that does not try to change too much of a play that’s already solid in its original form.

Folger Theatre’s production of The Gaming Table performs through March 4 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, located at 201 East Capitol Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Closest Metro stop: Capitol South (Blue/Orange lines). For more information call 202-544-7077.

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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.

The banter is campy, the slapstick is goofy (think The Lonely Island doing The Creep), the tone is almost satiric. It all comes together to create a highly entertaining performance.

As for the illusions, they are of the small slight of hand variety. Some moments are truly impressive, like the good ol’ sawing a women in half trick or reading the minds of audience members, and some need further refinement. I spotted a metal rod in a levitation bit early in the show. The magicians admitted after the press performance that some of the tricks still need some polishing.

Regardless Elephant Room is a good bet for a fun night out. At an hour and 15 minutes it’s shorter than watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and is the perfect start to any night out on the town.

This merry band of magicians have come a long way since first meeting at a magic conference in Buffalo. With an act like theirs, it looks as if they should have plenty of travels ahead.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Elephant Room performs at Arena Stage’s Kogod Cradle through February 26th. Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is located at 1101 6th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. Closest Metro stop: Waterfront (Green line). For more information call 202-488-3300.

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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.

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

Into Rothko’s ordered (perhaps obsessively so) studio enters his new assistant Ken (Patrick Andrews), an aspiring artist himself with a horrific past event that makes him especially vulnerable. He’s to help Rothko prepare the canvases for the Seagram murals, but of course he has an underlying motive. The two engage in an increasingly uneasy working relationship while Rothko struggles with the realization that his paintings will eventually hang in a room filled with people who will never truly look at them. For a man who believes his colors are performers, that his work lives and dies by companionship, this is a fate he cannot stomach.

From the first few moments, you know this is going to be a play about ideas – important ideas, to be sure, but not much action – and if there is a flaw in the beauty of the production, it’s simply that ponderous and elegiac tone. Part of this may be Rothko himself – Logan uses many direct quotes from the painter and his words do contain a philosophical weight. Ed Gero’s performance as Rothko is as wonderfully nuanced as you’d expect from this fine actor, especially when he unleashes the old lion’s fury and sorrow, but the character’s a bit on the portentous side, and that can make for difficult viewing in the beginning.

Director Robert Falls sets a deliberate pace, as if modeling the tone on Rothko’s “banker’s hours” – that may be a reaction to Rothko’s method itself, but I longed for more naturalism, and the moments that did hit that more improvisational note were clearly the most powerful. The rising intensity of Andrews and Gero’s interactions eventually breaks through the mere philosophy of art to something more visceral – the necessity of the artist to create something meaningful, or wither in the attempt. Logan’s words and Gero’s performance are at their most poignant when at the service of that desire, as when Rothko describes his visit to the restaurant, or his relationship to the color black in Matisse’s The Red Studio.

It’s all set in a soaring rendition of Rothko’s Bowery studio by designer Todd Rosenthal, with one of the best lighting designs I’ve seen so far this season – Keith Parham gives the canvases an incandescence that’s extraordinary, especially in the final scene, where one fairly pulsates, a haunting silent character itself. Just as Rothko intended.

You don’t need to know anything about Rothko to enjoy the play. In fact, it may encourage you to learn more. I still remember my first reaction to Rothko as a young girl standing in front of a painting at the MOMA – somehow I was angry, so angry, livid almost, turning my back on modern art for a long time afterwards. After seeing this play, I devoured Rothko research and planned a visit to the Rothko Room at the Phillips and the Seagram mural exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. I realized my childhood reaction was an emotional reaction to color and shape that unnerved me, and that was a reaction Rothko would have understood. If the best response to a play is to challenge you, to send you on another voyage of discovery, then Red has done its work.

The Goodman Theatre production of Red performs at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater through March 4. Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is located at 1101 6th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. Closest Metro stop: Waterfront (Green line). For more information call 202-488-3300.

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.

Nick Dillenburg as Proteus and Andrew Veenstra as Valentine in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by PJ Paparelli. Photo by Scott Suchman.

For best friends Valentine and Proteus (Andrew Veenstra and Nick Dillenburg), the raucous bromance of youth is about to be disrupted by love – Proteus for Julia (Miriam Silverman), Valentine for Sylvia (Natalie Mitchell), then Proteus for Sylvia and back again. Leaving behind the parking lots of suburbia for the glamorous clubs of the big city, they’ll find alliances challenged and changed by the heightened risk of falling in love and growing up. When the plot’s laid out this simply it does scan like a teenage romance movie, though the reverberations of greater works to come – a bit of Romeo in Valentine, a shade of Iago in Proteus – suggest more depth than you might initially think. But above all, Two Gentlemen is a comedy, and the boys’ servants provide a lot of it. Valentine’s skateboarding messenger Speed (Adam Green) and Proteus’ woeful courier Launce (Euan Morton, bravely playing off a scene-stealing dog) keep the mayhem in balance with brilliant comedic timing that proves Elizabethean humor can still get laughs.

Paparelli’s concept is ably aided by Walt Spangler’s glitzy design, all gleaming metal and thrusting catwalks, like a disco dystopia. Paul Spadone’s risky Elizabethean hybrid costumes add a touch of 1980’s music video kitsch. And a special nod to Fabian Obispo’s sound design for taking risks (how do we know Proteus is the one who’ll turn bad? He listens to Rage Against the Machine!) that caught the audience off guard.

Though at times the modernization rings painfully earnest (anguished arm cutting during a U2 cover borders on the excruciatingly earnest, though it does serve to alert the viewer we’re about to go somewhere much darker), its pay off at other times is rich. The vigor of the actors’ commitment to making the text immediate and vibrant makes this a powerfully funny and poignant production. Their conviction to bringing the forceful danger of fickle youth to life make for moments of truth you wouldn’t expect from a “lesser” Shakespeare play. It comes through with a punch to the gut when the comedy turns. It’s both hilarious and hopeful, just like those coming-of-age movies you made light of but secretly loved.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona performs at Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Lansburgh Theatre now through March 4. The Lansburgh is located at 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. Closest Metro stop: Archives/Navy Memorial (Yellow/Green lines) and Gallery Place/Chinatown (Red/Yellow/Green lines). For more information call 202-637-7000.

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.

Dennis Luxion-Michael Raynor Quartet; Photo courtesy National Geographic

The Rhythm Road – American Music Abroad (Free; No Tickets Required)
Thursday, Feb. 9; 6:00 pm & 7:15 pm

The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is designed to foster cultural exchange worldwide. Between March 2011 and February 2012, ten talented American jazz, urban, gospel, blues, and roots music artists will visit Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. International tour activities include concerts, workshops, demonstrations, and collaborations with local musicians. The program also incorporates free performances by each group at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and for National Geographic Live.

6 pm: Ari Roland Jazz Quartet This New York-based group takes inspiration from the Golden Age of Jazz. The ensemble’s repertoire includes pieces by jazz legends Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday, as well as their own original compositions.

7:15 pm: Mountain Quickstep Combining the bluegrass, and early country music of the Adirondack,Appalachia, and Smoky Mountain regions, this group showcases the diversity of American rural music, through lively fiddle tunes, lonesome folksongs, and fancy footwork.

A Portable Life ($20)
Friday, Feb. 10; 7:30 pm

Travel writer Pico Iyer brings a unique perspective to the issues of cultural globalization. His essays appear in National Geographic Traveler, Time, and Harper’s, and he has authored a dozen books, including The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. Join Iyer and Traveler magazine’s Don George, former Global Travel Editor of Lonely Planet Publications, for a conversation about the challenges and rewards of letting yourself be vulnerable in foreign places.

Conquering the 14 ($20)
Monday, Feb. 13; 7:30 pm

A decade ago, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner worked as a nurse saving money for cherished climbing trips. In August 2011, she became the first woman to summit the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen with her daring climb of K2, to be featured in the April 2012 issue of National Geographic. Meet this intrepid mountaineer and share her odysseys to the world’s highest places.

Jim Davidson; Photo courtesy National Geographic

Global Glimpses: Foreign Language Film Nominees ($8 per Film)
Feb. 17 – 19; times vary; check www.nationalgeographic.org/allroads for titles and schedule

Join us for elite screenings of the five films nominated as Oscar® winners for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Award, one week before the 84rd Academy Awards ceremony. All screenings include receptions before or after the films.

The Rhythm Road – American Music Abroad (Free; No Tickets Required)
Thursday, Feb. 23; 6:00 pm & 7:15 pm

The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is designed to foster cultural exchange worldwide. Between March 2011 and February 2012, ten talented American jazz, urban, gospel, blues, and roots music artists will visit Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. International tour activities include concerts, workshops, demonstrations, and collaborations with local musicians. The program also incorporates free performances by each group at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and for National Geographic Live.

6 pm: Dennis Luxion / Michael Raynor Quartet This Chicago group plays original, hard-swinging jazz inspired by saxophone improvisation, from introspective solo explorations to powerful group performances.

7:15 pm: Legacy From East Orange, NJ, this group creates music about faith, love, struggle, and the pursuit of beauty in life. Legacy’s alternative hip hop sound is influenced by various genres of music including West African, house, jazz, and breakbeat.

The Ledge ($20)
Wednesday, Feb. 29; 7:30 pm

Descending from the summit of Mount Rainier one day in June 1992, Jim Davidson fell through a snow bridge, dragging his climbing partner with him into a hidden 80-foot deep crevasse. Davidson’s new book The Ledge, named one of Amazon.com’s Best Outdoor & Nature Books for 2011, tells the dramatic story of how he witnessed his partner’s death and survived the fall, making an impossible climb up a sheer ice wall.

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.

Caught in he middle are members of the Newquist family. Parents Marjorie and Carol (Emily Morrison and Craig Miller) are victims to a freak shooting that takes the life of their war hero son. Daughter Patsy (Robin Covington) is an independent woman who brings home her latest partner/reclamation project Alfred (James Finley), who has decided to take an extremely passive approach to the situation. Even though he towers  over most people, he refuses to fight anyone and as a result is often bruised and battered by muggers who beat him up until they grow too tired to throw anymore punches. Instead of dealing with life’s troubles he would rather daydream until the moment passes. Rounding out the family is the somewhat closeted Kenny (Evan Crump), who’s sissy mannerisms hints at him being a secret homosexual.

The family dynamics of the Newquists are anything but ideal. The family dinner is filled with so much arguing you would think it was ripped from this SNL sketch. The eventual wedding between Patsy and Alfred becomes a comedy of errors as Alfred’s atheism results in the hiring of an oddball existentialist minister (Bill Gordon) who flies off the handle.

However Little Murders isn’t really about the Newquist family but about the forces of violence and incivility that Feiffer believed was sending America into a nervous breakdown. The local homicide detective (Steve Lebens) is worn down from the hundreds of unsolved murders. Father Carol calls for martial law, stronger government involvement, and more surveillance in a chilling speech that is very foreboding in today’s post 9-11 world.

Feiffer’s observations are interesting but they are lost in the show’s delivery. The acting fluctuates between 1 and 11 throughout the show. Unlike Elliot Gould’s subtle yet poignant performance as Alfred in the 1971 film adaptation of the play, the Alfred in this production goes from cardboard stiff to completely normal. Arguments go from intense screaming to intense crying to resigned silence.

At 40 years old, Little Murders still has a message for the audience. Even though America is working to decrease the senseless sort of violence the show depicts, the theme of growing disrespect and incivility is one that still rings true today.

Would we reach the boiling point at that ends the show in spectacular fashion? With a more sensitive generation of Americans that are subjected to bullying, trolling, and online harassment, perhaps.

Little Murders performs in the Gunston Theatre Two now through February 11. The Gunston Arts Center is located at 2700 South Lang Street, Arlington, VA 22206. Closest Metro stop: Crystal City (Blue/Yellow line). For more information call (703) 998-4555.

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.

L to R: Greg McFadden, Dan Illian, and Laura C. Harris in Time Stands Still. Photo: Scott Suchman

Holly Twyford is a master at delivering lines so naturally you’d think they were improvised, and here she gives Sarah an acidic etching – you can almost see her skin bristling with the indignity of being trapped back in her safe apartment while the wars go on without her lens. Greg McFadden subtly telegraphs that James has the relief of the lesser talented partner – back on safe ground, his yearning to a normal couple is really a desire to step into a more traditional, perhaps even dominant role, to Sarah’s brighter star. As their editor Richard and his cute trophy wife Mandy, Dan Illian and Laura C. Harris flesh out what could just have been the stock characters of a May-December romance – the jokes at Mandy’s expense point to the danger of Margulies’ dialogue, dancing at the edge of cliche. Illian and Harris embue them with an inner life.

The production design is gorgeous – a Brooklyn loft by set designer John McDermott and lit by Mary Louise Geiger – though the original composition by Eric Shimelonis seemed forced into a horror movie motif, and Sarah’s facial injuries a little too safe. The ensemble acting is the key here, a quartet expert at illuminating inner lives, as they explore the moral uncertainty of making art, making a living, out of the suffering of others. Does that art spur ordinary people to action against atrocity, and if not, is it worth doing? It’s just one question the play asks. There are others the actors ask, in the moments between words.

Time Stands Still performs in the Metheny Theatre at Studio Theatre now through February 12. Studio Theatre is located at 1501 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. Closest Metro stop: Dupont Circle (Red line), McPherson Square (Orange/Blue lines), U Street/Cardozo (Green/Yellow lines). For more information call 202-332-3300.

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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.

Arena Stage – SW DC
courtesy of Tony DeFilippo

Don:

Looking back at last year’s roundup I see that I cheated slightly, so I’ll do it again. Even though Arena opened Oklahoma! in November of last year when I saw and reviewed it,  it returned for the summer when Rachel saw it. I’m going to call it last year so I can start off with a woo – it was a good and uncomplicated fun couple of hours. I’m on record as saying that you need to rise above the bar of just throwing any old thing up on stage that could just be on a small or silver screen, but bringing some live energy to a classic musical can do it and Oklahoma! did.

Other than that, there was a lot of fun on stage for me this year. Not that it was all stuff that knocked it out of the park - STC’s An Ideal Husband was unoffensive but of little note, NRTC’s Stop Kiss was well produced and acted but felt very dated, Landless gave us the fan-servicey but fun staging of Dr Horrible which my Whedon-obsession demanded I enjoy despite its Hulu-ability, and The Color Purple was that flavor of expensively staged but sloppily directed and choreographed that seems to be something we only tolerate from touring shows.

But the things that edged on greatness were real winners. STC’s Much Ado, despite its flirtation with cultural insensitivity, was lovely and well-acted and the Neo-Futurists’ return to Woolly was – and I say this with love, Mr Pho – even better than Patrick says it was. Cherry Red called it quits with a live-action version of The Aristocrats which I ended up finding so enjoyable I stuck around for the second show and watched it again. We’ll miss you, you filthy bastards.

Above that I saw some really fantastic stuff. STC’s Old Times was conversation fodder for days and Reggie Watts was wonderful performance art. Looking back at all my reviews I have to say I enjoyed The Heir Apparent best of all. The staging was lovely, the pacing frenetic and the acting fantastic. Floyd King is a local treasure who I would watch read the phone book… so long as you let him mug and do some physical comedy while he does it.

faces
courtesy of ekelly80

Jenn:

I reviewed thirty-eight plays in 2011, and I still don’t feel like I saw enough theater. Even the productions I didn’t care for, I’m grateful to have seen, for it’s easy in times of economic trouble to bypass the arts completely. DC audiences are loyal and tenacious, and I hope DC theaters can continue to be brave and produce challenging works.

2011 will be punctuated in my memory by two incredible performances – Derek Jacobi in King Lear (London’s Donmar Warehouse at BAM in New York – cheating here, I wish it had come to DC) and John Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape (Dublin’s Gate Theatre at Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC). Jacobi brought me to tears and Hurt left me speechless. Those experiences are why I keep returning to the visceral power of live theater.

But it was also a year in DC of brilliant ensemble pieces, plays that danced with language and mythology. Like Patrick, I was blown away by Woolly Mammoth’s continued audacity, Oedipus El Rey in particular, and thrilled by Studio Theater’s Enda Walsh Festival bringing several works by one of my favorite playwrights to DC audiences, especially the poetic sucker-punch of Penelope. Studio was also responsible for my top DC theater pick of the year – Venus in Fur, absolute Jenn catnip in its combination of strongly committed actors and an imaginative script fearlessly building towards an ending of truly terrible beauty. Plus, what can I say, I could never resist a corset.

Folger Theatre brought pageantry to a new level with Cyrano and Othello, both productions showcasing two actors delivering rich rewards – Eric Hissom as Cyrano and Ian Merrill Peakes as Iago. The glittering glamor of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s The Merchant of Venice mined the dark heart of that difficult play, while Arena Stage’s Trouble in Mind tackled the ugly slights of racism with sad beauty and funny grace. Arena also hosted Steppenwolf’s outstanding Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, as shatteringly funny and terrifying as being pelted by martini glasses.

Finally, it wouldn’t be DC theater without a nod to the Capital Fringe Festival. Where else can you get tied up to another person and force fed goo from a syringe? Always fascinating, sometimes painful, the experiments of Fringe never bore, and give me hope for the continued vibrancy of live theater in the years to come.

Elizabethan Theatre
courtesy of Kevin H.

Patrick:

2011 was an excellent year for DC theater. Whether it was Pulitzer-winning plays, outrageous improv, or quirky new works put on by any of the smaller arts groups in town, the 2011 portfolio of shows was very strong. It’ll make for an interesting Helen Hayes Awards come April, and I can’t wait to go and do another Theatre Prom Diary.

There is a lot of promise in the DC theater scene; I’ve always placed it right up there below New York and perhaps Chicago. This past year we’ve seen a big push to unify the performing arts community with the creation of theatreWashington. I am excited to see what they can do in their first full year in 2012.

If I have to highlight one theater this year it has to be Woolly Mammoth. I’ve become a big fan of their productions and this past year they have hit home run after home run. From The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs to Clybourne Park to Bootycandy to Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies- Woolly shows this year have entertained, provoked, and been nothing short of excellent.

Honorable mentions include Signature Theatre’s Art (looking back I think it’s an under-rated comedy) and Liberty Smith (finally something fun from Ford’s!)

But it’s not about my list- it’s about the fact that this city had a great year in theater. I hope they can keep the ball rolling as we enter 2012.

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.

Freed’s vision of Nero as a closeted diva of questionable sexuality lends for great comedy. History is littered with rumors of a more than friendly relationship between Nero and his mother Agrippina (Nancy Robinette in a classic Robinette performance), but playwright Amy Freed adds another spin to the tale with Fabiolo (Kasey Mahaffy), a talented male singer that Nero develops an infatuation over which results in nothing but bad news for Fabiolo. History says Nero used to set Christians on fire to light his gardens, so Nero is clearly willing to go to extremes to get what he wants.

In this somewhat satiric image of Rome, Scribonius is commissioned by Nero to write a biopic play of Nero for the upcoming Neronia festival. Also in the mix is Agrippina and Nero’s mistress Poppaea (Susannah Schulman), who are vying for favorable portrayals in the play for their own benefit.

The set-up feels like a classic farce, it would feel totally appropriate to TV Guide-summarize the play as, “Nero, Agrippina, and Poppaea try to manipulate Scribonius’ entry for the Neronia festival- hilarity ensues.”

However hilarity does not exactly ensue in this play.

Don’t get me wrong, “You, Nero” is extremely funny off the bat, the piece doesn’t stop hamming it up, whether it’s a depiction of a chariot race using paper cut-out puppets or a tongue-in-cheek use of flying body parts and blood to illustrate a gladiator fight to the death. A healthy sprinkling of modern punchlines introduces hilarious images such as a Jehovah’s Witness being chased by an inflatable crocodile.

However the first half feeds us with so much comedic sugar we experience a sort of a crash in the second half. What starts out as a very light comedy turns into a less than entertaining history lesson. The ending is less than satisfying and appears to cram in points at the last minute. With a title such as You, Nero you might expect a comparison between the actions of Nero and the behavior of modern day leaders- but Nero ends up looking like a Pop Star- not a World Leader.

Freed has a great start with this new play but it works better as a satire than an allegory. Then again, Rome wasn’t built in a day- and with You, Nero there is certainly room for growth.

You, Nero at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, through January 1, 2012. Arena Stage is located at 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. Closest Metro stop: Waterfront (Green line). For more information call 202-488-3300.

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.

Second City has become a popular draw for Woolly Mammoth thanks to previous hits like A Girl’s Guide to Washington Politics and Barack Stars. In “Spoiler Alert”, Second City features a talented comedic ensemble (James T. Alfred, Aaron Bliden, Maribeth Monroe, Scott Montgomery, and Travis Turner) which also includes Woolly company member Jessica Frances Dukes, who I loved in Bootycandy this past summer. While my friend Maura over at the Washington Post had me worried that Spoiler Alert might be a bit of a downer, Second City keeps it light and manages to talk about the idea of fear, dying, and the afterlife without depressing the audience.

Spoiler Alert’s slate of sketches taps into the current Zeitgeist of American fears. Terrorism, the economy, and even childhood bullying may have some news pundits crying that civilization is ending as we know it- but in the eyes of Second City their answer is, “why worry?” If there is one thing that is certain in life, it’s that everybody dies- so we should stop looking at others with a jealous eye and stop looking to material goods to make our lives better. As one Second City member says, “all of our lives are shitty.”

Audience participation is taken to a new level in Spoiler Alert- be prepared to willingly (or unwillingly) become a part of the show the moment you walk into the lobby. A sketch about TSA and their revealing X-ray machines makes the statement that “we are all naked” in today’s online world.

When it comes to the idea fate vs. self determination, Spoiler Alert instead reminds us that regardless of which side you believe in- we all meet the same end. From the opening words of “Fait accompli” to a sketch of a woman who’s afraid of flying, themes of fate underlie much of the show but not in a strongly religious way. The show frames life like a coloring book- “we can color it in however we want but we cannot change the picture.” Some may hear this as a statement of a predetermine path- but I see it as a statement of freedom. Freedom to live life as we want as we all march closer to the ultimate inevitability.

Spoiler Alert is so entertaining that you will enjoy it at face value, it’s only if you choose to take the extra moment afterwards that you start to wonder if we are just a burrito being manipulated by something bigger in life.

Second City’s production of Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies, at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, through January 8, 2012. Woolly Mammoth Theatre is located at 641 D Street NW Washington, DC 20004. Closest Metro stop: Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter (Yellow/Green line). For more information call 202-393-3939.

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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.

Ted van Griethuysen as Dogberry and Floyd King as Verges in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Ethan McSweeny. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Where the show really excels is where it needs to – in the humor. If your only experience with Ado is via Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 filmed version you’re in for a pleasant experience; Derek Smith is, for my money, more believable as a man with a sharp edge over his gooey inner hopeful romantic. His conflict over whether he’s really taken seriously by his cohorts is nicely layered and his transition when taking up Beatrice’s cause really clicks; when he shifts from being in uniform to a suit it shows in his carriage as well as his costume.

Meisel and Smith make a very likable Beatrice and Benedict, which almost worsens the show’s lone serious problem – Hero and Claudio. More specifically, whatever choices actor Ryan Garbayo and McSweeny are making in Claudio’s presentation. Claudio is supposed to be young and a little awkward; he calls upon his superior officer to woo on his behalf, after all.

But Garbayo is always at somewhat of a remove from us and it’s clearly somewhat on the director; when he confronts Hero for her supposed transgressions he repeatedly puts his back to the audience, thrusting his right shoulder forward and giving us, at best, a bit of a view of his profile. If this is meant to represent something to us it was lost on me – my emotional reaction to that was “for goodness sake, turn around!”

Similarly lost was a sense of a sense of multiple settings. The set is, as befits a STC production, beautiful. But McSweeny has made the decision to present the show with a single intermission and no curtains, meaning everything happens within the hacienda courtyard whether that’s where it’s supposed to be happening there or not. It keeps a long show moving quickly, but it’s most bothersome when we watch a coffin placed on a fountain’s rim and listen to discussions of epitaphs in graveyards.

Overall, however, these are small complaints. The cast commits to the buffoonery in a way that would make the Stooges proud; I’d be surprised if you’ll see better physical comedy this year than when Benedict is being set up by his friends to fall in love with Beatrice. The cast is committed, the music good, and McSweeny can deliver some spectacle. If you don’t usually see Shakespeare for the song and dance numbers, well, here’s your shot.

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

Much Ado About Nothing runs through January 1 at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Harman Theater, located at 610 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20004.  Closest Metro stop: Gallery Place/Chinatown (Red/Yellow/Green lines). For more information call 202-547-1122.

John Hurt in the Gate Theatre’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape. Photo by Tom Lawlor.

There are moments when economy, especially in words, must suffice.

(Shakes head. Backspace, backspace. Types.)

John Hurt. Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. Produced by Dublin’s Gate Theatre, at Shakespeare Theatre Company this weekend only. 55 minutes.

55 minutes of your life spent watching a master actor perform a master playwright’s reflection on the absurdity of life, memory and regret.

(Shakes head. Backspace, backspace, backspace. Types. Rubs chin. Sighs.)

Words leave me. Just the memory of Hurt’s haggard face under hard white light, the deep black of time surrounding him like a Francis Bacon painting.

Words leave me. To be haunted by a performance you cannot describe… feels liberating, to be defeated by time, by memory.

(Shakes head. Backspace. Stops. Stares at the floor. Mutters, “Idiot.” Types.)

Krapp’s Last Tape in limited engagement through December 4 at Shakespeare Theatre Company, located at 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004. Closest Metro stop: Gallery Place/Chinatown (Red/Yellow/Green lines), Archives/Navy Memorial (Yellow/Green lines). For more information call 202-547-1122.

Anthony Heald as Shag, Gregory Linington as Armin and Richard Elmore as Richard in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production of Equivocation, directed by Bill Rauch. Photo by Jenny Graham

A lawyer in love with a Shakespearean scholar might find the perfect date night with Equivocation. Or a politician whose best friend is a Jesuit. Bill Cain’s play is a thicket of ideas about theater, politics and morality. His language manages to be natural, almost casual, despite the rich quotations of Shakespearean text and the monumental characters debating the difficult question of how to remain true to your ideals, and the truth itself, in dangerous times.

Equivocation has received accolades since its 2009 world premiere by Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the country’s pre-eminent theater companies, and it’s now in performance by that company at Arena Stage. Cain wrote the play in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when he started noticing a rise of disturbing doublespeak. He went back further in time to hold the mirror up, exploring what happens when a playwright is induced to produce propaganda about current events – in this case, being asked to dramatize the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to glorify King James I’s role. It’s fascinating how references to the Gunpowder Plot has resurfaced recently - V for Vendetta and Occupy Wall Street – as the mirror of history is turned back on itself again and again. Cain is interested in the propaganda of words, so he uses the ultimate wordweaver as the unlucky protagonist – Shakespeare himself.

The cast of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production of Equivocation, directed by Bill Rauch. Photo by Jenny Graham.

Shag, as he’s known in the world of the play, is approached by Sir Robert Cecil to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot in which Protestant King James I is revealed as hero and savior against those dastardly Catholics scheming to blow up Parliament. Shag wants nothing to do with dramatizing current events – “you can’t legislate a soul into a country,” he rightly points out. The battle between the two men – magnificently played by Anthony Heald and Jonathan Haugen – is nothing short of titanic, Art vs. Politics, and yet the two actors make it achingly intimate. Heald’s hooded eyes contain worlds, “my brain is a graveyard,” he says, utterly believable as both poetic playwright and conflicted man. Haugen twists his body into Cecil’s physical torment, matching the mental torment inside as he watches the man he placed on the throne (John Tufts, in a devilish turn as James I) discard him like a wounded dog.

There’s a sad soul that winds its way through the play, as Shag is constantly confronted by the conscience he left behind in order to become a great playwright – his dour, neglected daughter Judith (Christine Albright), his lead actor and confidante Richard Burbage (Richard Elmore), the Catholicism of his parents embodied in the Jesuit priest Father Garnet (also Elmore, pitch perfect as both). Throughout his journey to discover the truth about the Gunpowder Plot, as draft after draft of the doomed play is acted out, we’re confronted by conscience as well – is it better to lie to save a man’s life or tell the truth to save your soul? Can equivocation, the act of answering the question under the question, really be a viable option, or is it just another act of cowardice? And most horrible of all, how would you behave under torture, could you really hold true to yourself when the consequence is having your guts pulled out while you still live?

Words, words, words… a lesser company could drown under the weight of Cain’s words, referencing so many plays of the canon I lost track – not to mention all the political machinations, religious treatises, feuds between family and friends, chilling scenes of torture – yet somehow, it works. Somehow, impossibly, it makes for a fascinating evening as opposed to a boring snooze. Credit is not only due to the playwright, who makes debating Jesuit philosophy on equivocation interesting, but the company itself, whose sense of ensemble is the strongest I’ve seen on stage in some time. Tackling multiple roles with ease, their vocality both crisp and warm, the ensemble’s talent and commitment is evidence of the vitality of repertory theater.

You truly believe this is a company of players dedicated to great theater, as they mirror the “cooperative venture” of The King’s Men.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of Equivocation, at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, through January 1, 2012. Arena Stage is located at 1101 Sixth Street SW, Washington, DC 20024. Closest Metro stop: Waterfront (Green line). For more information call 202-488-3300.

Natalie Berk  as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo, photo by Graeme B. Shaw

Synetic Theater is closing out their Speak no More triptych with Romeo and Juliet. Their take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of thwarted young love is presented – as always – without dialog, relying on staging and dance to convey the story. Or are they presenting dance and framing it within a story? I keep waffling about what answer key to grade the production on, and my level of satisfaction with it depends on which one I’m inclined to use at that moment.

Grading on dance and visual appeal is a slam dunk win. If you like dance and it’s your primary reason for being there you’re golden. There’s nothing I can say about this production that Jenn hasn’t said in half a dozen past reviews. Irina Tsikurishvili’s choreography is lovely. Anastasia Simes’ set and costumes are lovely without being overly complicated. It’s hard to find a flaw with this production as a dance performance.

I’m less thrilled with this as a theatrical production. Parts of the story come through wonderfully; in particular Alex Mills and Natalie Berk have a chemistry that sparks. They convey the lovers’ arc from initial fascination and infatuation through a gleeful young love and eventual heartbreak with an almost palpable connection.

Natalie Berk  as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo, photo by Graeme B. Shaw

The character superstar has to be Philip Fletcher as Mercutio. He embodies whimsy and passion wonderfully and tumbles on the ground and through the air as if gravity has no hold on him. When he’s supposed to be happy you feel it through your eyeballs. Mercutio’s act first and think later, maybe, comes through superbly. When he and Tsikurishvili as the Nurse face-off it’s enthralling.

Aside from those interactions, however, I felt like we moved through this story without a good through-line. Ryan Sellers’ Tybalt is wonderfully threatening but he and the other Capulets never seemed to be a collective menace, nor do the Montagues seem like a cohesive unit. Instead we get Romeo and Juliet as simple thwarted lovers.

Natalie Berk as Juliet, Irakli Kavsadze as the Friar, and Alex Mills as Romeo, photo by Graeme B. Shaw

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves out a huge chunk of the Romeo and Juliet story and the engine that drives the original: two warring factions whose original complaint with each other has faded and simply become a constant back and forth animosity for its own sake. Instead Tsikurishvili directs this production with a more generic sense of the lovers being chewed up by the larger machine. The imagery is one of gears and mechanical constructs, and Romeo’s opening dream – or is it Juliet’s? – sees both of them menaced and barricaded by giant gears.

It’s a clever conceit, though I felt it muddied the waters a few times by intermixing an implication of time and clocks. What time, exactly, is conspiring against Romeo and Juliet? The time of their birth? When they met, shortly before Juliet’s father seeks to pair her with poor underused Scott Brown as Paris? Perhaps the point is the mistakes in time leading to their suicides.

You might write this off as my personal quibble; I was reminded again recently of how widely I disagreed with so many others about Lear a few years ago, in no small part because of what I felt was a major dismissal of an important foundation issue. Some textual issues stick in my craw and this seems to be one. It is lovely dance and good theater, mind you, it just happens to miss some things that are important to me for Romeo and Juliet. This play, by any other name, might have smelled sweeter for me.

Synetic Theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet runs now through December 23, located at 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA. Closest Metro stop: Crystal City (Yellow/Blue lines). For more information call 1-800-494-8497.

Is there anything for sale anymore other than via coupon? If there is it’s not theater.

There’s a nice flex deal running right now for seats at Woolly Mammoth for the remainder of the season. 6 tickets to use in whatever combination you like – take 6 friends to see the Second City show or take your sweetie to the next 3 shows. At $150 it’s only a hair above $20 a seat which is a big cut off face value.

You can do that well via various day-of deals but this is a nice buy-and-be-done way to get seats. The only exclusions listed are pay what you can and opening nights or New Year’s Eve – any seat still for sale 24 hours or more out and you can use these. I’ve grabbed this deal and am going to take my visiting family to see Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies after xmas.

Studio also has a package deal – seats for all three upcoming shows. You can even be anti-social and only by for and take yourself. Hey, you’re not supposed to talk during anyway, right?

Alternately they’ve got plenty of deals for specific shows at other theaters. The touring Spamalot at the Warner. Or Hairspray at Signature in Shirlington. You, Nero at Arena – a deal you don’t have to wear a toga to get. Traveling show Elephant Room at Arena. Studio’s Golden Dragon, and a bunch more that have the misfortune to get excised because I’m tired of typing. Go look for yourself.

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Alternate title: Audience Participation Has Gone Too Far

Arena Stage has apparently been dipping into the Thanksgiving cooking sherry; Previews for their new show You, Nero are starting on Saturday and they’ve decided to encourage you to get into the spirit – they’re running pay what you can deals… provided you show up in a toga.

You’ll get to dull the pain of embarrassment - or perhaps just the chill – with $2 PBR as well. I has no idea Pabst was Roman and that’s about $3 more than a PBR is worth as far as I’m concerned, but hey, cheap beer.

The only really obnoxious part of this light-hearted promotion is that they’ll sell two tickets to each person in a toga, allowing one of you to look like a normal human. Well, a normal human accompanied by some dweeb in a bedsheet.

If you’ve never gone out and tried theater during pay what you can previews this would be a fun Thanksgiving weekend outing for you; PWYC tends to be full of all the other theater folk from town and they’re very enthusiastic. For a show obviously going for the fun angle – to the point where they’re letting you bring your booze into the theater itself – that should make for a good energy.

Previews and PWYC will continue through 12/4 so if you can’t get your turkey-stuffed keester off the couch this weekend you’ll still have a little time. Confirm showtimes and dates at the at the Arena link above.

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When I asked a friend of mine if he wanted to come see Dog and Pony DC’s production of Beertown with me he replied, “No thanks- it doesn’t look like my type of thing.”

He’s right- if you expect to simply sit quietly through a show then Beertown isn’t for you.

However if you are ready to partake in a potluck dessert spread, slap on a nametag, and participate in some rousing discussion then I cannot recommend Beertown enough.

Audience participation is not only encouraged in Beertown but absolutely key for the show’s success. The audience becomes citizens of a Beertown, a fictional town in the heartland of the country. The town has gathered for the “Quinquennial Time Capsule Celebration”, a tradition held every five years where the town’s Time Capsule is opened and its contents are subject to examination. The citizens then vote on removing old items and adding new ones to reflect current values and image of Beertown today.

Led by Beertown Mayor Michael Soch (Joshua Drew) and other Dog & Pony ensemble members as Beertown employees and citizens, the audience walks through every step of the 100 year old tradition complete with a pledge of allegiance and a singing of the Beertown Hymn. Short antecedents are peppered in throughout the show that illustrate the all-too-familiar history of Beertown as an early frontier town that boomed through its production of (can you guess?) beer. The Beertown brewery has since closed and the town has fallen on tough times. You could easily substitute name “Beertown” with ”Detroit” or “Cleveland” and the show wouldn’t skip a beat.

The small town portrayals of the Dog and Pony’s ensemble is only half the show- the other half is what the you as the town’s citizens bring to the table. The ability for the audience to get-up and interact with the show is truly refreshing and makes for a unique night of theatre. Over the course of the night every member of the audience raised their hand and offered something to say. I was surprised how quickly the patrons adopted Beertown as their town, starting sentences with, “As a Beertonian,” or “Our town.” Some even made-up personas and backstories- explaining how long their families have lived in Beertown and what living in this fictional town meant for them.

Almost as amazing as the audience participation was the transformation of the Capital Hill Arts Workshop blackbox space. Perhaps it’s because I have had the strange honor of stage managing the production that was in the space before Beertown, but I was impressed how Set Designer Colin K. Bills turned a black box into a convincing town hall basement complete with retro patterned white walls and parquet flooring.

Beertown will invoke many questions on how history changes through time and eyes, what control we have on our legacy and what is important to a community- but it is up to the audience to answer them. What makes Beertown a great experience is what you and the rest of the audience puts into it.

Dog and Pony DC’s production of Beertown performs through December 10th at the Capital, located at  545 7th Street SE, Washington, DC. Closest Metro stop: Eastern Market (Blue/Orange lines). For more information visit their website.

Title : Zoé, John, Target Picture credit : Matt Beard Costume credit : Dominique Lemieux ©2011 Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil’s travelling show Quidam is coming to the Verizon Center this week (November 16 to 20). This particular show’s premise is: “A young girl’s escape into a world of imagination.” That leaves room for some provoking theater combined with acrobatics, live music, and a killer light show (among other things).

Skip Roper Adrienn Banhegyi, 28, took the time to talk about Quidam over the phone, giving We Love DC the 411 about what makes this Cirque du Soleil show special.

Here’s what she had to say:

Title : Skipping Ropes (Right: Adrienn Banhegyi) Picture credit : Al Seib Costume credit : Dominique Lemieux ©Cirque du Soleil

Quidam is really connected to the real world, Banhegyi said.

“It takes you to a magical place because of all the lights and the music and all the action that you can see. It looks like a magical adventure, but it’s performed by real people, and it really strongly connects to reality […] the story line is about reality.”

Banhegyi describes Quidam as a very colorful, high energy level act.

Besides her featured skipping rope performance, Banhegyi’s favorite part of the evening is the “hand to hand” act when part of the troupe dresses up as penguins. It’s Banhegyi’s favorite scene because of the performer’s proximity to the audience.

“[We] have a chance to look at the audience and see how people react to everything that moves. It’s a really nice experience.”

You can see what Banhegyi is talking about live at the Verizon Center this week, November 16 to 20. Tickets are available at www.cirquedusoleil.com/quidam or by calling 1-202-397-SEAT.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian opened its doors this past weekend to a new exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation.” The exhibition, nestled on the third floor of the museum, tells the epic tale of the how the return of the horse to the Americas changed Native culture, from lifestyle to war to art and beyond. “For some Native peoples, the horse still is an essential part of daily life,” said exhibit curator Emil Her Many Horses (Ogala Lakota). “For others, the horse will always remain an element of our identity and our history. The Horse Nation continues to inspire, and Native artists continue to celebrate the horse in our songs, our stories, and our works of art.”

To walk the exhibit’s path is to walk side by side with the conjoined path of Native and horse. Though horses were introduced to the Native Americans relatively late in North American history—the early 1700s saw the initial widespread explosion of the horse from captured Spanish mounts in the southwest—the image of Indians astride these graceful animals is one that is common to modern Americans. The “Horse Nation” quickly entwined themselves with Native communities, forever altering tribal culture and the Indian way of life.

The Smithsonian’s exhibit seeks to give us a view into that not-so-distant past. But it’s more than just a simply history lesson: subtly but surely, “A Song for the Horse Nation” reveals how interwoven both horse and man became among 38 tribal communities from the Plains and Western United States. The horse was more than a beast of burden or a tool; the animal became a part of Native culture that still resonates among the people today.

‘beaded coat’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

It opens with historical context, showing the arrival of the horse to the North American continent from as early as the 1500s. Believed to have returned to the continent after evolving and moving westward through Asia and Europe, the horse made its return among the exploratory ships of the Spanish and British. The first appearance of the horse was quite the shock to the native peoples and helped the Spanish to quickly overcome any opposition. Natives had never seen an animal that could carry a person and many struggled to come up with a name for the new creature. Many Native names for the horse ended up being a derivative of “dog” such as the Cree’s “big dog” (mistatim), the Lakota’s “mystery dog” (sunkakhan), or the Blackfoot’s “elk dog” (ponoka-mita).

Natives quickly turned their fear of the horse into desire for them. In 1680, the Pueblo Uprising opened up the floodgates as hundreds of captured Spanish horses were traded to nearby tribes. The horse population quickly expanded north and east across established tribal trading networks. Historians often note that as the acquisition and absorption of the horse moved west-to-east, the rifle’s debut and spread among Indians moved east-to-west. By the time of the country’s western expansion in the 1800s, both rifle and horse were fixtures among the encountered Native communities.

‘DSC_0014′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

The exhibition quickly recounts the historical narrative, however, moving from scholarly education into that of cultural definition. By the time of America’s expansion into the West, horses had made their mark among the Indians. Their likenesses decorated shirts, dresses, tipis, blankets, and toys. Because the Native perspective sees creation around them as a partner in life rather than an obstacle to overcome, the horse was a fellow creature to share the land with. It’s grace and beauty were respected and honored by Natives; to own a horse was a mark of prestige and blessing. The practice of “giveaway” became an honored tradition and a symbol of wealth. Owning several horses was one thing; generously giving them away in times of ceremony and to those less fortunate was the ultimate gesture in prosperity and humbleness.

Of note is the lengths the exhibition goes in pointing out the importance of horse capturing to these communities. Young men would often go out either solo or in small groups and raid an enemy’s encampment through taking horses. Several artifacts on display show a warrior’s personal record or stories to that effect, decorating their blankets or clothing with these heroic exploits. A young man who could return to the camp with a captured horse received praise and honor from family and friends. Horse capturing was elevated to an art form. And there was no greater honor for such a young man to return astride such a prize and then give it away to a widow or other unfortunate member of the community. Such actions manifested the man’s generosity of spirit, as well as his bravery.

When seen from this point of view, it isn’t hard to page back through the history books in our minds and remember the stories taught about “Indian horse thieves” and how it was a scourge upon the Western colonists. From the white man’s viewpoint, it was breaking the law. From the Indian view, it was a cultural norm. These contradictory viewpoints were but a part of the constant conflict that clashed repeatedly between the ever-expanding Americans and the Natives of land.

‘cree saddle beadwork’
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

Even as the West was lost and the reservations became the norm, the horse never left the Native communities. By the 1900s, the horse was irrevocably tied to Native culture, honored in beadwork and drawings in both art and personal belongings. Though many horses were confiscated by the U.S. government (such as the vast herds of the Nez Perce), they remained an undeniable part of the community. As the exhibition winds through the last days of the frontier and the ends of the Indian Wars, the horse is seen more in cultural symbols and traditions of the tribal communities than as a weapon of war.

It becomes obvious that the cultural shift remained permanent. Even as the reservation lifestyle forever altered Indian ways, it did not sever the connection Natives had to the horse. More and more, Native peoples honored the horse through their beadwork and crafts, creating elaborate decorations and ornamentations for use in celebrations, parades, and powwows. The Smithsonian’s exhibition blooms at the end with artwork from the turn of the 20th Century through the modern day. Contemporary artwork using traditional methods such as beadwork and quillwork, as well as ceramics and oil painting, still convey the respect and honor Natives have for the horse. At the very end, a short film highlights the Nez Perce’s continued efforts to rebuild their horse herds through the Young Horsemen’s Program, which seeks to preserve the Appaloosa made famous by their ancestors. Their dedication to not just breeding but in respecting the animal speaks volumes of the attitudes of many tribal communities today.

By showcasing modern artwork through everyday items such as martingales and blankets, masks and paintings, the exhibition ties together and drives home just how important the horse truly is to Native culture and relevance. It is a syncretistic blend of the old and new, adaptation and growth, and a shining example of the spirit of today’s Native people. The Horse Nation is alive and well because of their efforts and will remain an integral part of the history, culture, and understanding of Native America for generations to come.

A Song for the Horse Nation will remain open through January 7, 2013. The National Museum of the American Indian is located at the corner of 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW. The closest Metro station is L’Enfant plaza, servicing the Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Green lines. For more information, visit the museum’s website. You can see some of the items in the exhibit on my Flickr site.

out of the earth / I sing for them
A Horse nation / I sing for them
out of the earth / I sing for them,
the animals / I sing for them.
~a song by the Teton Sioux

Emil Her Many Horses is, by first appearance, a quiet, unassuming gentleman. A museum specialist in the office of Museum Programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), he is responsible for the facility’s latest exhibition “A Song for the Horse Nation.” A member of the Ogala Lakota nation of South Dakota, his expertise on the Northern and Southern Plains cultures is well served and seen in the exhibit that opens to the public tomorrow.

NMAI’s latest offering is a touching and brilliant display of how the horse has deeply impacted and affected Native cultures since their introduction to the Americas in the 17th century. “The exhibit tells the history of the horse; that they were here once before, migrated to Europe, and returned as the horse we know today,” explained Her Many Horses. “They changed Native culture. The horse had a major impact on hunting, warfare, travel, spirituality. These were big changes.” Changes that extend beyond the European vision of the animal.

Seen as a beast of burden, a tool, a weapon, the horse was brought and used by European explorers and colonists early in America’s “New World” history. And their introduction, according to many Natives, was probably one of the biggest positive changes brought about by the white man.

Emil Her Many Horses, NMAI Museum Specialist (photo courtesy NMAI)

Exploding across the Plains after the Pueblo Uprising in 1680, the value of the horse was readily apparent to many tribes. Their acceptance quickly altered the very fabric of tribal life and culture as Natives admired the animal’s grace, beauty, bravery, and determination. “When American Indians encountered horses—which some tribes call the Horse Nation—they found an ally, inspiring and useful in times of peace, and intrepid in times of war,” said NMAI Director Kevin Gover (Pawnee). “This exhibition shows how these splendid creatures came to represent courage and freedom to many tribes across North America.”

“The horse really became a fellow creature that lives with us,” explained Her Many Horses. “They are a comrade, ally, friend. What we try to establish is a relationship with a fellow living being, something that really reaches into the realm of companionship, as opposed to that of a simple tool or resource.”

That relationship can be seen in Her Many Horses’ own family history. The name is Lakota and that of his paternal great-great-grandmother. “More accurately, the English translation would be ‘Many Horses Woman,’ meaning she owned many horses,” he said. When the first census was made on the Ogala Lakota reservation in South Dakota, her name became the family’s last name. The census takers, however, had mistranslated “Tasunka Ota Win” into English as “Her Many Horses.” And so it stuck.

‘DSC_0123′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’
Among the Lakota, horses were a measure of wealth, but not in the traditional European sense. To the Lakota—and many other tribes—a more important demonstration of wealth came from giving away horses or other items in honor of a family member. Possession was not as important as generosity. Horses could be given away at naming and memorial ceremonies, or at giveaways, which celebrated anything from the return of a war veteran, honoring a graduating student, or the marriage of a daughter.

In the exhibit is a piece familiar to Her Many Horses. It is familiar because he made the toy painted tipi himself. “I made it to talk about the origins of my last name. It shows a woman—my grandmother—surrounded by many horses. To me, it became an honorable name to have.”

The opening of the exhibit is exciting to Her Many Horses. An expansion of the original exhibit at NMAI’s New York City George Gustav Heye Center location, this one adds an additional 15 major objects. One of the centerpiece displays is a 19^th century 38-foot round tipi that stands 16 feet tall. Cavorting across the surface are 110 hand-painted horses, both with and without riders, all in full gallop. “The tipi is Hunkpapa-Lakota, showing horse raiding and battle scenes all along the outside,” said Her Many Horses. His glee at being able to set it up for visitors was evident. “If you look at the drawings, you can see who’s the enemy. It’s Lakota versus the Crow—you can tell because of the hairstyles. It’s kind of a war record of the warrior who lived within.”

‘DSC_0023′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’
The tipi was a challenge for the staff to set up, taking them four afternoons. “We knew it had been re-sized, plus it wasn’t being set on open ground but a slick display surface,” he said. It’s safe to say the effort was worth it; the tipi is an exquisite testimony to how personal the horse was to one individual in the tribe; a sentiment still shared across the Native landscape today.

Other objects of life and culture of the Plains tribes decorate places of honor in the exhibit. “We included pieces that are associated with famous people, such as the rifles of Geronimo, Chief Rain-in-the-Face, Chief Joseph,” said Her Many Horses. “And we have photographs of many of these people, showing that link between the object and the person.” These placards are entitled Honor In the Name, introducing them to visitors and providing a glimpse of past lives to those in the modern day.

But primarily, the horse dominates. So entwined into the lives of tribes, they are the subject of beaded artwork on tipi bags, shaped into dance sticks, decorate jackets. Objects of everyday use with the horse, such as saddles, saddlebags, and horse masks, are given individual touches of color and life, providing an intimate look into the relationship between the owner and the animal. “I want the public to walk out of there understanding not just how the horse revolutionized Native life, but how that thread continues even today,” Her Many Horses said.

‘DSC_0096′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’
Bridging that gap of history to the modern, Her Many Horses invited Native artists to create their own contemporary art for the exhibit. He believes it’s critically important to show that continued thread of relationship still impacts Native life in today’s world. “We may no longer depend on the horse for travel, for hunting, for warfare – but it’s still important to us, our culture.”

To that end, NMAI will celebrate the opening of its new exhibit with a variety of events on Saturday, October 29. Partnering with the Washington International Horse Show, celebrating its 53^rd year through this weekend at the Verizon Center, both WIHS and NMAI are providing free programs and activities at both locations. (A free shuttle will run between the museum and the Verizon Center on Saturday only.)

Central to Saturday’s events is a presentation of the U.S. and Crow Nation flags on horseback between Crow equestrian and artist Kennard Real Bird and the DC Mounted Police. Following the presentation, K.J. Jacks of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma will sing the U.S. national anthem. The presentation will happen in the museum’s outdoor Welcome Plaza.

‘DSC_0106′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

Award-winning bead worker and porcupine quill worker Juanita Fogarty Growing Thunder (Assiniboine/Sioux), whose own art is displayed within the exhibition, will hold demonstrations throughout the day. Children will be able to “dress” a full-sized horse mannequin using pieces that simulate many of those in the exhibit. S.D. Nelson (Lakota/Standing Rock Sioux), a children’s book author and illustrator, will host special storytelling sessions and lectures for both kids and adults.

It’s a jubilee worthy of the exhibition, and one that Emil Her Many Horses and the museum’s staff have worked tirelessly to bring together. It’s a celebration of the horse through many pathways, one that gives a glimpse into the history, life, and culture of many of the 38 Native communities represented.

‘beaded horse mask 1′
courtesy of ‘bhrome’

In the exhibition’s companion book of the same name, Her Many Horses points out one particular piece that succinctly symbolizes the power and value of the horse in the Native community. A beautiful and elaborate Lakota horse head cover is on display. Covered in exquisite designs among a glimmering background of white beads, the cover was used at a 1904 Fourth of July parade at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Alone, it is a fascinating work of art in geometric design and stitching.

What stands out, however, is that it appears to have been made with the intention to be recycled later on as different objects. A critical Native eye can discern where a pair of women’s beaded leggings could be fashioned from the “face” of the horse. A pipe bag, from the “cheeks.” Tipi bags (or, “possible” bags, because pretty much anything possible could be stored inside them) and moccasins could also have been made from the upper and lower neck areas.

The resourcefulness of the artist is evident; fortunately for us today, never followed through. The union of gifts never passed on and remains a delicate and intricate symbol of traditions brought together through the celebration of the horse. It stands as a beaded and colorful declaration of the art and the grace of the animal.

To Emil Her Many Horses, it is an expression of life and of culture that will hopefully never fade. “The Horse Nation continues to inspire, and Native artists continue to celebrate the horse in our songs, our stories, and our works of art.” With the opening of this latest exhibit, Her Many Horses honors his Lakota roots. Through the blend of art and artifacts, stories and characters, community and culture, he presents the public a valuable gift worth more than a simple object. He gives away to all of us a view into part of the past, the present, and the future of Native America.

And that is a song worthy of the Horse Nation.

A Song for the Horse Nation opens on Saturday, October 29 and will remain open through January 7, 2013. The National Museum of the American Indian is located at the corner of 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SW. The closest Metro station is L’Enfant plaza, servicing the Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Green lines. For more information, visit the museum’s website. WeLoveDC will have a full review of the exhibit on Monday; you can see some of the items in the exhibit on my Flickr site.